Product Review: Chef’s Planet Nonstick Ovenliner
Here’s a nifty idea: for all those who are sick of trying to pry WAY over-baked blobs of blackened pie and casserole filling off the their oven floor, a flexible catch-all liner. It’s a coated fabric sort of thing (technical term), 23″ x 16.25″ inches, though it can be trimmed to match the size of your oven’s interior if need be. The nonstick surface resisted pretty much every bubbly, crumbly thing I threw at it over the holidays, surviving with only a few small dents. Any time I didn’t feel like washing off splatters of au gratin potato, I just threw it in the dishwasher. Problem solved.
So in all those senses it did everything it was supposed to do. I have only one caveat about it and here it is: it can only survive oven temperatures of 500 degrees Fahrenheit or below. That’s plenty high for most bakers…except me. I routinely raise my oven temperature to 550 to make biscuits and bread. Being a space cadet, I generally don’t open the oven door to check what’s inside of it before I turn on the heat. A bad habit to be sure, but it’s mine. And that leaves me open to a potential oven liner breakdown situation. I don’t know if melts or what, but I’m not especially keen to find out.
The good news is that a lot of ovens don’t even go over 500. Yours might be one of them, in which case you could potentially leave one of these inside full time with nothing to worry about (provided the liner doesn’t get close to a heating element). For my part I’ll keep mine in the box in a cabinet, and only pull it out when I’m baking things with goo in the middle. It’ll be worth twenty bucks even so. Get’em at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table and chefscatalog.com.
Christmas tree shops sells a non-name brand oven liner for $5. I’ve had mine, and it has held up, for over 2 years. Life saver when it comes to cleaning, especially the carbon stalagmites that form with yams.
Good to know, Matt. But Christmas tree shops? Who are they? Or am I just completely out of it as usual?
– Joe
Looks like they are all on the East side of the US. I’m in NYC. We have a few, but I know they go up and down the coast, from Maine to Florida and out to Texas. Great bargains on cooking supplies. (It’s not all Christmas Stuff; in fact, there is NO Christmas stuff out in the off season. It’s an awful name for a great store.)
Interesting. Thanks Matt!
– Joe
Closest to you looks like:
Florence
Turfway Crossing
1336 Hansel Ave.
Florence, KY 41042
(859)-371-0135
That’s up near Cincinnati. Good to know.
– Joe
I have one I bought years ago from some online place. Probably paid more than your price. I’d probably forget it and turn on the self-cleaning part and fry it. Mine is buried in a box from a move 3 years ago. Maybe I’ll find it before I die and don’t need it. I don’t think I’ve ever considered baking bread or biscuits at 550.
I like big heat for some things, what can I say? Thanks for the comment, Linda!
– Joe
I’ve tried to find something like that but my stove is part volcano. There are flames for the oven, and on the top is my broiler/grill. I know my burners are too high when flames are shooting up a few inches and the burner rings are glowing orange. I have considered a sideline branding cattle but there aren’t many cows in the city. Maybe a blacksmith shop?
Whew! That’s some serious heat. What sort of device is that?
– Joe
It’s a Chambers B stove, made sometime in the 1930’s to ’40’s. Mine is a pale green. Here’s a link to a site where they restore them – http://chambers.mgbotanicals.com/chambers2.html . They go for thousands in California and some other states, but here in New Orleans you can sometimes find them by the side of the road (though I bought mine with the matching sink from a nearby cousin). Definitely puts out heat, and I should probably redo the insulation, but another time.
Cool! A contractor friend of mine would kill for one of those…plus a sink! Wow. Pretty darn nifty.
Thanks naomi!
– Joe
I didn’t even know such a blessing existed! I am going to have to get one – THANKS
I’m a helping type, Frankly. Whatever I can do! 😉
– Joe
By coincidence I acquired the Chef’s Planet Universal Nonstick Bakeliner last fall. It is simply a 12″x40″ silicone sheet safe up to 550 degrees F. The idea is to cut-to-fit whatever pan you’re using.
I have been using it even in the little toaster oven tray to heat pizza rolls and such. It performs brilliantly with everything I’ve thrown at it. Nothing sticks. Dishwasher safe and practically indestructible seeing daily use for over four months. I only use parchment for brownies and fudge now.
This box cost a whopping $5.30 delivered. It had occurred to me to use as an oven liner instead of the gunky aluminum foil I have in there now. I believe it is time to do just that. Clearly there is no fabric backing (0r coated fiberglass as the case may be) but I don’t suspect being dripped on is so stressful as to require that. Cheap enough to be replaced as needed.
Thanks James!
– Joe
Joe: Your comments all seem to post in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Very internationally sensitive of you.
I consider myself a citizen of the world, James. It’s the very least I can do.
– Joe
Yes, much appreciated.
I have a hard time remembering who is where on the internets and worse, what time zone that translates to.
upT
I’m with you on that! I have no idea what time it is here in Louisville, much less anywhere else. 😉
– Joe
I love these…saved me so much clean up time during pie season!
But who’s going to clean my oven before I get one of these to put in?? Can I just put it over the mess that’s in there from waaayy too long ago? J/k…a little.
I think there’s a 1-800 number you can call…;)
– Joe
Am I the only one that worries that having something so close to the element in my oven will somehow release some toxic fumes into the food I’m baking? Is that irrational?
Nope, I don’t think so. That’s part of why I say I’m not keen to find out what happens when they melt! 😉
– Joe
Hi Joe – I use mine all the time and, even tonight, the liners saved me from pizza cheese drippings and the nasty burn-smell that can permeate your home. I found mine for a buck at Aldi’s. Can’t beat that!
Suh-weet! Thanks Christy!
– Joe
” I don’t know if melts or what, but I’m not especially keen to find out.”
As I recall, it just seems to char away the “filler” and leave (some of) the woven looking (fiberglass, maybe?) fabric-looking stuff behind. Like ashes of rag paper after you burn it, but sturdier. Can’t verify this memory, though, since I cut that corner off and still use the sheet when baking apple pie.
My grandma taught me that apple pie is not any good unless it runs over.
Regards,
Deb
BTW, life has been better at my house since I forced myself to start clipping a clothespin to the oven when it has something odd (like a tin or food mill or kraut cutter) drying in it. ‘Way easier to learn to do this than to learn to look in the oven before turning it on!
Thanks for the great tips, Deb! Love the clothespin idea. I’ll use that.
– Joe
I got mine from Williams Sonoma because I had bought a little one for the toaster oven and it works GREAT. However, in my Viking oven, while baking at around 425F, the thing MELTED! and has left some charred on spot for several YEARS, even after some assertive oven cleaning and elbow grease. So I have gone back to heavy-duty foil on the bottom of the big oven and just change it out when pie filling or cheese drips on it. I think mine melted because the Viking oven flames burn really hot while it is bring the oven up to temp. The oven knob does not indicate temps over 500 and I know I was not even up there when the darn thing frizzled, spewing awful fumes, and necessitating an alarming change of dinner plans while we aired out the house. On the other hand, I use Silpats all the time. But after that experience, I do not use the Silpats under the broiler.
Hi Melinda!
Thanks gor that. I don’t know where the elements are in a Viking stove, but it they’re under the floor and the liner was resting on the floor, I’m not surprised it melted. The heat would be extreme there. But overall I worry a little about these sorts of devices. I play with temperature just too much!
Thanks for the comment,
– Joe
I think I will stick to my old sheet pan on the bottom of the oven. It’s indestructible, doesn’t melt, no toxic fumes, and has been doing a fine job for the past 20 years. Plus it was made in the USA.
Sounds good to me, Alicia!
– Joe
I’m very confused over the comments on placement of this liner. I found the product on the Bed Bath & Beyond site and read the reviews there. Most people who have used this product for years claim that the liner goes under the heating element in the bottom of the oven. However, some state that the instructions with the packaging now say to place the liner on the low rack of the oven. So my confusion is WHERE to properly place the liner in an electric oven. I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this. I just had a small fire last weekend from a dirty oven. The stove is all cleaned up and I’m reluctant to use the oven until I add a liner SAFELY.
I could really use your help with this.
Hello Dianne!
The liner can go anywhere in the oven where it won’t get too hot. If your heating element is on the bottom of the oven, you wouldn’t want to lay it there, though the lowest rack would be just fine.
Does that help?
– Joe