Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I really like this stuff, but is there a known issue with its use or disposal that hurts the environment?
It eliminates the need to grease and flour, does not stick to caramels and makes for an easy cleanup. What do you guys think?
TIA
Nancy

Well, it is some sort of teflon, which has environmental issues. Whether you think the convenience is worth it is, of course, up to you; everything we do has some impact, and it is all a balancing act. I use it in very select circumstances. I think many times (but not always) parchment or a silpat do just as well. But I definitely use it here and there.

I do the same as Paul. I use mostly for caramels and toffee. The rest of the time I use the high temp reusable parchment or silpats.

I also use it just for a few things, which nothing else seems to work well. Macaroons are the ones I probably use it for more than everything else put together.

Hi,

My wife tried the Reynold nonstic foil for pouring isomalt windows. The nonstick surface remained very smooth and didn't tend to wrinke after use. The first house looked great...but there was something funny about those windows.

Every window was micro-etched with a very clear message, "Reynolds non-stick foil"

Tim

I don't buy it although I used to just for caramels, others in the house just grabbed it instead of regular foil for things where it wasn't needed and since it's pricey I stopped buying it. I now use the parchment sheets from the Parchment Queen for almost everything I do, it's fine with caramels although probably peels off best when cold. I turn the sheet over and then peel the paper off. I use that for Marilyn's toffee as well, never a problem with sticking.
Tim, that's funny now but I'm sure Lib was not pleased.

Reynolds says it's not Teflon, and for example it doesn't create fumes that are potentially harmful to birds as Teflon can.

http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/media/1 ... ck_faq.pdf

This may be the patent for the coating:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6696511.html

Fascinating!! I was wrong. (That happens with alarming regularity and is not the fascinating part, ), and the tech sounds interesting. So, with silicon, it would be similar to parchment or silpat. And it could be used at very high heat. Very interesting.

The marketing let me to believe it was non-stick of the teflon sort; that may have been on purpose to enhance its cred. Or, I'm crazy, which is known to be true.

I remember seeing somewhere that it was silicone, and thinking that it would be similar to parchment, yet it works so much better! I figure it is because it is less porous, as the macaroons become harder to get off of the parchment after the first few come off OK, and will simply not come off if cooled on it - the paper simply tears. With the foil, it is actually better if they cool a bit, to harden, and they come right off. Silpat works OK, but the bottoms are not caramelized enough, which is much of the flavor.

Thanks everyone for a very interesting discussion.