PTFE is especially bad for birds?
I think birds in general are just especially prone to be affected by toxic airborne contaminants. I recall they have quite delicate immune systems or something.
They didn’t have canaries in mines for their chirpiness!
I have an enameled cast iron pan that I absolutely love. If you get one, one thing to realize is that the pan holds heat so much better than you are probably used to that you will probably need to adjust how you cook a bit, but in a good way since you’ll get more even heat on what you are cooking. I always clean mine of by boiling some water in it, using a silicon spatula to scrape loose anything that needs it (this shouldn’t require any real pressure), and then dumping the water and returning the pan to the heat to boil off any remaining water. It takes less than a minute and I think it generally cleans up easier than a non-stick pan. One thing is that you want a nice heavy duty oven mitt (I have a nice one with a silicon grip) to do this since when you dump out the water you are holding a very hot pan for a bit.
I also agree that stove top + oven for steaks is the way to go when not grilling.
Birds have very fast metabolisms and unusual lung/air exchange anatomy. So they get what is called PTFE toxicosis. It kills then almost instantly in most cases. Humans can get sick from PTFE fumes as well. but it takes more exposure and much longer to become symptomatic. But essentially what sharaleo said about the canaries. When the bird dies it’s time for the humans to get the hell out.
Eating less meat is always a good idea (for the environment, animal welfare and your health etc), and this is a FYI topic to make some of that case:
'Cooking meat ‘may be dementia risk’:
Browning meat in the oven, grill or frying pan produces chemicals which may increase the risk of developing dementia, US researchers suggest.
Advanced glycation end (AGE) products have been linked to diseases such as type-2 diabetes. Mice fed a high-AGEs diet had a build-up of dangerous proteins in the brain and impaired cognitive function. Experts said the results were “compelling” but did not provide “definitive answers”.
AGEs are formed when proteins or fats react with sugar. This can happen naturally and during the cooking process. Researchers at the Icahn school of medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, tested the effect of AGEs on mice and people. The animal experiments, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that a diet rich in AGEs affects the chemistry of the brain.
It leads to a build-up of defective beta amyloid protein - a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The mice eating a low-AGEs diet were able to prevent the production of damaged amyloid.
Oh great, here comes Maillard Syndrome.
I would rather eat meat and get dementia than not eat meat.
That’s demented.
I blew up a pyrex container by accidently putting it on a hot burner once. That was in the 60’s.
And the only way to cook a steak is on a charcoal BBQ.