"silicone" news and stories

Though they look a little wacky, silicone oven mitts can be hugely helpful in the kitchen.

We always love a good giveaway here at Slashfood, and even if we're not the ones who are doing the giving away, we still like to let our favorite Slashfoodies know about other opportunities.

ThisNext.com is giving away a set of stainless steel cooking utensils from Tovolo.com on their site for participating in their weekly contest. Since summer entertaining is right around the corner, this is the perfect time to stock up on highly-heat-resistant silicone and stainless steel utensils. Here are just a few of the goods in the prize package, but head over to ThisNext.com for the details on how to enter:

• Stainless Steel Hemisphere Measuring Cups with handles that are also measuring spoons
• Silicone Spatula with a stainless steel handle
• Stainless Steel Perforated Colander
• Stainless Steel Double-Sided Measuring Spoons
• Silicone Trivets
• Stainless Steel and Silicone Barbecue Brush

Even though I don't particularly care for silicone bakeware and baking tests haven't shown it to be an improvement over traditional bakeware, I will give it points for coming in such a wide variety of shapes. Silicone can easily be molded into just about any shape you can think of and bakeware manufacturers seem to enjoy using it for some of the more unusual designs that they come up with. Its flexibility means that, unlike with traditional bakeware, it is very easy to pop finished cakes and candies out of their molds without worrying about getting pieces of the cake stuck to the pan. The Hearts, X's & O's pan is made of silicone and bakes 16 mini muffin-sized cakes (the pan is only 8.25-in square) that are ideal for Valentine's Day: five X's, five O's and six hearts. It is easily worth a look just for the sheer cuteness of the finished cakes.

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The heat resistant nature of silicone kitchen and bakeware is usually much-touted to home cooks by the manufacturers. This property is very useful for kitchen tools and, for example, pot holders, but the manufacturers often fail to mention the fact that silicone is so good at keeping the heat down that it can prevent your baked foods from browning in the same way that they ordinarily would if baked in or on a regular metal pan or some kind.

There is not much that can be done about an under-browned cookie without baking up a new batch, but with some foods (roasted vegetables or oven-fried chicken, for example), the reaction of many cooks is to slide the under-browned food under the broiler to finish it off. Do not do this if you are using any kind of silicone cook/bakeware, including a nonstick silpat. As some have found out, the heat from the broiler is so great that a kitchen fire can result very, very quickly. Stick to a tried-and-true metal baking sheet.

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The silicone cookware industry is growing every year and the NY Times goes to great lengths test out the properties of silicone bakeware, which make up 7% of the bakeware market overall. Their conclusions? It is not nonstick, but stick resistant. It is not good for everything. High quality silicone products are expensive, while others may contain fillers that compromise their heat resistance. The final list of the products included potholders and a few other things on the "recommended" list, while cake pans and measuring cups made the "not recommended" list.

Until recently, the food was always secondary to the coffee at Starbucks, but now that the company is trying to compete with McDonalds and other quick-service breakfast places, they are quickly trying to make up lost ground.

Kidfresh is a children's food store, meaning that everything except the food has been scaled down.

Frank Bruni dines are Eleven Madison Park and gives it 3 stars. The Bar Room and the Modern also gets 3 stars.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, talks about granola.

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