Metal baking dishes

Metal baking dishes

— under the metal in this case, different types of alloys can be meant. The specific features of a particular dish depend on this. The most popular options today are:

— Aluminium, usually stamped. Relatively inexpensive and readily available material. Usually, it is equipped with additional coatings — mainly to provide non-stick properties. However, uncoated dishes are also found — usually these are the simplest baking sheets, designed to use parchment or other similar tricks. Fortunately, the aluminium surface itself resists corrosion very well. Also note that aluminium is lightweight, but not very reliable; such dishes can be deformed from overheating or a sharp temperature drop.

— Carbon steel. Steel with a high carbon content, similar in characteristics to cast iron. Usually, such dishes are made quite massive, but this gives certain advantages: the container warms up evenly and retains heat for a long time (which can be useful both for keeping the finished product warm and for “ripening” the dish in some recipes). In addition, the large thickness contributes to strength, reliability and durability. However an additional coating for such forms is almost mandatory: unprotected carbon steel easily oxidizes and rusts, which leads both to a deterioration in the taste of dishes and to damage to the container itself.

— Stainless steel. High-quality food steel, which, according to the name, is almost completely insensitive to corrosion. Theoretically, thanks to this, it can be used even without special coatings. However, such coatings — non-stick — are most often provided anyway, because without them, the contents would easily stick to the dishes, and would be cleaned with great difficulty. On the practical side, the advantages of "stainless steel" are also strength, durability and elasticity (the latter protects it from deformation under loads and temperature changes). Such shapes are usually thinner than the carbon steel products described above; this, on the one hand, reduces their weight, on the other hand, somewhat worsens the uniformity of heating and accelerates cooling.

Separately, we note that all metal forms are incompatible with microwave ovens. It is also worth bearing in mind that additional coatings may vary in composition, quality and rules of use; these points should be carefully clarified in the instructions.