Silicone cookware

"If it was a beauty contest, silicone bakeware would win the prize in any kitchen. It’s soft and cute, floppy and fun and downright pretty when you stack it all together."

Jolene Thym

East Bay Times

I DON'T LIKE IT THOUGH

I was eating quiche with my book group friends and we got to talking about the pans we cooked our quiches in, because of a slightly difficult extraction of this particular quiche from its ceramic dish. I praised the invention of the spring-form pan and somebody else praised silicone I think. Anyway I expressed a dislike for silicone quiche pans, and found that mostly people agreed. Silicone is far too floppy for this particular dish - it is almost impossible to extract the quiche from a silicone pan without it collapsing into unedifying pieces. We did agree that it is good for some things - like mini muffins that you can just pop out.

And my husband likes to cook his bread in it. Anyway I decided to look into it, because I have had the feeling for a little while that its popularity as cooking equipment has faded and indeed it is becoming quite difficult to find. And indeed a quick look in the supermarket today did not show any baking pans of any kind made of silicone.

Silicone, as you probably know, is made from sand - and oxygen. Silicone makes up 28% of the earth so the raw materials are readily available. The cookware made from it is non-stick and flexible. It is absolutely safe to use and very easy to clean - and, as the quote says, it often is made in bright colours so you can colour match to your kitchen if you're into that sort of thing. It is also pretty resilient - heat-proof to very high temperatures and it won't degrade - which may well be a future environmental problem. A sharp knife or scissors will damage it though. However, to reduce the price it often contains a filler which will degrade the product and is maybe not so safe. You can tell if it contains a filler -

"By twisting the silicone check the ridges for signs of white stretching which indicates that filling materials have been used. If the colour remains constant, you have in your hands some high quality silicone!" Hub Pages

All of which is interesting but irrelevant really from a usage point of view. For its flexibility/bendability is, I think, it's main problem. Take the cookie sheet for example. Unless you put it on a baking tray, before you put your cookie dough on it, when you pick up the cookie sheet with your cookies on it, the sheet will bend and you will risk dropping the lot on the floor. Bakers don't use it for their loaf tins because when you put the dough into the tin, the pressure of the dough on the sides, pushes them out making your bread misshapen. Though I guess that's a matter of aesthetics. My husband likes the shape - slightly wider in the middle than the end. And it's certainly pretty easy to get it out, but then it's not too hard to get it out of a traditional tine either. Because of the flexibility it is also difficult to move it around in the oven if you feel the need. So again - best to put on a baking sheet.

And that non-stick characteristic - well almost everyone seems to think that it's best to butter and maybe flour them anyway. Food can stick to it. Mind you because the material itself is non-stick and not a non-stick coating, it is not going to flake off in alarming little bits every now and then. And another problem is that cakes tend to brown too much and are a bit too dense. Not my problem really as I don't make that many cakes. But cake-making professionals don't seem impressed.

So all of those disadvantages might be why there are not many silicon cake tins or baking trays in the shops anymore.

However, I do think that things like spatulas in silicone are good. I have also tried a pastry brush - which is quite effective, though, again, not quite as effective as a good old-fashioned hair type brush. And all those pretty cupcake cases might be good, and they are reusable, unlike paper cases. I think its floppiness probably works against the whisk. And I'm not too impressed with the silicone oven glove thing that I have.

Yes I think the day of the baking things is passing, but the other stuff is increasing and in ever brighter colours.

My son is a bit of a fan too - so maybe it's a man thing.