Better Cooking Through Chemistry

We all have favorite things; things we feel we simply couldn’t live without. Things so comfortable, so thoughtfully designed, so ingeniously engineered, that we never fail to marvel at them or at least feel really good about using them. Silicone cookware and utensils do that for me. Every time I use them I think to myself, “This is soooo cool!”, and that’s why silicone cookware has a place in my Top 10 Kitchen Favorites.

Silicones aren’t new, in fact they’ve been around for years and have a wide variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant, nonstick and rubberlike, they combine the temperature and chemical resistance of glass with the versatility of plastics.

Aquariums of every size and shape use silicone sealants to join glass plates. Silicone grease is used as a lubricant for brake components in automobiles. It’s also used as insulation in spark plug wires to prevent electrical interference.

Liquid silicone can be used as a dry cleaning solvent and electronic components are sometimes protected by encasing them in silicone to protect against mechanical and electrical shock, radiation and vibration.

Silicones are used in harsh conditions such as in space. They are ingredients in some leave-in hair conditioner products, used in bandages and dressings, in breast implants and a variety of other medical uses. Juggler’s love silicone balls because of high bounce back, which allows for easier bounce juggling. It’s also used in baby bottle nipples and pacifiers.

Silicone sealants and caulks are widely used in the construction industry to seal gaps and joints in buildings and in plumbing. What bathroom in America hasn’t seen a little silicone sealant around the bathtub or shower enclosure?

Professional and commercial chefs have been using high-temperature silicone bakeware for years. Some silicone bakeware can go from temperature extremes of -58°F up to 430°F, easily moving straight from freezer to oven. Most silicone utensils are heat resistant to 600°F and safe for non-stick cookware. Some heat resistant utensils are made of nylon, which is heat resistant to 400°F and also non-stick safe.

What’s available in silicone you ask? Baking pans, cake pans, molds, springform pans, loaf pans, muffin pans & cups, ice cube trays, strainers, baking mats, pizza mats, spatulas, spoons, basting brushes, turners, pot holders, lids, cutting boards, funnels, splatter guards, ties and trusses, measuring cups, pie crust shields, handle grips, cup & can grips, oven mits, trivets, whisks…just about anything you can think of.

The OXO Softworks 12-piece kitchen gadget set (that’s what it says on the box!) I got for Christmas contains a mixture of silicone and nylon utensils, all with OXO’s Universal Design philosophy supremely evident. It includes the six pieces you see here (of course, only the tongs are high-temp), plus a silicone basting brush, regular and slotted nylon spoons, large and small nylon turners, and a silicone spatula. I love these tools because they feel great in your hands and they make everything easier to do. With the heat resistance of the silicone and nylon, I never have to worry about performance no matter what I’m cooking. So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.

I also have a Lékué spoon that is very flexible and is actually more like a spatula than a spoon. The silicone stays soft and pliable making scraping and mixing easy and efficient. In fact, because it’s so soft, it’s kind of weird using it in a hot environment. You don’t expect something this soft to withstand such high temps, but polymer chemistry prevails!

Other favorites of mine are my Matfer Exopat silicone baking sheets. Exopat is a laminated sheet of rubberized food-grade silicon reinforced with silicone-based woven fabric that never affects taste. These are FDA and NSF approved and can be used up to 3000 times in temps ranging from -40F to 580F degrees.

What I love about these sheets is that you can use them for ANYTHING: cookies, breads, roasts, poultry, anything that can go in your oven. You may have to adjust baking times a little, but it’s worth the effort. They are also handy to use under your cutting board to prevent it from slipping.  I have two of these in the half sheet pan size, which makes them great for another use: rolling dough and pie crust. Just place your dough ball in between two sheets and roll. No sticking! (Next, I want to try one of the silicone rolling pins.) Cleaning is as easy as shaking them off and rinsing under hot water. I still use parchment paper for some things, but these mats are so versatile it’s hard to imagine doing without them.

Silicone cookware and utensils aren’t expensive, so if you don’t have anything silicone in your kitchen yet, you owe it to yourself to try one or two pieces. Pick yourself up a spatula and a baking mat. You’ll wonder how you got by without them.

Tagged as: bakeware, cookware, Lekue, Matfer, Non-stick surface, OXO, Silicone, spatula, universal design