Smartware cookware is a new brand of silicone bake ware. It is available in a range of sizes, shapes and colors. The product, like many silicone-cookware items, requires some skill to use properly. Learning handle your Smartware properly will help you get the most out of your cookware.
The Nature of Smartware
Unlike metal and crockery-based bake ware, silicone cooking equipment has specific strengths and weaknesses. Learning the nature of the product will allow you to use your new items with confidence and security.
Silicone cookware, unlike metal, glass and earthenware tools, is flexible and can be pierced with a knife, fork or other pointed object. In many instances, it also needs support to be safely moved from one surface to another. On the other hand, it heats evenly, resists scorching its contents, cools quickly for safe handling and prevents food from sticking. The balance of pros and cons makes the use of Smartware a matter of choice, educated technique and intended use.
Reduced Sticking
For many users, the advantage of reduced sticking combined with a flexible pan that can be eased away from baked products is the ultimate selling point. If you are making shaped baked goods in a baking mold, Smartware can improve the results of your baking. Cakes will turn out more easily, with less sticking and the ability to flex and pull the pan from the cake rather than trying to pull the cake from the pan. Less damage is involved, and clean-up is comparatively simple.
In some instances, users recommend using the grease-and-flour method of traditional baking to ensure the perfect release of baked goods. In the case of foods with very low fat content or delicate structure, this recommendation may make the final difference between very good and perfect release.
Even Heat Transfer
Most solid cookware heats unevenly, concentrating heat in the corners and edges, failing to transfer the heat as well to broad expanses over the entire pan. Silicone-based cookware, including Smartware, retains heat very poorly. Because of this, it does not get hot spots to the degree that solid material does. Heat doesn't "build up," but is transferred at a steady pace to the food within. Corners and edges don't overheat, and there is little fear of scorching one portion of a recipe while leaving the remainder of the dish uncooked.
Smartware is not a great choice for recipes that are improved with browning, and crunch where the food meets the pan. It is not intended for stove-top use, either: if foods need pre-browning, use a separate pan. Smartware is baking ware, not saute ware.
Extra Support
Because it is soft and flexible, Smartware often needs additional support when being transferred from one surface to another. While the walls of Smartware are well designed to remain stable, even when filled with a fluid batter, the elastic bend and droop of the silicone doesn't provide much of a stable base to hold the weight. The answer is to place your Smartware on a cooking sheet, trivet or other oven-safe supporting base. Then, move the base, rather than lifting the Smartware directly.
Some Smartware comes with its own support trivet. Use it as instructed. If you are using a piece without a trivet and feel that some additional support is needed to keep the pan steady and unbent, follow your instinct and use a cooking sheet. For all the advantages of Smartware, it remains important to remember that it isn't solid material that just happens to bend and twist when you want it to--it bends and twists every time gravity comes into play without support to resist. Use support habitually and you will be pleased. Forget to use support, and you can lose an entire recipe.
Care and General Use
Smartware is dishwasher safe. It can go directly from freezer to oven without fear of shattering. It is safe at high temperatures. However, it still needs special care. Never use sharp, pointed tools on Smartware. Once you have pierced a hole in the silicone, the hole is there for good. Don't use metal scouring pads on accumulated food: use nylon or soft bristles rather than any tool that may gouge the soft surface. Don't clean your Smartware with strong chemicals. Storage is a dream: because it is soft and flexible, it can be rolled, stacked, stuffed into containers and otherwise stored as suits your kitchen and your needs.
Tags: rather than, your Smartware, additional support, bake ware, baked goods
