On Friday, 30 October 2020 15:38:57 UTC, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:24:15 -0000 (UTC), Jethro_uk wrote:

Over a period of time a non-stick frying pan has gradually
accumulated more and more carbon.

Not really non stick then, is it ?

Have you ever found one that is? ;-)

Not really - hence the reversion to cast iron pans.

They aren't bad when new but they don't stay "new" for very long.

I suspect there's a school of thought that says if your cooking is
sticking to the pan, you are doing it wrong.

I blame the stupid solid plate elctric hob. Far too much thermal mass
turn it off and 5 mins later the pan is still boiling... The bang
bang "controls" overshoot like crazy and even on 1 can cause things
to stick.

I was brought up with gas, turn that off an it's off pan almost
instantly stops boiling. Set low and you have nice steady supply of
heat that you can balance against the losses to very gently and
steadly simmer things.

I don't think gas is that much better in this regard. The heat is simply not spread out sufficiently evenly.

Afraid induction is the best answer to enabling non-stick to remain working for longest.

Even then, if there is a build-up, gentle use of melamine foam can be effective and gentle enough not to damage the non-stick too much.