Yvonne...a question. I admit to using foil under a roast chicken as I hate the greasy cleanup. How long could you use parchment in the oven, would it start to burn at 350 after say an hour? I do always use parchment for shorter cook or bake times.
I am not sure how well the parchment would hold up for longer baking times, @Missy Lee . I now use the Ninja Cooking System when ever I make a roast or baked chicken, and we only seldom use either the oven or the microwave for much of anything. I used to have one of those little trays that will hold the chicken upright and catch the grease in the bottom, plus it had spikes on the sides to skewer several potatoes, and I could cook the chicken and the potatoes easily with that. I did set it inside either a large cake pan, or on the cookie sheet in case there was a lot of chicken fat in the bottom of the cooking tray. Something like this would work instead of using a roasting pan and aluminum foil. They also make those plastic roasting/baking bags (not sure what the correct term is to call them), and they make cleanup really easy, too.
@Yvonne Smith - interesting what you say about the foil - yep I may give the other option a go @Holly Saunders - I do use the 'skinny chips' I refuse to call them French fries BTW - I only have a handful of those skinny chips - I'm not a big eater
Parchment paper can be used more than once as long as it's not been burned. if it goes a significantly darker colour then it needs to be thrown away. I use those Roasting cook-in bags for chicken and fish when I'm baking in the oven...it means you can also add all the seasoning or marinade you might want too...tie the bag up..let it cook...and then throw the bag away at the end of the roasting time..No mess to clean up in the roasting tray..
About the only thing aluminum foil is good for is the bottom of the oven or, for a doper, covering the windows. Actually I do use the stuff but with a tremendous amount of caution. In every kitchen where I have had any say, I insist on placing film wrap between the food being cooked and the aluminum foil. The wrap does not melt on the food as one would suspect and keeps the foil from reacting with the food. Food with any acidity (like tomato in the lasagna) will react and eat through the foil and leave little silvery specks on the top of the culinary "would be" delight, but the specks aren't the reason for my adamant behavior. The chemical reaction that has taken place, when consumed, has been linked to Parkinson's disease and, for some, a bad case of the Mississippi green apple quick steps. When a chef is asked what his top priorities are with his art he would probably start with how the product looks and smells then how it tastes. We eat with all of our senses but the part that goes into the mouth is always last so a chef might be well justified with the previous answer. My first concern is health, then eyes, nose, hearing(sizzle platters) and eventually comes taste. No matter how good my product might look or taste, if I cannot count on someone coming back because I allowed health to take a back seat, what kind of chef would I be?
You don't mean .............cling film do you Bobby, the stuff that clings to everything except the item you want it to cling to ........ Cling film would melt and it is highly toxic stuff You probably mean something else and I'm being dopey this morning ..........
Patsy, guess I am being dopey this morning too cause that's how I read it also maybe he is talking about something along the same line as the cooking bags?
No, you're not being dopey in the least. Cling wrap like Saran Wrap are a tad different than food service film wrap. Film wrap will stretch much thinner and and when stretched it will hold to the edges of a pan which then allows you to place and seal the aluminum foil over that. That said, any product that melts (other than food itself) can give off toxic fumes. Thus far, if the procedure is followed closely, there hasn't been any harm detected in the finished food product because the film doesn't melt. Now, since using parchment paper has been mentioned as a good barrier, simply put ......it is. But, if there is a cheese topping to the food then you'll more than likely have a lot of it stuck to the paper. Baking bags are a great innovation but in the food service industry they are cumbersome, expensive and generally cannot handle the amount of production a pro kitchen is responsible for. Unless, it's a sous vide product which is a whole different style of food production which, can also be dangerous if you do not know what you're doing.