wax paper v foil v parchment

[LuvOrlando]

OK, so experienced people please shed some light.

I always preferred to bake straight on glass or ceramic bakeware. These items are way too heavy for me now, especially with stuff on it so if I don't have someone helping me I shifted to lighter metal pans & have a new problem. New problem is the forever chemicals in nonstick so to avoid scrubbing I am using a buffer of one of the above, wax paper v foil v parchment. Ok so now another new issue pops up like those dolls where one thing hides in another thing and so on :/

I was using parchment because a friend uses it all the time and assumed the parchment paper breaks down in landfill fast but somewhere I read that parchment is its own chemical mess and maybe isn't actually parchment paper, grrr why call it that if it isn't that, but I digress ... ok so that leaves wax paper or foil, both I assume breakdown ok in landfills. Thoughts?

 

[disneydreamer1980]

You can’t cook wax paper, foil is recyclable though. I am a semi professional baker and I personally use parchment or silpats when I bake. That may be an option, you reuse them over and over.

 

[mjkacmom]

I don’t think you can cook on waxed paper, I line everything with foil religiously, regular or quick release.

 

[Meriweather]

Parchment or Silpat for baking.
Casseroles. I just spray, but sometimes use foil.....it is not recyclable here until it is clean.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Silpats mostly for baking. Sometimes parchment. Rarely foil. You can’t cook/bake on waxed paper.

 

[leahgoogle]

We don't use aluminum foil for baking ever. There was one study that showed that it does leach into food when heated. Another study was inconclusive, but I won't risk it knowing how toxic aluminum is to the body. I use unbleached parchment paper if I want to line a baking pan. For glass pans, I coat with butter if necessary.

 

[slo]

I don’t know much in regards to how things break down in landfills, but we use…

Parchment on a cookie sheet for baking

Foil to cover things to keep warm/hot and I put it on a pizza pan for frozen pizzas

Wax paper to cover up items when they go in the microwave to avoid splattters and messes.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Parchment paper if a baking recipe calls for it.

Foil if I'm cooking something that will make a difficult mess.

Wax paper never goes in the oven here.

 

[tvguy]

We use a lot of foil and parchment paper.
I grew up in the 1960's with the Teflon pans that used to have chunks of Teflon come off and go into the food, so my goose was cooked decades ago when it came to ingesting forever chemicals.
I'm 66 now and all the health issues I am having seem to have been caused by the blood pressure medicines I was given to prevent those problems. You can't win.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Parchment for baking

 

[NYCgrrl]

I can do without foil for long periods but need an intermediary for baking. Silpat can often replace parchment paper but depending on the type of baking you do will need replacing due to grease absorption. Not as fast as parchment paper though. I still use wax paper predominately for transferring items from one container to another and grating.
HTH

 

[lilmc]

I use unbleached compostable parchment paper. I thought the consensus was nothing breaks down in landfills? Wasn’t there something awhile back when someone pulled out old newspaper and could read it easily?

 

[fab1976]

Wax paper is paper coated with wax. What happens to wax when you heat it? Think of candles. You don’t want to cook with that….

 

[_19disnA]

I mostly use parchment paper for baking. I don't use wax paper. I think it was popular years ago when things like plastic wrap or parchment paper didn't exist. Aluminum foil is best for covering a roast while baking if using a smaller dish or something that doesn't come with a cover.

I would never put wax paper in the oven since the wax can melt making a mess of the food and also catch fire. That wax melts at a VERY low temp. Parchment paper is great since food doesn't stick and then your pans stay new looking longer. I don't believe most of the nonsense you see posted online. If your baking pans last longer using parchment paper, then who cares what happens to the parchment paper you toss in the trash? You could basically ask the same thing about everything that goes into landfills. Where do you think all of those plastic bottled water products end up? I believe parchment paper is made by coating paper with some sort of silicon.

Aluminum foil is recyclable but I doubt it would break down in a landfill. Unless you generate a LOT of waste aluminum foil, I doubt it matters that much to any recycler. Recyclers need to be able to sell their products to others for a profit to cover their costs and stay in business. Some products are more economical to recycle then others. Our local trash company no longer wants glass bottles in the recyclable bin. I thought glass was one of the most economical things to recycle, but apparently not.............LOL.

I tried using Silpats, but things like cookies never brown and the product is hard to clean and feels greasy even when clean.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I thought wax paper was interchangeable with parchment paper. Spoiler Alert: It isn't.

Caught on fire in the oven while baking a galette. The same weekend I turned a chicken into a fireball trying to grill Beer Can Chicken. It was a fun weekend.

 

[amcnj]

If something is going to be really messy and make the baking sheet difficult to clean, I will use a layer of foil. And some foods say to cover them with foil or a foil tent while baking.

I tend to use parchment only when a recipe calls for it. Last week I used it on a baking sheet under meringue cookies.

Wax paper I still use at times, such as under a cooling rack to catch dripping icing, or between layers of cookies that might stick together in a tin. I also place it between the lid and bottom of cookie tins to help form a tight seal.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If the foil isn't dirty from food our area will take it for recycling. When I'm using foil to cover food in order to avoid burning on top that goes in the recycling or if the food left virtually no residue but most of the time it gets dirtied up with food especially if foil is used as a liner so it goes in the trash then.

For a lot of our cooking I'll use silicone mats bought a while back at Costco to put on the shallow metal baking pans but that's not something I've personally used as a liner in something deeper than the shallow baking pans. For deeper I would use foil.

 

[Imzadi]

Aluminum foil is only recyclable IF it actually makes it to a recycling plant. Even today, so few items are making it to be recycled.

As for parchment paper, there are some that have a coating on them that make them more resistant to liquids. I get the cheap rolls at the Dollar Tree and they are not coated. I use the parchment paper to steam bake my salmon in a parchment envelope. I like to soak the parchment first before laying the fish in so the paper doesn't scorch in the oven while baking. The Dollar Tree parchment paper rolls suck up water easily. No coating. Just cheap parchment. Green box.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Aluminum foil is only recyclable IF it actually makes it to a recycling plant. Even today, so few items are making it to be recycled.

I get this but I think people should, unless they know for sure in their area doesn't do well at all with recycling, take it for face value in recycling. The times you throw it away are virtually (aside from thinking about dumpster diving) 100% going in the trash and to the landfills. Better odds for putting it in recycling that it might be recycled.

Generally people know in their area how good or bad their area is at it (not speaking about brick and mortar stores like Target or Walmart). It's been required for recycling for every provider in my county since 2010 and yet the largest city in our metro but on the other side of the state line from me just only got actual carts starting this past May. Before that it was extremely old way of very small container that the homeowner had to provide themselves and recycling was not done in high levels, not really focused on. We're in the same metro and yet drastically different situations. Now that largest city is trying to encourage residents to recycle meanwhile it's just part of our lives over here in our county. For my city in particular it averages about 35-40% of any given year of waste is diverted from the landfill into recycling.

If someone can reuse the foil if not badly soiled go for it, that would be the reuse aspect of the three R's.

 

[Imzadi]

I get this but I think people should, unless they know for sure in their area doesn't do well at all with recycling, take it for face value in recycling. The times you throw it away are virtually (aside from thinking about dumpster diving) 100% going in the trash and to the landfills. Better odds for putting it in recycling that it might be recycled.

What I meant was that if one has a choice of whether to pick the material that is recyclable or one that is biodegradable, pick the biodegradable as there is no guarantee that the recyclable one WILL be recycled.

Generally people know in their area how good or bad their area is at it (not speaking about brick and mortar stores like Target or Walmart). It's been required for recycling for every provider in my county since 2010 and yet the largest city in our metro but on the other side of the state line from me just only got actual carts starting this past May. Before that it was extremely old way of very small container that the homeowner had to provide themselves and recycling was not done in high levels, not really focused on. We're in the same metro and yet drastically different situations. Now that largest city is trying to encourage residents to recycle meanwhile it's just part of our lives over here in our county. For my city in particular it averages about 35-40% of any given year of waste is diverted from the landfill into recycling.

We supposedly have strict laws here now in NYC. People do bag stuff up separately and put them in different designated bins. Only to have the garbage guys come by and toss ALL the bags and different bins into the backs of the SAME garbage truck. Then the compactor comes down and mashes and breaks open all the bags and all the materials get mixed together. There is no real recycling here, no matter how many laws get created, unless a company hires their own sanitation pick up.