Parchment paper, wax paper, aluminum foil, freezer paper, the list goes on. There are so many choices, but which one is the right one? It can be confusing, but it depends on the application. Are you looking for a liner for the oven? or to wrap a sandwich? Well, there is an answer, each one has a purpose. And, some, maybe we don’t need. This post will finally get to the truth about liner paper, and, hopefully help you to decide.
Oven use
Putting some form of separator between the food and a pan in the oven makes our lives easier. It’s easier to remove whatever you’re cooking, and easier to clean up. Non stick is an option, it’s great, but has some downsides. You have use plastic utensils, and once it’s chipped or scratched, well, it has to be thrown out. I’ve never been lucky with non stick, I usually end up using something metal and scratching it. But it does have it’s place. Another option is silicone tray liners. They are excellent for what they’re designed to do, and totally reusable. Definitely worth the investment. However, in this post were discussing liner papers, so I have to stay on subject. Of our choices of liner that can be used in the oven, we have parchment paper and aluminum foil.
Parchment paper
Parchment paper is made by passing paper pulp through a chemical bath during the paper making process. This gives it non stick properties, it is also grease resistant, and is not susceptible to humidity. I use this as my go to liner paper when baking anything. I don’t want my oven fries, or roasted vegetables to stick, nor do I want the liner to be damaged by the oil I use. A parchment paper liner works great. Parchment paper is non reactive, that means it doesn’t react to acidic ingredients, like tomatoes and lemon. It’s also biodegradable, therefore, eco friendly. The down side of parchment paper is it’s heat resistance. It can be used up to about 425-450 degrees, beyond that it will brown and become brittle. It is an extremely versatile liner paper, and very useful to have
Aluminum foil
Lately, aluminum foil is not just aluminum foil. There’s regular and heavy duty, and, now there’s non stick too. The difference between heavy duty and regular is just the thickness. Regular foil is typically 0.016mm thick and heavy duty approximately 0.024mm thick. The non stick aluminum foil has Teflon impregnated into the aluminum during the rolling process, I’ve not had much luck with it, if you like it, continue to use it.
Aluminum foil is more of a protectant. You can wrap what you’re cooking in foil and it will retain the moisture and protect something that may be delicate from getting damaged or drying out. If you’re cooking fish on the barbecue, wrap it in aluminum foil to protect it. Wrapping vegetables to bake with foil will keep the moisture in. I use it when I make my 5hr brisket. You can use it as a tent when cooking a turkey to stop the breast meat from drying out. You can lay a sheet on an oven rack to catch drippings. And when you want to heat up some cookies late at night, well, foil is what you’ll use.
Foil is not as susceptible to heat as is parchment paper. Even at it’s hottest temp, an oven cannot reach the 1200+ degrees required to melt aluminum. It can handle pretty much any temperature. However, it isn’t really non stick like parchment paper. When using foil, spray with Pam or equivalent so things don’t stick. Aluminum foil is reactive to anything acidic, which, in turn will affect flavor. Tomatoes are an example, and lemon juice too. So when you make that favorite Italian dish, make your clean up easier and use parchment paper.
Aluminum foil is also recyclable. in fact, it is one of the few metals that looses non of it’s properties when recycled. That means it can be recycled as many time as we like. Also, the recycling process only requires 5% of the power needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore. There’s a reason to recycle right there.
Wax paper
It is exactly what it’s the name implies, waxed paper. It has been around for many hundreds of years. originally paper was impregnated with bees wax. However with the ability to refine and produce paraffin wax, that is now the common coating. Because it is paper impregnated with wax it cannot handle heat of any sort. However it can be used for handling cold items. As a separator when storing something in the refrigerator or freezer. For example, to separate beef patties to refrigerate or freeze. It can also be used to wrap food, such as sandwiches. Bakers like to use it to cover the counter when making pastries. Certainly makes clean up easier.
The down side of wax paper is that, unlike parchment paper or aluminum foil, it is not recyclable nor biodegradable. I have found that parchment paper is a good replacement for wax paper for all the uses I have mentioned. I lay a sheet of parchment paper on the counter when rolling out the dough for my doggie treats. And, of course parchment paper is biodegradable, which is important.
Freezer paper
Freezer paper is paper that has either wax or plastic coating on one side. The other side being plain paper. It has been used for some time, initially wax would have been the coating, now it’s commonly plastic. The food would be wrapped with the plastic or wax side towards the food. While the paper side could be written on. It has fallen out of polarity of late. The down side to freezer paper is similar to wax paper in that it is neither biodegradable nor recyclable. And essentially only has one use.
The conclusion
Well, there you have it, the truth about liner paper. As I had mentioned at the beginning, it does depend on application. However there is a lot of overlap of their uses. Basically, you can get by just fine with aluminum foil and parchment paper in the kitchen. Each has its applications and uses, depending on whether you’re lining a dish, wrapping food or keeping something warm. Hope this was informative, and thank you for reading.