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See why.The Best Parchment Paper
Parchment paper is simple. Why are so many products hard to use?
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Whenever a piece of restaurant equipment becomes available to home cooks, we take notice. Replacing flimsy jelly roll pans with sturdy rimmed baking sheets changed the way we cook. Using bench scrapers and Y-shaped vegetable peelers made our prep work e efficient. More expensive and esoteric tools, such as high-powered blenders, sous vide machines, and carbon-steel skillets, have also transitioned from restaurant to home kitchens.
Recently, a low-frills restaurant product appeared on supermarket shelves: parchment paper sheets, a precut version of the rolls that we have long used to line baking sheets. Since the sheets are cut to the approximate dimensions of a standard rimmed baking sheet, no trimming is necessary, which saves time and waste. And unlike rolled parchment, which needs to be wrestled out of its box and smoothed, some parchment sheets store completely flat.
Given that not every restaurant product successfully transitions to home kitchens, we were curious but skeptical. How would these new commercially inspired products compare with traditional parchment paper rolls? To find out, we purchased 10 parchment paper products: seven rolls and three packages of precut sheets.
Parchment Performance
Parchment paper's primary function is to keep food from sticking to baking sheets (although it's handy for lots of other kitchen tasks, too). Happily, all the papers we tested produced cakes, cookies, and pizzas that were evenly baked and that released cleanly. They also performed well outside the oven. None tore under heavy pizzas or pie weights or caught fire in a 500-degree oven. (Even if products list lower maximum temperatures, we've learned from manufacturers that they're still safe to use in a hot oven.) When we sandwiched and rolled out disks of cookie dough between two sheets of each paper, none of them stuck, tore, or crumpled. So we turned our attention to how easy they were to use. In these evaluations, scores were anything but even.
For Parchment Rolls, Two Things Mattered
The user-friendliness of the rolls boiled down to two factors: size and cutting mechanism. Most were too wide. The cooking surface of a standard rimmed baking sheet measures 16½ by 11½ inches, yet most rolls were between 13 and 15 inches wide. Positioning them in a baking sheet widthwise left a wide swath of the baking sheet exposed; positioning them lengthwise forced us to trim 1 to 3 inches of paper. On the widest rolls, about 15 inches across, that trimming resulted in 20 percent waste. Only one roll measured 12 inches across, almost the same width as our baking sheets.
We also preferred rolls that were easy to tear into sheets with straight, c...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Size: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 3 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
Recommended
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
Recommended with reservations
- Size: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
Not Recommended
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 1 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
- Size: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 1 stars out of 3.
- Packaging: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
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.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Kate Shannon
Kate is a deputy editor for ATK Reviews. She's a culinary school graduate and former line cook and cheesemonger.