Buy our Winning Rimmed Baking Sheet:
Behind the Testing:
Full testing details and ranking chart:
We tested 8 rimmed baking sheets to find the best one:
Nordic Ware Baker’s Half Sheet
Vollrath Wear-Ever Heavy Duty Sheet Pan (13 gauge)
Chicago Metallic Traditional Large Jelly Roll Pan
Nordic Ware Prism Half Sheet Baking Pan
Norpro Heavy Gauge Aluminum Jelly Roll Pan
Chicago Metallic StayFlat NSF Half-Size Sheet Pan
Island Ware Baker’s Half Sheet Pan
Fat Daddio’s ProSeries Jelly Roll Pan
A rimmed baking sheet is essential for sheet cakes and handy for cookies. But if yours is flimsy or you use it only for baking, you’re not getting your money’s worth.
We review the best (and worst) digital kitchen scales:
Curious about carbon-steel skillets? Watch our review:
WINNING TRAITS OF A GOOD RIMMED BAKING SHEET
– Tall, straight sides with defined corners
– Cooking surface measuring roughly 16½ by 11½ inches, so it fits a wire rack snugly
– Resists scratching and warping and returns to a flat state after use
WHAT WE EXAMINED
We tested eight rimmed baking sheets, all measuring roughly 18 by 13 inches from rim to rim, using each to bake a jelly roll cake and lemon sugar cookies, roast parsnips, and roast and broil chicken thighs. We evaluated how evenly the food cooked and how cleanly it released from the sheets. We also rated their handling, strength, and resistance to warping and measured the dimensions of their cooking surfaces.
BAKING: We baked a jelly roll cake and cookies in each sheet, giving higher scores for appropriately light golden-brown baked goods that baked evenly across the entirety of the cooking surface.
ROASTING: We preheated the sheets and roasted parsnips and chicken thighs on them, observing how evenly foods cooked across the entirety of the cooking surface. Those that browned and cooked foods evenly scored the highest.
WARPING: We preferred sheets that withstood high-heat ovens and rapid temperature changes with minimal warping.
HANDLING: To test comfort and ease of use, we fitted each sheet with a wire rack, prepared a mock roast (placing a 5-pound bag of our atop the rack and 1/2 cup of water underneath it), and did a lap around the test kitchen. The best sheets felt comfortable and secure in hand, with tall, straight sides that were easy to grip and helped contain liquid.
RACK COMPATIBILITY: We often use wire cooling racks inside baking sheets. We deducted points if standard-size racks moved around inside the sheets or didn’t fit inside them completely.
America’s Test Kitchen is a real 2,500 square foot test kitchen located just outside of Boston that is home to more than three dozen full-time cooks and product testers. Our mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods. To do this, we test each recipe 30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times, until we arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time, and equipment that yields the best, most-foolproof recipe.
If you like us, follow us:
Related posts
39 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
So, link for the pan but not the rack? Or am I missing something?
NordicWare represent! MN in the comment section. Great MN company, and made in the USA!
Anyone know what they do with all the food they cook during the tests?
Does the oil burn into the pan when roasting? I think some people have roasting trays and cookie trays bc of this. I usually do all of this with a parchment paper
What is the maker of the pan with sloped sides?
They need to retest the Nordic Ware brand, the quality is not the same anymore. Unfortunately Nordic Ware changed these pans for the worse. Same listing, totally different pan. They now carry a deep embossed brand logo on one end that traps food in all it's tiny books and crannies and has rough edges on the back that make it uncomfortable to grab the pan bare handed.
These are aluminum which I certainly would not put food on. Amazon reviews note that newer version is much thinner than pans sold a few years ago. Are there any that are stainless steel?
As of May 2021 both Items have increase in price by $5 on Amazon.
Perfect…just what I needed to know for the baking sheet and cooling rack😀👍
USA Pans are the best.
You have great hair.
This format and presentation is much better and just seems more genuine than the cheesy infomercial style on the newer test kitchen videos
My pet peeve are sheets that warp when heated. Hate that.
Damn it, came her to see some rimming
Id love to see a wedding cake pan set review!!!
I would love to see this revisited and the new MADE IN baking sheets tested?
I ordered a set of the winning pans and they have completely changed up my cooking game! They're sturdy, heat evenly and produce the most consistent and delicious results. America's Test Kitchen wins again!
Got my Nordic sheets used at a restaurant supply store, with racks. Store them in the oven. However, they would never replace a pizza stone.
Hate it when they warp in the oven!
I love my Nordic Ware sheet pans
I have found that the copper (I can not remember the actual name) are THE BEST SHEET PANS EVER!!!!, they bake and clean up like nobody’s business. I love them. I also have the copper fry pans and they too are amazing.
My big thick sheet pan finally warped the other day. I was making butter cookies, and when I checked on them after five minutes, they'd all been tossed around. Fortunately, none of them stuck together, and they all stayed in the pan.
I get the sense that once a pan warps one time, it's probably going to keep doing that.
Got a link to the cooling rack?
i keep seeing amazon reviews on the nordic half sheet pans that there's a metallic substance that comes off the pan and appears on a towel you use to wipe off. i don't want to ingest metal after baking with this. is this still recommended??
Is this the aluminum version of this pan?
i found ur videos very helpful…
I almost ALWAYS agree with ATK on product reviews, but this is one I have to disagree with. Nordic Ware has begun stamping their branding in the face of pan, as opposed to a fine laser engraving they used to do. It is HORRIBLE!!!! I regularly have sticking issues. Avoid these pans at ALL costs!!!!!!!!!!!!
So… This is just a commercial for one brand. All the other brands weren't even mentioned.
When I need to purchase something, I want to know that I'm buying the best value. Consumer Reports and America's Test Kitchen have never disappointed me, but New York Times Wirecutter has been a letdown.
I find your shows to be very interesting to watch. Hello from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
She says it has straight sides, but you can clearly see they're angled.
Helpful and timely. I just had an oven filling sized sheet pan and matching rack (bigger than a half sheet) taco on me. Cooking bacon in the oven. Will be buying the recommended half sheet pan and matching rack shortly. Thanks, America's Test Kitchen.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Yay! I have 2 Nordic ware pans and they don't cost a fortune. Also, so far they haven't warped.
I would like to get nicer cooling racks though.
I can't believe how often I research the best products….. and go to you… thank you
NordicWare is my favorite – made in USA also
Best videos ever! My foods will never burn or warp!
UPDATE as of February 2019 from
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/equipment_reviews/1724-wire-racks
“We continually monitor the items we review and recommend. Recently, we noticed that the quality of our favorite wire rack, from Libertyware, had become inconsistent. We now recommend the Checkered Chef Cooling Rack, which had originally come in second place. The rankings have been adjusted to reflect the change. We also recommend the smaller version of this wire rack.”
A Cooling Wire Rack, That will fit into a Jelly Roll Backing Pan, Will Work the same way etc