Episode 16
Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to this episode of The Beyond Nourished Podcast. I am your host, Rachelle Girardin, and this is the place where you can learn to become a better, more efficient health-focused cook in just 10 minutes or less.
In this episode, we are talking about cooking with silicone versus cooking with metal, and I’m also going to be talking about a few other options when it comes to the best and the healthiest types of cookware you can use.
We're going to be looking at this through a number of different lenses. I'm going to start off by talking about silicone from a baking perspective, so this means muffin trays or cake pans, bundt pans, anything that you put in the oven to bake.
Now, silicone has a real alluring element, which is that it's very well known for not letting food stick to it. However, there are a few downsides as well. Silicone is a heat insulator, and while this sounds good, it often doesn't really allow the food you’re baking to rise as a metal pan would. Other benefits of silicone that a lot of people go to it for is that it's heat-resistant, freezer safe, and oven safe (to around 425 degrees F).
Having said that, there's a lot of research around the health and the safety of actually using silicone, so while it's easy to look everywhere, and it says it’s non-leaching or health-conscious, I'm personally a little bit skeptical from an eco perspective of the environment.
There are also a couple of things to note - while silicone is reusable and that might be the desired quality for you, it isn’t biodegradable. Also, as of right now (in my area at least of British Columbia), it actually can't be recycled either. So there are definitely some qualities to silicon that might move you toward it, but also there are some things to keep in mind when there are other options out there as well.
One more note about silicone - if you do use it, at least keep these things in mind - you shouldn't put your silicone in the dishwasher. It is very easy to break down, and also it tends to retain the flavour of the soap that you're putting in your dishwasher - you don't want to make your baking taste like soap! This actually goes for any detergent that you might be using - either make sure that you use a type of soap that doesn't have a taste or a smell to it. Silicone also needs to be dried very well while it's being stored, or it just might start to degrade or the coating can kind of come off.
While using silicone can feel very beneficial, just keep in mind that there's not a lot of research done from a health perspective, so I usually use my silicone sparingly, and honestly, I don't find that my muffins and my cakes turn out very well in my silicone pans. I find that they don't get that nice crisp base that I'm looking for with a muffin top. Or they get a little bit wet in the silicone and they take a lot longer to cook than my traditional metal pans. And that's again because it's a heat insulator rather than a conductor.
Now let’s talk about metal! There are obviously different types of metal that your pans can be made out of, and there is something to be said about cheap aluminum pans. We've already discussed in previous episodes that these are to be avoided. Aluminum, when we ingest it through leaching in the cooking process, can be very harmful to our immune systems and also to our brains.
Keep your use of them to the bare minimum, and try to reduce the amount of non-stick cheap aluminum that you have in your kitchen - whether that be in the oven or on the stovetop.
Having said that, metal can be decent to use when it comes from a health perspective, but you're going to be looking for something called an anodized aluminum. Otherwise, cast iron, carbon steel, stainless steel, ceramic, and glass are all other things that you can use from a health perspective that would actually be a better fit for you. People tend to gravitate toward metal though because there is a crisping factor that happens and also a beautiful leavening that happens with your baked goods when cooked in metal.
Metal is a heat conductor, and so it's actually usually very even in your cooking process as well. There's usually a little bit of a deterrent for most people, which is that there's a risk of things sticking - this is especially true if you are using a non-stick pan that is older - and even though you grease it and flour it properly, you're still finding that it sticks and then you've just got a mess on your hands.
This is a little side note that just has to do with baking tips in general, not so much about the thing that you're baking in is remember to cool your baking before taking it out of the mould that it might be in - at least for a little while. People get too anxious with taking out the baking and just end up flopping it or breaking it - not allowing it to be sturdy enough. Give it enough time, even in the pan. It's okay! It might sweat a little bit but trust me, it's better off than having the headache of trying to take them out when they're too hot!
There are great options for you to improve your cookware from a health standpoint that has absolutely wonderful results from a cooking standpoint, and that's using things like cast iron. It might be using Corningware, which is ceramic, and you also might find carbon steel or as I said, anodized aluminum and this can all be found or researched online.
A lot of grocery stores or department stores also carry them, but you just might not have known what you were looking for before - so we will include those. You can improve your health by improving your cookware!
I also, in previous episodes, have also mentioned some of my favourite brands of cookware being Salad Master and Carico cookware and both of these offer cooking pans as well - muffins, cakes and various cooking pans.
I hope that this helps with your substitutions of what you should be cooking your food in. From a health perspective, we're always trying to find a way as holistic chefs to merge the world of nutrition and cooking.
If you're interested in this idea, if it kind of grabs your attention and maybe are looking for a career change or want to gain more information about becoming a holistic chef, you can always take part in Beyond Nourished’s wonderful Holistic Chef Certification and Business Training virtual program. You can go to our website to find out more information on that or connect with us on social @beyondnourished or @cookwithbeyondnourished.
I hope you've enjoyed this episode, and I hope you have a wonderful day!