If your pans don’t look shiny and new anymore, don’t ditch them just yet. Lan Lam breaks down how dark and light pans differ and how they affect your cooking.
Buy our winning stainless skillet:
Buy our winning 8-inch cake pan:
Buy our winning muffin tin:
Buy our winning baking sheet:
Buy our winning chefs knife:
Buy our winning wooden cutting board:
Browse more Techniquely content:
Follow Lan on Instagram:
ABOUT US: The mission of America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) is to empower and inspire confidence, community, and creativity in the kitchen. Founded in 1992, the company is the leading multimedia cooking resource serving millions of fans with TV shows (America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country, and America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation), magazines (Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country), cookbooks, a podcast (Proof), FAST channels, short-form video series, and the ATK All-Access subscription for digital content. Based in a state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot test kitchen in Boston’s Seaport District, ATK has earned the trust of home cooks and culinary experts alike thanks to its one-of-a-kind processes and best-in-class techniques. Fifty full-time (admittedly very meticulous) test cooks, editors, and product testers spend their days tweaking every variable to find the very best recipes, equipment, ingredients, and techniques. Learn more at
If you like us, follow us:
29 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Helen Mirren has an amazing video on this topic, specifically sheet pans. I recommend that one! She lists the uses both variety are best at.
Black pans matter…!!!
BS
❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
It's not actually the color, it's the emissivity of the surface in the invisible infrared. The color is only a proxy for that. But seasoned cookware generally look brown, and seasoning is highly emissive in the infrared.
Aluminum is thought to be a major contributor to Alzheimers, dementia, and other unpleasant things. I'll pass.
So that's why my muffin tins have gotten better with age and use. I scrub them but they are no longer shiny shiny shiny shiny
Was just wondering this. Thanks
I love Ina Garten but I've always taken exception to her shiny aluminum half sheet pans. They used to make me feel guilty until I accidentally found out my food cooks "better" on my matte pans. Glad science, and Lan, confirmed it
😂🤣😅 SO there's COLORISM in Pans ? Learn something every day 😂🤣🤣
Wow. I'm learning something new every time she's on about new cooking techniques 😋 .
Thanks! I have thought I gave noticed the difference, but glad to have a pro like you confirm!
Love a 2 minute video. Good stuff.
Thank for the knowledge.
There's an old video out on this platform by a famous chef who was making BBQ ribs on a charcoal grill. When it came time to wrap/foil them, he said MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE FOIL SHINY SIDE OUT SO YOU DON'T OVERCOOK THE RIBS. The Internet did laugh. But everything you're sharing here is solid. Thanks. 😊
DARK PANS! shakes fist that's the only thing you can find anywhere unless you go to a specialty store. Almost all of the places I looked had dark, nonstick baking pans ONLY from sheets, to muffins, to 9x13s. Finally had to go to a restaurant store to get light pans for baked goods. overdone banana bread, overdone cake, overdone cookies, overdone muffins… it took an offhand comment from Claire a long time ago on bon appetit about dark pans holding more heat that finally made me realize what was happening. I hope many others see this vid since its such a punchy explanation. lol, thanks for making it to the end of my rant.
👍🏾Great information!🏆✅️👊🏾
another shoutout to helen rennie for teaching us to keep the shiny sheet pans shiny for baking (less browning) and let the darkened sheet pans get good and dark for roasting (more browning), even going so far as to season them in the oven like you do cast iron to make them darker
You and your team are beyond amazing. there is no other cooking channels on youtube that compares to you folks. thank you.
Big fan of Lan!
Lan Lam has a very soothing voice.
I knew nothing about this before this video and now I'm fascinated. I'm going to go conduct my own experiments!
I really enjoy listening to Lan talk so I wish this episode was longer 😞 but it was short and sweet so I can't complain 🤓
I just was going through this debate with myself this morning😂
My favorite sheet pan is not pretty. It's brown & well seasoned from years of use. Not nonstick when it was new, but it sure is now!❤❤❤
All other things being equal, a darker surface absorbs infrared radiation better, as created by a conventional oven. Many of these wavelengths are below what our eyes can see.
My sister once complained that she baked two trays of cookies. One tray was perfect; the other tray came out too dark. I asked her if the dark cookies were on a dark tray. She was surprised I knew that. I told her that you're supposed to turn the temp down by 25 degrees for dark pans.
Always Happy to see and hear Lan in these videos. Thanks Lan
Gosh another chef that took the radiative heat transfer class.