I am looking for a plastic bowl or dish that can withstand high temperature in the oven? A bowl or dish that won't melt nor emit odour. Is there such a thing?
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Silicone bakeware is available which is oven safe up to 500°F/260°C. Just like other materials it has some advantages and disadvantages. Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Generally, I've heard very mixed reviews from bakers using silicone (except for Silpats). Although you can obtain it in the American market, most people prefer metal or Pyrex. |
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A few hard plastics are oven safe. Le Creuset says that the covers of their enamelled Dutch ovens are safe up to 190°C. Their knobs are made from some kind of phenolic compound. Bakelite can also be heated a lot and does not melt, although I am not sure if it is food safe. Still, I have never heard of bowls made from these plastics, nor other plastic bowls made for the oven. And I don't think there will be any. The advantages of plastic are that it is lightweight, cheap, can be colored beautifully, and doesn't break easily. Phenolic plastics don't have any of these - they are difficult to produce, cost a lot, they are dense (so they are heavy for their size), they tend to be hard to color (bakelite is always darkish, and gets darker with time), and they are brittle in comparison to other plastics. Still, these things have all the disadvantages of plastic. They can never go to temperatures as high as other materials, and some of them can contain nasty chemicals you don't want anywhere near your food. No matter what you need this bowl for, there is a better solution than plastic. Depending on what you want, steel can give you the lightness and unbreakability, and glass or ceramics can give you the thermal insulation properties you could get with plastic. |
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Certainly there are high temperature plastic cooking utensils, very many in fact. I'm not clear on what your intended use is, but here is a rundown. There are two general types, hard high temp plastic and silicone. The hard plastic is typically rated to withstand oven heat up to 410F (210C), and they are not for stove top or broiler use due to much higher heat. Silicone plastic utensils withstand up to 500F, but again, no stove top or broiler use. Both can be used in microwave ovens, their primary use. I use both kinds for baking, and the hard for roasting. The hard plastic utensils are fine for baking standard cakes, typically at $350F, and as roasting racks for non-broiler use. There are simple cake pans, cupcake pans, bundt pans as well as the roasting racks for meats. The work well, may darken with age. Nordic Ware, Anchor Hocking and many others make high quality hard high-temp plastic utensils. Silicone utensils are not rigid but can be stiff enough with ribbing. One advantage is that they can be easily molded into a vast number of shapes. They tend to release food easily, another plus. They are very inexpensive compared to metal utensils. It is best to buy a known brand, like Wilton, since a vast number of them are cheap imports that are too flimsy or won't stand much heat. |
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Yes. As already mentioned, silicone is rated to about 500°F Aside from PTFE (teflon), the other commonly available plastic rated for oven temps is CPET, usuually used for disposable bakeware. Examples of CPET plastic oven-safe bakeware: |
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