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Tumblr post by user turing-tested: guess who just found out the difference between wax paper and parchment paper the hard way Reply by user vraska-theunseen: wait what’s the difference? Reply by user turing-tested: one you can use in the oven safely and the other you can also use in the oven if the thing you are trying to make happens to be fire
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Good human!
Thank you!
Yeah, wax paper is basically an unrolled candle.
It’s really grocery stores fault. They sell them right next to each other and often have like 8 different brand choices of one but only 1 or 2 of the other which is nestled somewhere inbetween the others.
It’s an American language fault. Parchment paper is called baking paper elsewhere. You can’t make a mistake when choosing between baking paper and non baking paper.
Parchment is something you write on, as far as I’m concerned.
I was reading this and thinking how come you even have two papers to choose from. Baking paper goes in the oven and parchment… isn’t that like an animal skin you write on? I don’t think I’ve ever used wax paper for anything, so I can’t imagine what that’s for.
Wax paper is non-stick so has a lot of different uses as long as you aren’t heating it up. For example you could put some down while you roll out cookie dough if you don’t want to clean flour off your countertop. Can use it to make decorations for your baked goods like chocolate strings or something similar. Drizzle the melted chocolate on the wax paper and once it cools and hardens it will come right off.
I think I may have heard of that stuff. Something like 70 years ago people used to buy food items in bulk, so you needed to package your block of butter somehow. Wax paper was used back in those days. Since food manufacturers started packaging the products, the demand for wax paper dropped to near zero, so that’s why you don’t really encounter it much any more.
I’m sure some stores still sell it, but baking paper is so easily available that people just use that instead. Nowadays people would just use baking paper for the examples you just gave.
Edit: just went to the local supermarket and I found 15 stacks of normal baking paper on the shelf (at least 8 different brands) and one stack of wax paper. Apparently it hasn’t disappeared completely. Someone must be still using it for something.
I’m just glad I live in an area that calls carbonated beverages “pop”. I can only imagine the mix-ups that could’ve occurred when trying to use baking soda otherwise.
And I have yet to see a single one with a giant badge that says “not for oven use!” Moreover, wax paper is always marketed as “microwave safe.” I know a microwave is not an oven, but it’s not ludicrous to equate the two.
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Yes. But only if you like having a greasy surface after that from the wax melting off the paper if the temperatures get too hot. I’d stick with baking paper.
One is covered in heat-resistant silicone, the other is covered in flammable wax.
WTF. I never knew this. All this time I thought I was being responsible using parchment paper. I did not know it was silicone coated damnit. Need to look for other options now.
Which one is which?!?
You understand that the reason we make candles out of wax is because it’s a solid fuel, right? The same reason candles work is the reason wax paper isn’t oven safe.
A lot of people think that the wick itself is the fuel. I only recently realized that it’s “wicking” up melted wax, and the wax itself is the fuel.
Somebody on Reddit once called me a backward Amish for knowing how a candle works.
It breaks my heart that examining and understanding the world around you is the kind of thing people disparage
Yeah, I recently learned that most people are totally misunderstanding candles when Hank Green had to do a whole series on “where does the wax go?” on tiktok. Blew my mind that it wasn’t obvious to everyone.
If someone had asked me “what percentage of people know how candles work?” I would probably have answered something like “95% of those over the age of 5”. This is very disconcerting. Not that candles are terribly important, but just the lack of reasoning.
Is it really that weird to not fully understand how candles work? They’re rarely used nowadays if you have electricity, and it’s not exactly the most intuitive - I mean wax melts, and reveals more wick, and the wick is the thing you set fire to, so I don’t think it’s that weird to think the wick is burning.
I would assume people goong “ok, so the wick burns but what is the purpose of the wax? Oh it’s the fuel duh”
I play with candle wax since I am four years old and it’s always shocking to me how little many people understand about the world around them!
There’s this handy litmus test. All you have to do is bring it to 450⁰ F.
Also each of them resists different type of foods better. Wax paper will hold up to wet food, and parchment paper holds up better to oily food.
This is not anything I can prove just personal experience so take it with a grain of salt
Which one holds up better to a grain of salt? Should I use aluminum foil for that?
No, calcium chloride actually corrodes aluminum.
And let’s not forget about butcher’s paper. Also totally different application but still no oven.
Come to the UK. We have foil.
We’ve got it too but we pronounce it right.
Who fucking calls foil “right”?!
How do they say foil in the UK?
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In Germany we just take regular “Backpapier” (literally “baking paper”) and put it in the oven.
It’s basically just Polytetrafluroethylene, better known as PTFE or Teflon™
