I Use Caraway’s Ceramic Nonstick Baking Sheet More Than Any Other
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Last year, I spent a significant amount of time at work thinking about one thing: How do I reduce plastics in my kitchen? This culminated in the Strategistdedicating a whole weekto stories focused on that very topic. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one wondering.
There are a lot of replacements for plastic out there, especially in what I think of as the three biggest categories of items commonly made from that material:kitchen utensils,food-storage containers, andnonstick skillets. But one item I’ve come to rely on in the last year stands out as being (almost) alone in its category: Caraway’s ceramic nonstick sheet pan. To be fair, most of mysheet pansaren’t nonstick but in fact Nordic Ware aluminum pans. And while technically I’d be fine to use only those for the rest of my life, I acknowledge that sometimes having a nonstick coating is nice. It makes it easier to flip or mix food partway through cooking to get more even browning, and most crucially, cleanup is a breeze.
While there are a handful of ceramic nonstick sheet pans on the market, the options are fewer than you might expect. I found some random brands sold by Amazon and Walmart — I’m always wary of these, especially where health is concerned — but when it comes to reliable companies whose products I trust overall, Caraway and GreenPan stood out in the mix. Both have ceramic nonstick skillets I endorse, so they seemed like solid models to investigate.
I tried a few different styles from GreenPan — and, surprisingly, ruled them all out. TheReserve Sheet Panis heavy (it has handles, which is nice, but I like my sheet pans to lift a bit easier). It’s also even more expensive than Caraway’s. ThePremiere Ovenware Sheet Panworked well in my tests but iseven moreexpensive. I simply don’t think it’s worth spending so much on a piece of cookware that needs to take a lot of heat, comes into contact with tools, gets scrubbed vigorously with a sponge, and isn’t meant to last forever through all that wear and tear. Asheet tray from GreenPan’s cheaper line, GreenLife, stained and warped after only a handful of uses.
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The Caraway, on the other hand, has held up beautifully — even more so than the few traditional nonstick sheet pans I’ve had in rotation in the past (I still pull those out occasionally but always use a piece of parchment paper on top when I do). It’s super-sturdy and has never bent or warped, even under high heat(the brand says it’s safe up to 550 degrees). After nearly a year of regular use, the surface has maintained its coating. Every once in a while, there’s a bit of grease build-up in the corners that I have to scrub with a bit more force (always with the soft side of the sponge), but this hasn’t affected the overall performance at all. Otherwise, it cleans up great with a hand wash — which, as I said before, is so important. (On several lazy occasions and against the brand’s instructions, I’ve even put it in the dishwasher. It’s still fine.)Andthanks to its aluminum core, the sheet tray heats evenly. I get uniform browning from edge to edge. In my sea of Nordic Ware, I have to admit, it’s the sheet tray I instinctively reach for most.
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