Why You Should Clean Your Oven and Go Buy Some New Pans

I thought I was a terrible baker for over 15 years. Everything I made got too brown. It didn't look like the nice stuff they sold at the bakery. Even when I followed the recipe to the letter, measuring everything like a nervous little actuary, my creations still failed to live up to my expectations.

At some point in my cooking life, I found I was going to need a significant number of sheet pans (aka cookie sheets) for a job, so I bought some. I almost hesitated to break them in...they had such a perfect, pretty silvery sheen, it was going to be a shame when they got black bottoms and dark corners where the scrubbing pad never quite fits. But I really needed to put every pan I owned into production, so I did break those pretty new sheet pans in. And as I used the new sheet pans along with the old ones, I noticed the food on the new pans cooked more slowly and more evenly.

And then, the lightbulb went off: dark colors absorb and radiate heat.

Oh, yeah! That's why it hurts the soles of your feet to walk barefoot on asphalt but not on white sand. That's why summer clothing is often white or pastel in hues rather than more dark, saturated shades. And that's why my ancient, no-longer-scrubbable pans were ruining my pastries.

I have kept those new sheet pans shining like newly-minted dimes because they have now made bakery recipes a no-brainer for me. I have not retired the old, dark sheet pans because I actually like how they hasten the caramelization of certain foods. But the important thing is now I understand why. I understand how each pan behaves, how it conducts heat, the situations in which it is the appropriate tool for the job.

Nobody ever told me (I still wish I had gone to culinary school when I toyed with the idea in my nineteenth year), I just eventually figured it out.

That's what I love about cooking. It's science, but it's not impossible science only for pedantic types with beakers and test tubes. If you just keep cooking long enough, and pay attention, you will learn the chemistry and physics behind what you are doing, without anyone making you memorize a chart. If you are a restless type like me who gets fidgety sitting at a desk, then cooking is a far more rewarding way to learn a little science. Plus, you can eat your "homework".

Alton Brown, or somebody, would be proud.

I'm almost pumped up to clean the oven this weekend, so 350 degrees is not really 375 due to a year's worth of carbon build-up on my oven floor. OK, I'm not pumped up at all. But it no longer seems like such a reasonless job only appropriate for fuss-budgety housekeepers. It helps me put better things on the table for my favorite people to enjoy.