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Saedius t1_iupn77z wrote

I'm betting it would still stick because of the high affinity of organosulfur compounds for gold surfaces (https://www.nature.com/articles/nchem.1352 and references therein). As long as the amino acid cysteine or things that contain it are present (and they are pretty much ubiquitous) I think the food would likely stick to the surface in some capacity.

Fun fact - this Au-S affinity underpins the many of the uses of the analytical technique Surface Plasmon Resonance, which is a fantastic binding assay they can tell you many things about protein interactions with other molecules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_plasmon_resonance

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spottydodgy t1_iur8abx wrote

Can you season gold? I imagine with a good season it could work for a while however it would be easy to scrape, dent, and cause imperfections in the surface which would cause foods to stick. It would also be heavy AF... I bet the weight of the pan would cause the handle to bend.

If you have the money to actually do this then I say go for it and post updates.

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skittlebog t1_iurikso wrote

I recall an article in National Geographic long ago that in part talked about a gold fry pan. I don't recall if they talked about the non stick part, but they did say it transferred heat quickly and evenly and was good for making eggs. It was melted down after their experiments with it.

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ZeBeowulf t1_iuroe3n wrote

Replying to Saedius (#423,254)

This is correct, when something sticks to a pan its because it chemically binds to it. For it to be non-stick you need to have the surface be made of extremely stable bonds. Like the C-F bonds in Teflon.

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Danitoba t1_iurr9kv wrote

That's a good question. Being a noble metal one might think it would be. But I don't know if I would want to try cooking with it. Not because of how expensive that would be, but because of how soft gold is, combined with how dense and heavy it is, wouldn't make for a fun cooking experience if you had to lift and shift the pan.

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notreallydutch t1_iurx06y wrote

Replying to spottydodgy (#426,202)

Just some quick math, google says a 12 in cast iron weighs around 8 lbs, and gold is about 4X as heavy as iron. Since both are rounded lets call it 30lbs for the cast gold pan at 22.4K/ lb you're going to need 672K for this little experiment.

If I win power-ball tonight I'll report back with how it goes.

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DrBoby t1_iusm151 wrote

Replying to Danitoba (#427,425)

No need to have your whole pan be in gold.

Just use a plating. Non-stick surfaces are only a few micrometers thick.

It wouldn't be expensive. Problem is unlike non-stick surfaces it would still stick. And unlike cast-Iron you wouldn't be able to scratch it if you burn the seasoning fat layer acting as a non-stick surface. So it's bad.

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