Roasting pans and baking trays can be interchangeable cookware for several cooking tasks. Mainly for that reason, people sometimes overlook their unique features. You can roast, bake, or broil food in a roasting pan and a baking tray. However, some nuances are associated with roasting pans and baking trays, and knowing about them certainly elevates your culinary expertise.
Continue reading to learn all about the special features of these two cookware. Learning more about roasting pans vs. baking trays will help you make informed decisions about which you need.
Let’s start by examining roasting pans. A roasting pan, sometimes called a dripping pan, is cookware used chiefly for roasting big pieces of meat. It’s generally a large piece of cookware, big enough to hold a turkey, for example. That’s why roasting pans are especially popular during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. People need large pieces of cookware during those times to prepare and serve food for a bunch.
The distinguishing feature of a roasting pan is the removable rack. Although it’s not a must, most roasting pans come with a rack. That rack has a purpose—the juice of the meat cooked over the rack drips into the bottom of the pan. You can use the dripped juice at the bottom to make gravy, another beloved holiday gathering specialty. You can also cook vegetables as a garnish at the bottom of the pan. When that’s the case, the juice works as a flavor enhancer.
Roasting pans come in several materials:
- Stainless steel: It’s one of the most durable materials in cookware. It’s resistant to corrosion and easy to maintain.
- Enamel coated: This type of roasting pan has a non-stick surface.
- Anodized aluminum/Teflon coated: This cookware offers a non-stick surface. However, it is not suitable for scraping down to make delicious sauce and gravy.
- Untreated aluminum: This type is a great heat conductor, and it’s pretty lightweight.
- Cast iron: It's another durable roasting pan alternative. You can use cast iron roasting pans on stovetops, ovens, and barbeques. As with cast iron cookware, they generally require more maintenance and are more costly.
Many people refer to large aluminum foil containers as disposable roasting pans. However, they don’t have a rack, so technically, they aren’t classified as roasting pans.
Besides being generally large, roasting pans are high-walled. The deepness allows the juice to accumulate at the bottom, and the meat and vegetables are cooked together. One distinguishing feature of roasting pans is that they have handles. These handles are helpful, especially with the large roasting trays, considering the total weight during cooking.
On the other hand, a baking tray is a versatile cookware that comes in many shapes and forms. A specific kind of baking tray, sometimes called a sheet pan, baking sheet, or baking pan, is a flat, rectangular metal pan. It is commonly used for baking bread, cookies, rolls, etc. A baking sheet is a subcategory of bakeware. Aside from that, the baking tray is an umbrella term covering various cookware made with different materials, comes in multiple shapes, and can be used in the oven, microwave, and stovetop.
Baking trays can be made of the following materials:
- Aluminum foil
- Glass
- Silicone
- Enamel
- Teflon
- Cast iron
- Stainless steel
- Carbon steel
- Aluminum
- Ceramic
- Granite
In addition to the material's versatility, baking trays can be round, rectangular, square, oval, etc. Their depth also differs according to the purpose of use. For instance, the sheet pan typically has about one-inch high sides. Others can resemble roasting pans in depth, usually around 3-4 inches. Baking trays may or may not have handles.
After examining the specific features of roasting pans and baking trays, you may ask: Which is better? Or do I need both? The answer depends on one's cooking practices.
A seasoned home cook probably owns 1-2 roasting pans for dinner parties and many more baking trays for several cooking purposes. If you are at the initial stages of home cooking, it's best to begin investing in your kitchen gradually. That's to say, you can purchase 3-4 affordable baking trays of different sizes and shapes. As you progress, you can better identify your culinary needs and make smart shopping choices to invest in your kitchen. So, a roasting pan may become a priority product on the shopping list when your culinary skills become more advanced.