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Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer  I won't go into the journalistic accuracy of NPR, except to say that they're among the ones who first misinterpreted the early reports. Now they complain that nobody listens when they try one of their non-retraction retractions. |
As far as recalling the story correctly, you've got it right and I misremembered. Thanks for jogging my obviously aluminized brain!
As to NPR, though, I will say that this criticism in this particular instance isn't warranted. They weren't complaining about anything: it was the medical researcher being interviewed who was annoyed that nobody wanted to believe aluminum pans might not be dangerous. Anyway...
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I don't think that's {i.e. the difficulty finding such pans} true at all, Chris. The high-end shops tend to not stock straight aluminum because 1. it's cheap, and the margins on it are low, and 2. it doesn't fit their image. However, most of the anodized cookware stocked by them is aluminum---and overpriced, IMO.
In big box and general department stores, aluminum cookware is still all over the place. It doesn't predominate like it used to (only because they have low-end SS lines they can sell at a bigger mark-up), but it's still fairly common.
The hard one to find outside of restaurant supply houses is carbon steel. I haven't seen any of that in retail establishments in a mort of years. But I wonder if, with the rediscovery of cast iron, if carbon might not be poised for a come-back as well.
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Fair enough. The availability of cheap aluminum may be something of a regional thing: it's just not around much where I shop in the U.S. except in the Asian markets.
On anodized aluminum, which I agree is overpriced, if you read the Calphalon promotional literature thoroughly and with a jaundiced eye, you may notice some hints that if you ask me are intended to suggest that their pans, because they are anodized, will not hurt you, unlike the cheap ones. Personally, my problem with Calphalon, apart from the fact that it costs too much, is that it scratches remarkably easily and has to be hand-washed.
You're dead right about carbon steel. I doubt it'll come back, though: cast iron requires some maintenance but is pretty forgiving, whereas carbon steel demands good habits. Besides, I know lots of people who think a patina is basically disgusting and dirty.