No parchment paper? Discover some alternatives
Parchment paper (aka oven paper, baking paper) is a very handy kitchen accessory for a myriad of cooking tasks. It helps prevent the food from sticking to baking trays and cake tins, and it can also be used prevent food spitting grease all over the oven whilst cooking - and these are just some of its uses. However, when you have no parchment paper when you need it, what can you do?
There are some alternatives you can try, to be chosen depending on the situation. We list some of these below:
Grandma's solution: butter and flour
Before parchment paper was invented, this was the only way to prevent food from sticking to the bottom of baking trays. We all probably know the procedure: take some butter and rub it all over the baking tray so that it leaves a thin layer, and immediately afterwards sprinkle this buttered area with a thin layer of flour so that it adheres and covers all of the butter. To make the task easier, you can also leave a little butter in the pan and put it in the oven while it's heating up, just long enough for the butter to melt, and then spread it over the surface with the help of a pastry brush.
Olive oil
The alternative to butter is oil, to be used in a very similar way, but being careful to use only a thin layer. It comes in handy, as in the previous case, for cooking cakes and pies, be they sweet or savory.
Aluminum foil
Silver paper, aluminum foil, or tin foil, is useful for cooking en papillote in the oven, but it is a little more risky in the case of preparations that can stick. For this reason it is preferred, as an alternative to parchment paper, with preparations that are not too wet. In addition, it conducts heat faster than parchment paper, so sometimes it is necessary to lower the temperature a little or reduce the cooking time slightly.
Nothing
There are cases in which it is also possible to avoid using any type of protection for baking trays: for example, when food such as seeds or legumes or bread must be toasted. After all, with these, there isn't too much risk of them sticking to the bottom of the tray.
In short, it's better not to run out of parchment paper at home, but there are alternatives if you do!
