Mary, I use ScanPans. They are from Scandinavia. They are guaranteed for life.
REasonably non-stick though not quite as non-stick as teflon, but you can use
metal utensils on them without worrying about scratching, because you can't
scratch them basically. When you're done cooking you put some water on them,
steam rises up, you clean them in 30 seconds with whatever scraper or sponge
you want to use, and they're ready to use again.

They are terrific at heat transfer, cooking evenly and holding the heat because
they have a large amount of aluminimum in them. BUT the aluminum is completely
and effectively covered by this space age coating which is in incredibly hard
ceramic titanium blasted on at 28000 degrees (as a gas plasma). They are a bit
expensive but you only buy one set your entire life, as far as I'm concerned.
You can heat them up to whatever temperature you want, no gases because there
are no flourocarbons (like teflon) in them. You can buy them on the Net various
places.

--Richard

Mary wrote:

> How can we tell what temperature our pans are at?
>
> Also, where do you guys find the cast iron pans?
>
> And, what do others on the list use? Do you use teflon, or cast iron?
>
> Mary
>
> as 285 degrees. Du Pont, a manufacturer of Teflon products, states
> >that Teflons "continuous service temperature" is 260°C (500°F),
> >though able to withstand highers temps for short periods of time.
> >Therefore I'd say don't heat your Teflon over 260, to be on the safe side.