The Best Parchment Paper

These precut parchment sheets, which come in a large plastic zipper-lock bag, are the only ones in our lineup that are stored completely flat. They're also sized just right to slide easily into a standard rimmed baking sheet, although we did have to use two overlapping sheets when rolling jelly roll cakes into coils. Their superior convenience made them the runaway favorite. Don't let the purchase price distract you: The per-sheet cost falls squarely in the middle of our lineup.

Our favorite rolled parchment paper had clever packaging: The lid fits inside the front of the box, which holds the roll in place and provides tension for neat, even tears. Even at the end of the roll, the paper was relatively easy to flatten. Our biggest criticism was that we had to trim about 3 inches from the paper to fit it in a rimmed baking sheet.

We liked working with this parchment paper. When the lid was tucked inside the box, it was easy to tear off sheets with clean, even edges. However, sheets had to be trimmed significantly to fit in rimmed baking sheets. The edges tended to curl, especially when the paper was near the end of the roll.

These precut sheets are folded in quarters and packed in a small rectangular cardboard box that measures 8 by 6 inches. We liked the compact storage, but the paper was very tightly creased along the folds. Even when we tried to flatten the sheets, they had sharp little hills and valleys and produced lines or Xs on cookies and cakes. While we don't care much about a line on the underside of a cookie, cookie dough rolled between two sheets of this parchment was marked on its top side as well.

This roll was the only one in our lineup whose width matched that of a standard rimmed baking sheet, and we loved that convenience. But the product packaging wasn't as successfully designed. The boxes were beat up by the end of testing, and one side came completely unglued. Per sheet, it was the most expensive product in our lineup.

We have no complaints about the performance of this paper, but we had to trim about 3 inches from its width to fit it in a standard rimmed baking sheet. We thought the sharp serrations on the box would guarantee a clean tear, but sheets often had uneven or jagged edges. The box was sturdy but lacked a closure and always stayed slightly ajar.

Once we got it into a baking sheet, this parchment performed well, but we had to trim off about 3 inches to make it fit. Even with the box's plastic serrated teeth, the paper routinely tore with a jagged chunk of extra paper at one end. That said, the paper remained fairly flat even when we got toward the end of the roll.

These precut sheets come rolled inside a standard rectangular cardboard box. It's a clever idea, and each sheet was easy to remove; however, they were hard to flatten. Even when we pointed the curled sides down, the sheets sometimes sprung up and rerolled themselves. As a result, pouring cake batter and placing pizza dough atop the sheets was challenging.

Once you wrestle this paper into a baking sheet or onto the counter, your food will turn out fine. But it's not easy to use. The cardboard box is soft and lacks a cutting edge, and it became beat up and stretched out after just a few uses. Because it was difficult to tear the paper in a single, swift motion, the sheets often became wrinkled and had very uneven edges.

This paper worked well, but we can't say the same about the packaging. The flimsy cardboard box came unglued shortly after testing started. Even after we taped the box back together, the soft tearing edge was ineffective and produced jagged, uneven sheets. The sheets were often so wrinkled that we couldn't use them.