The Best Way To Prevent Your Baking Sheets From Warping

Sheet pans are one of those kitchen essentials that you must have. Whether you are baking your favorite chocolate chip cookies or roasting vegetables, this flat, rectangular pan is your best friend. In fact, per Cheatsheet, sheet pans are the one item The Pioneer Woman, (a.k.a. Ree Drummond) cannot live without. Why the pan sheet? Well, maybe it has to do with the 50 sheet pan dinners she recommends for a busy night. Drummond explains on her website that she truly fell in love with the sheet pan when she realized it was the only pan she needed to cook an entire meal. 

If you are like us, however, you may have placed this prized pan in the oven and heard a popping sound, only to find that one corner of the sheet is slanted upwards — what happened? According to the Checkered Chef, your twisted sheet pan just became warped. As your sheet pan heats up to those high cooking temperatures, the metal expands, causing it to bend. As World of Pans explains, the multiple layers of metal that make up the pan do not simultaneously expand, which is why it warps. So, what can you do to prevent it? 

Per the Checkered Chef, the first thing to consider to prevent your sheet pan from warping is the quality of its material. The heavier the sheet pan is, the less likely it is to curl when you are using it in a hot oven. To this end, try to choose a pan made from aluminum rather than stainless steel to help prevent curling and bending. You can also purchase sheet pans with edges that are rolled, as this will also aid in keeping it from warping.

You can decrease a pan's warping by avoiding uneven food distribution as well. Try not to clump or crowd food together on a sheet pan. Instead, select a pan that can adequately hold whatever dish you are making, and ensure your food is evenly spaced across the sheet pan. Moreover, World of Pans states that you want to avoid extreme temperatures as well. Abruptly placing a sheet pan in cold temperatures, such as under cold water or in the freezer, will wreak havoc on it.