I never thought of different qualities for baking and roasting. I too hate the curly ones on the roll, plus they never tear nicely for me.

I lucked out when a lady on Kijiji was selling hers. I grabbed it, and now I have 1,000 sheets. Large sheets......I cut them in half to fit my sheet pans. They're 16.4 x 24.4". The box says Silicone parchment.

I do far more roasting than baking and I love these. It doesn't have a temperature guideline on the box.

I, too, notice a difference with the 1000-pack I bought from a restaurant supply store. Unlike the ones as the supermarket, these were not labeled for max temp, and they looked at me like I had two heads when I asked. For the price, I never let it bother me though. They hold up well enough for most everything I use them for, and even the grocery stuff burned under high heat like for calzones if I don't cut them down to size, so for the price I'm content.

Love them. The full sheets. We just had a lobster dinner and i put a few over my table over some newspaper...(it is a pine rustic table that would stink if not covered)...oiled but still...

I do need a beefier sheet for roasting me thinks. The boxes are a thousand sheets, lol. Now i need another box for high heat? Not such a bad thing...another shelf i see in my future.

I buy mine from King Arthur Flours. I use them more than one time too. You can tell when you need to throw away. They get brittle and brown with use. They come in a cookie sheet size and package flat in a large zip lock bag. I store them flat in a drawer. I was not aware of different qualities.

What makes the paper brown and burn is heat. Bradbury wasn't wrong with Fahrenheit 451 being the burning point of paper--it's actually the middle of the temperature range. Even if the air in the oven isn't that high, and doesn't cause flames, the pan temperature on the paper can get high enough to brown and char. I'm guessing that the higher heat paper has more silicone. ("Parchment" sounds better, but it's really siliconed paper.)

it's really siliconed paper

Yes, usually these days, although it can also have Quilon and a few other debatable things. But you can get natural unbleached parchment, although the price will usually make you howl.

EDIT Although that also puzzles me a bit, because realio trulio natural parchment would be sheepskin, not paper.

I use natural, unbleached (not realio trulio) parchment and it has silicone. The 100% plant based has latex.

Is it really food safe?

natural, unbleached (not realio trulio) parchment and it has silicone.

You can find it without, although probably not locally unless you're in a major urban area. EDIT But yeah, it probably will have latex in that case. :(

Islay, there's silicone on almost everything these days and they say it's safe. I don't like it, but here it's become just about impossible even to find, say, baking pans that aren't coated in it.

FWIW, I always differentiate the 2 by referring to baking parchment vs. parchment.....

I prefer the silicone to latex. (Yeah, Writersblock, it wouldn't release if it didn't have something.) It's pretty darned safe unless you have it leaking from implants and migrating through your body, outside your alimentary system. "Food safe" is a broad concept. The FDA and WHO allow it in non-stick baking sprays. That's where I draw the line. Contrast to melamine, which is used for dishes and mixing bowls, etc., and easily scrapes. Those scrapes are going into the food. It's much more difficult to scrape silicone, though I don't know for sure about the paper. It seems not to come off, though that might be an illusion. Most of silicone is silicon from silica, which is sand, and harmless. The questionable part is what chemicals (mostly hydrocarbons) they put in it to make it into silicone, and the colorants. From what I've read, silicone can migrate at the higher end of approved temperatures, but it doesn't bond with food, and supposedly passes right through the digestion. Is that food safe? You be the judge.

I use the grocery rolls, but the curling doesn't bother me. I just protect my pizza stone with it and it will burn at high heat. I think your 1000 sheet variety is probably the same as the curly grocery store type, but both will char when the heat is too high.

I also hate the curling roll. I get either Reynold's box of twice folded sheets(22 ct, 12"x16") or Kroger brand single fold sheets(40 ct and preferable, 10"x 15") at the local Fred Meyer store. They have identical info on them, both withstanding 420 degrees.

I don't use a lot of parchment. When I do it's If You Care pre-cut sheets.

I'll look into this. I have both brown un-bleached and white. I don't have the original boxes with me...i traveled with both, flat packed in the bottom of my 'kitchen' crate full of spices and herbs and foods for our vacation home.

The rolls i have say nothing on the package about the surface ingredient.

Just curious about the different surfaces and heat.

+-once you have flat sheets, the rolls will sit unused in your drawer.

Yeah, i used to roll them 'roll down'.

I'll ask my dad. He was the senior analytical chemist for 30yrs and developed teflon in his lab. Then stain-master. From what i remember that was an accident that proved 'money'. A fiber industry that coated fibers easily enough to use for carpet. Ran a lab in Indonesia. (i don't like carpet). Never really proud of that but he did run 30 marathons, Sailed around the world for a year with my brother at age 60, Iron man as a senior, and did many years as a dozen gold metalist in the senior olympics, (a WashingtonPost cover pic of him with his medals). then hosted elder hostel trips and president of bird clubs...now 86 is running a book club. Still swims every day and yoga with senior ladies...You go dad!

He will have some answers. His healthy brain is full of info about such things.

I'll be visiting the week after next.

My original post was relating to choosing on the fly some parchment sheets without really researching. I should have, and did notice many choices. I know now that a chef has different uses for different parchment.

Interesting and fun stuff. Or maybe just me. I just like to know being an information junkie.

I roasted vegetables last nite, and no charring at all, just oily.

Oil might saturate the paper and protect it a bit. I don't use much oil for veg. Just a tiny bit to coat. Might be a gas oven over an elec.

Silicone says 444, the others 425. I don't usually roast anything over 400. I might pre-heat 425, but usually cut it down a bit for roasting veg.

The bagcraft papercon brand does not mention any coating at all in the description.

lhttp://www.webstaurantstore.com/bagcraft-papercon-030008-12-x-16-half-size-bake-n-reuse-ecocraft-parchment-paper-pan-liner-50-pack/999030008NAT.html

No, the Restaurant Store listing doesn't, but if you go to the Bagcraft website, it's listed as:

• Vegetable parchment 4 & 5 star silicone pan liners provide superior release for high temp baking

The King Arthur site indicates their half pan sheets are good up 500 degrees for single use or 450 degrees for multiple use.

What about the reusable silicon baking mats? Do you think that paper gives a big advantage? Does "parchment" paper give a big advantage over brown paper? Over wax paper?

I've tried the baking mats. They discolor from heat, are hard to clean after baking and are delicate (have to be careful not to cut them, especially not to expose the fiberglass mesh which, being glass, could be dangerous if it gets into the food). They don't work better for their purpose than paper, and maybe sometimes not as well. I will sometimes put down a piece of parchment instead of a baking mat just to use on the counter. It slides, of course, but is sometimes easier.

Outside of the drought, I'm not really big on one time use products, but a standard roll of the unbleached parchment lasts for a long time for me, and it seems to do the job better for most things, so it's my choice. I don't use it for cakes and pies and that kind of thing, but I do use it for some breads, roasting vegetables and any time I want to line a sheet pan.

Parchment paper has the silicone or latex or other product that makes for easy release. That gives it a big up from brown paper, which is porous, for use with anything sticky. For rolling out dough, however, perhaps brown paper, well infused with flour would work. At that point, I'd use a pastry cloth, however. The silicone gives some heat protection to the paper, whereas brown paper catches fire really easily, so parchment can be used at higher temperatures.

Waxed paper, nowadays, is often made with a plastic rather than real wax. Both melt. If You Care, and probably other makers have soy wax versions. I haven't used it, but I have used soy wax for other purposes. It melt really well. I don't know how polymerized it is and if there are any benefits over petrochemical waxes in terms of ingestion of residues. I think you can use parchment for all the old ways waxed paper was used, but parchment stays smooth, rather than crumpling all over (unless you try hard), which makes it release better when smushed--it probably releases better in general, but I haven't tested it. There's something or other I use waxed paper for, but can't remember what. That's about once a year. I use parchment for the rest. It's versatile.

I buy parchment paper here at Gordon Foods, I get 100 sheet pan sized sheets for $3.49, and I cut them in half. I keep them from rolling by hanging them on a hook on the inside of my cabinet door next to the oven, and I just use one of those little binder clips that are used for packets of paper, I get them at the local office supply store by the dozen. The clips on them fold up and hang perfectly from the hook inside the door, and I can pull one down and leave the rest hanging, so they are always flat.

I just use them for baking, I've never used any for roasting, I just scrub my roasting pans after use and so they stay nice and shiny. Yeah, someone on the forum called me crazy, LOL, but I don't like them to look grubby.

Annie

Annie, i remember that thread. : ). I did not think you nuts, just how did mine end up so black.? I bought mine at a yardsale, a stack of 1/2 sheet and full sheet. The full sheets are spotless because they will not fit in my oven. I just use them for prep and to take things to and from the smoker/grill. (i love them fresh and clean). I have a couple half sheets in Newfoundland and clean...the don't fit in the wood cookstove. : )

I often roast on a rack that fits in my half sheet pans. (they are so black but i call it patina, : )...new ones i've not used below.

I agree 'food safe' is a broad term. I also would not use the spray. Just not sure why the variety. I've always purchased the brown. It is the factory prep and the bleaching i find not necessary. An environmental issue in the processing.

The silicone mats, with the barrier between the food and the pan, is more of a food quality issue for me. I just like a better contact with the pan. And the hand feel is not so pleasant. Everything breaks down eventually. It really just feels like any oils hang on even with washing but maybe it has hit a higher heat than recommended? (my old gas oven?)

I just found recently, having used many of what is available, that some are not as heat tolerant. When i recently burned some roasting chick peas due to our error, (stove jumped in temp due to some seasoned birch) and we were distracted....that is a concern because of the carbon smoke. The Costco brand i have in Canada is double coated silicone and stands up to a higher heat. (it is on the rolls). I took up some sheets that are much thinner. Less heat tolerant. The one that burned so easily...now home i see on the package that it is Quilon. I'll use it for other things and not heat.

I've just had the same success with lower temps and longer cooking time for most veggies and probably better all around with less carbon char. Just as crisp/roasting texture if paying attention.

Really just a recent curiosity and healthy choices. Balance the not so good with some bad? Our bodies are designed quite well to deal with daily toxins. (like the hotdogs DH will probably come home with being his B-Day, lol.)

I want lamb and a raw kale salad.

This pic from a few months ago....a famous bakery in Brooklyn where i started thinking about parchment. (shut your eyes Annie, : )

I do think the food and its pan/surface used for cooking has a natural barrier. Between the oils and the surface. A non-reactive barrier. Like the cast iron naysayers...iron is minimal/miniscule if properly seasoned and not a nasty rusty surface. When a cooking surface is tired and starts to break down it should be replaced. Why i like cast iron. It continues to seal itself if taken care of.

I like using parchment on my baking sheets to keep them clean and shiny. I dislike scratches and swirls from scrubbing. :-)

I did get a baking sheet given to me that has brown marks all over it. Not rust, just something that I can't scrub off of it. I use that for use under casseroles and carrying several items to the freezer, balcony etc, and for baking anything messy (with parchment)