silver foil --- which way round ?

[Hoover.]

Silver foil has a shiny and dull side... when making a helmet to stop aliens trying to interfere with my brain the shiny side goes on the outside to bounce the voices back to space

BUT when cooking, which side should be on the outside ?

[TheD]

Doesn't matter. Just the manufacturing process.

[mattdaniels]

TheD said:

Doesn't matter. Just the manufacturing process.

This.

[New POD]

My wife would be prepared to fight to the death to demand that the matt surface should face the food, but can not explain why, but hey if her mum does it that way it must be true, apparently.

[Jer_1974]

If you get the non stick stuff the dull side is the cooking side.

[rjo333]

Use the dull side. The shiny side reflects the heat.

[Hoover.]

so my question has given various answers...... and this has been a question I've been to scared to ask for years

I'll stick to making helmets to block alien transmissions.. and you can see me wondering around Camden on Sunday afternoon proclaiming the world will end

[Pothole]

Hoover. said:

so my question has given various answers...... and this has been a question I've been to scared to ask for years

I'll stick to making helmets to block alien transmissions.. and you can see me wondering around Camden on Sunday afternoon proclaiming the world will end

What will you be wondering while you wander, I wonder?

[Hoover.]

Pothole said:

Hoover. said:

so my question has given various answers...... and this has been a question I've been to scared to ask for years

I'll stick to making helmets to block alien transmissions.. and you can see me wondering around Camden on Sunday afternoon proclaiming the world will end

What will you be wondering while you wander, I wonder?

yikes I've been caught wondering,whilst wandering ... honest they told me to do it

[New POD]

rjo333 said:

Use the dull side. The shiny side reflects the heat.

Jer_1974 said:

If you get the non stick stuff the dull side is the cooking side.

ha ha

It really really is completely irrelevant.

[Hoover.]

never come across non-stick foil.... is the holy grail of foil ?

TBH never really had an issue with the stuff sticking

[FiF]

The reason there is a shiny side and a dull side is due to the way it is rolled.

It's too thin to roll in a single sheet so in the final pass two layers are rolled together.

When the sheets are separated the shiny side is the side which was in contact with the rolls and the kerosene based lubricant, and the matte side is the side in contact with the other aluminium.

In theory, therefore, the matte side is the side to use in contact with the food on the basis of potentially less contamination, New Pod can now explain to Mrs New Pod that she and her mother are correct.

However when one considers how many operations and rolling passes, annealings and treatments and cleanings the foil has been through since in the form of a cast ingot Mrs Pod's correctness is moot.

[HarryFlatters]

rjo333 said:

Use the dull side. The shiny side reflects the heat.

I used foil with the shiny side out to cook a fish.

It was far from raw.

I don't really think it matters.

[Sonic]

<phmode>It means you're using crap foil... get something thicker that's the same on both sides </phmode>

[Flibble]

rjo333 said:

Use the dull side. The shiny side reflects the heat.

Both sides are quite reflective; the shiny side is slightly more reflective. For actual cooking it makes no difference as a tiny difference in reflection doesn't affect heat transfer sufficiently to make a difference. Bear in mind that most of the heat transfer in an oven is from conduction with the air, not radiated heat, and shininess only affects radiated heat.