I'm officially late to the silicone cooking accessory era.

July 16, 2024 8:17 AM

What silicone (or other space age) cooking tools/accessories do you find really useful? Can I put them in the toaster oven? Dishwasher? I have a silicone spatula and that's it! I'm not a baker - more of a "warm up or stir fry/sautee" type person. I'll cook fish or candied bacon in the oven though, so never say never!
posted by bluesky78987 to Home & Garden (26 answers total)

i like silicone potholders are great. They are grippy and easily cleaned. You can use a couple of them under a cutting board to keep it from sliding around.
posted by mmascolino at 8:32 AM on July 16

Lids. I use them mostly for microwave steaming (stick some veggies and a few drops of water in any microwave safe bowl, then cook) and for refrigerator storage, but they can be used as pot lids and even in the oven. Get multiple so you can wash them in the dishwasher.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:39 AM on July 16

Muffin cups. They're sturdy enough that I don't bother with muffin tins, which is a space saving.
posted by humbug at 8:49 AM on July 16

You can put silicone things in the dishwasher but be forewarned that often things like stuck on crumbs in muffin tins have to be scrubbed off first. My working theory is that dishwashers work by jetting water at things very hard, and the soft silicone moves away from the water enough to soften the impact of the water and things don't get as clean.

None of this hurts the silicone thing, though.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:53 AM on July 16

Silicone baking mats, "Silpat" is the foofy brand. Use them for baking, pizza, meat, fish, defrosting, etc. But they get pretty crusty when things drip on them, and you need to apply elbow grease and eventually replace.
posted by credulous at 8:53 AM on July 16

I love my silicone cooking spoon. It has some kind of hard metal core but is totally covered in silicone, even the handle. I have a cheaper set of tongs that are similarly made, no exposed materials other than silicone. You need the rigidity to make the tool effective, but I have other silicone gadgets with exposed wood or metal parts and they seem to loosen and eventually detach.
posted by soelo at 8:59 AM on July 16

2nding Silpats. We got some generic brand ones from Walmart and they're awesome for baking. I bet they would do good with candied bacon.
posted by kathrynm at 9:06 AM on July 16

I have a silicone basting brush that works great, and is much easier to clean than a bristle brush. Also, 3rding silpats, but I think ours is Amazon's brand.
posted by indexy at 9:16 AM on July 16

Also, not to abuse the edit window, but silicone ice trays can absorb flavors/odors. YMMV, but if you use one for not-water it may not be good for regular ice. That said, you can get them in a variety of fun / useful shapes. I have a fun one that makes a big icosahedron/d20, and another that makes four big cubes.
posted by indexy at 9:19 AM on July 16

Seconding the heads up about silicon absorbing flavors (which I have found to be the especially-unfortunate case with the dish soap I use) but just know that there are pretty ways to remove it: For my muffin and baking sheet liners, I put them in the oven at 250 for about 30 minutes and that seems to take care of the problem. There are other ways I’m forgetting but Google could easily tell you.
posted by lovableiago at 9:46 AM on July 16

I use the Silpat-style baking mats and they're just super. I have knockoffs that are Amazon brand. Basically any time I'm cooking on a flat baking sheet, I use them. So for baking, roasting, etc.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:56 AM on July 16

Yes to muffin cups, but NOT the crinkly ones that look like pleated paper cupcake thingies because stuff sticks/tears. I like these jumbo muffin cups for traditional muffin-y muffins, and these are the best-in-show mini tart pans that are frankly superior to the muffins for things like mini-quiche and little cakes. (Shit, the Wilton tart pans appear to be discontinued, I'm probably going to buy a couple extra packages for the future while I can, I love them so much.) I use both of these in the freezer, oven, air fryer, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine (I've used one to dispense detergent because I lost the cup, and then drop it in the wash) and the muffin cups also make great brush-water-holders if you're using a brush with paint or glue.

All my small spatulas are silicone, and you want full-body silicone, nothing with a seam because it gets nasty in the seam. I also have a silicone jar scraper I really like.

I do not like silicone ice trays, but I loooove silicone freezer portioners (aka SouperCubes or "freezer molds").

I find silpats incredibly annoying to clean, and so remain a user of parchment paper in sheets, so there's no wrestling with curly, poorly-torn paper. (I linked the King Arthur to avoid yet another amazon link, but they are far cheaper there.)
posted by Lyn Never at 10:06 AM on July 16

Top recommendation? This spatula. I like my silicone ice cube tray too. While you can put it in the oven silicone conducts heat poorly so I personally wouldn't use it for baking.

I too prefer parchment over a baking mat.
posted by O9scar at 10:17 AM on July 16

I like silicone for a strainer/sieve that can double as a steaming basket.
posted by fruitslinger at 10:22 AM on July 16

I found a silpat mat that exactly fits the tray in my toaster oven and bought two of them. This means I can stick one in the dishwasher and still have one around. Basically means I never use aluminum foil in the toaster oven--great for stuff like nachos. You do sometimes need to wash by hand to get the grease really truly removed, but the dishwasher often does an OK enough job.
posted by rivenwanderer at 10:54 AM on July 16

I believe the other people who say they love their muffin cups, but I got a red silicone mini-muffin cups sheet from Target (I think) and I just could NOT clean all the muffin bits from it. I love my spatulas though, mini to large.
posted by Glinn at 11:03 AM on July 16

I have an amazing set of silocone muffin tins from costco that has metal reinforcements along the rim. Best of both worlds: sturdy pan, easy to pop out muffins/cupcakes without tins, butter, etc.
posted by atomicstone at 11:35 AM on July 16

Silicon oven mitts. Unlike cloth ones, they're waterproof, so you can spill boiling water over them without burning your hands. (Do be careful that it doesn't go all the way over; they tend to be rather short.) They can also go in the dishwasher for cleaning.
posted by demi-octopus at 11:39 AM on July 16

Sorry to threadsit. Does cat hair tend to stick to this potholder/oven mitt silicone? It sticks like crazy to my current fabric potholders.
posted by bluesky78987 at 11:58 AM on July 16

Seconding SouperCubes. We freeze sauces and pre-made meals into individual bricks in the 1-cup and 2-cup trays, and the 2-tablespoon trays are useful to freeze liquid ingredients like buttermilk and heavy cream.

Lodge makes a great silicone handle cover for their cast iron skillets.

I like silicone trivets / hot pads because they don't scoot around under the container.

I prefer the individual muffin cup liners to an entire silicone muffin tray. If they get crumbs or residue stuck inside, my pro tip is to flip them inside out and put them in a mesh laundry bag so they don't get knocked around in the dishwasher.
posted by fifthpocket at 12:13 PM on July 16

I have a couple of silicon lids that I like. They're just round disks that attach to bowls or other containers with suction. It's a nice reusable alternative to cling wrap. They also make them in mug size. I think it's to keep your drink hot, but I use them to keep cats out of cups.

Silicon does attract hair and lint unfortunately.
posted by umwelt at 12:46 PM on July 16

Does cat hair tend to stick to this potholder/oven mitt silicone?

In fact I believe there is an entire market of silicone-faced gloves expressly because cpet hair sticks to it, like the "Fur Zapper"!
posted by wenestvedt at 12:46 PM on July 16

I have the typical "mini" silicone oven pincher mitts and cat/dog hair has never stuck to them. I don't pet the animals with them or anything, but I DO drop them on the floor a lot and it's never been a problem.

fruitslinger reminded me that I absolutely love my collapsible bowl and strainer set. I bought it for camping, but now we travel full-time in short-term rentals and I went and found my exact set on ebay for the link above because I love it so much and it looks like nobody's really making them quite like that anymore. I easily use it 5x/week, including as a vegetable steamer in the microwave.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:52 PM on July 16

I have a large-ish 18" x 24" no-name silpat that I use for kneading and rolling dough. If I slightly wet my countertop and then roll the silpat out onto it, and sort of "squeegee" the silpat down onto the countertop (smoothing it down from the center outward) it grips the coutntertop very well and stays in place. It's much easier to knead dough on, and mine has concentric circles of varying sizes for measuring pie/pizza crusts. I make yeast-risen doughs 2-3x a week, and kneading on a silpat has changed my life.
posted by xedrik at 1:19 PM on July 16

I loved my original silpat. I mostly use it for baking finicky cookies like amaretti.

I love nearly everything from GIR. I do use their muffin cups which I love because they are dishwasher safe and stand up on their own so you can forego the muffin pan.

I cannot live without their skinny spatulas. I bought one on a whim and it gets used for everything. I now own 3 and the mini one as well. My favorite use: sliding down the side of a cake or bread in a pan to loosen it -- a knife would work but would potentially scratch the bakeware and the silicone seems to be more gentle for the bread too. I also use them to scrape out the blender, mix something well in a small bowl, etc.

I also like the silicone lids. The flat ones (not the ones that stretch over). They seal by creating a bit of a vacuum. I use one to keep my mixer bowl clean. The small ones I toss on the top of a cup if I put something back in the fridge.

Silicone Scraper (also from GIR) -- I use this primarily for making bread, scraping the counter to clean up after making bread, or for cutting homemade pasta or other doughs.
posted by miscbuff at 8:12 PM on July 16

Small silicone prep bowls. You will find a million uses for them. Crushed garlic and spices before you saute, making a coffee ice cube for when you have to get out of the house early the next day, saving the water so it can go back in that skinny jars of capers once you've got the tablespoon you need, etc. etc.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:15 PM on July 17