Dark Pans vs. Light Pans: Which is Better? | Techniquely with Lan Lam

Byamazingfoodstv


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.

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29 Comments

  5. 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.

  9. 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

  15. 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. 😊

  16. 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.

  18. 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

  27. 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.

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