Roasting sleeve: how to choose and use?

For modern housewives today, a wide variety of kitchen appliances have been created, the main task of which is to facilitate and speed up the cooking process. Among them there are very multifunctional and expensive, but there are also budget options, such as a special baking sleeve.

Despite its relatively recent appearance on the market, it quickly gained popularity among housewives. And what is the peculiarity of such a product, what are the subtleties of its use, we will understand in this article.

In fact, baking bags or sleeves are not such an innovative invention. Professional chefs have used them before. But for ordinary housewives, they became available not so long ago, but they immediately fell in love with.

This baking dish looks like a regular film roll, but with a special texture. If you cut off a part from a single piece, you can get a sleeve of the required length. And to use it for its intended purpose, it is necessary to tightly tie the ends of the roll. To do this, you can use either the special clips included in the kit, or thin sections of the sleeve itself.

Besides, you can cook food in a package without using fats - all products are cooked in their own juice. That is why heat-resistant bags are very popular among those who are trying to lead a healthy lifestyle and appreciate the true taste and benefits of products.

At the same time, bags from some manufacturers are suitable not only for baking, but also for freezing food. And for cooking food in a multicooker, a vacuum bag is best suited. It is denser and more durable and cooks faster.

But also many experienced housewives say that this particular device is ideal for steaming food, especially those that can quickly and strongly boil over, losing their shape. For example, fish. The baking sleeve allows you to cook tasty, varied and healthy food in various ways, while the hostess after finishing cooking does not have to wash the dishes from fat and juices for a long time.

And further: a bag and a roasting sleeve are slightly different things, although housewives often think that they are one and the same... The sleeve is a one-piece fabric, from which you yourself must cut off a piece of the required size. A bag is an individual package of a certain size, which must be tied only on the other side before cooking.

A heat-resistant culinary bag, like any other cooking device, has many benefits. Let's list the main ones.

• Availability. Such a device is sold everywhere, and it is quite inexpensive.
• Rich assortment. On sale there are sleeves of various manufacturers, different lengths and degrees of density. There are sleeves with clips, and there are also simple ties.
• Universal or single use. Such a device can be suitable both for use exclusively in the oven, and can be used for freezing or steaming.
• Ease and safety of use. Today, it has already been scientifically proven that the sleeve does not harm the human body even with strong heating and does not emit any toxic substances.
• Fat-free cooking... Here you can cook any kind of completely natural food.
• The roasting sleeve can be used for a wide variety of foods - vegetables, mushrooms, fish, meat and poultry.

There are also some disadvantages to this device.

• Single use. Each section of the roll can only be used once.
• Unscrupulous manufacturers make it from a film that is too thin, which inflates when baked and simply breaks under steam pressure. As a result, it can stain not only the baking sheet, but also the entire oven.

Many people mistakenly believe that at too high temperatures, the sleeve can begin to release compounds that are dangerous to the human body, which will also saturate the products. In fact, this is not at all the case.

At high temperatures, this substance decomposes into ordinary water and carbon dioxide. If the sleeve becomes too carbonized during operation, it means that it is made of low-quality film. But even from it there will be no harm to health - only charred particles on the baking sheet.

In order to purchase a really high-quality baking sleeve, which you can only use with pleasure, it is necessary to heed the recommendations of experts.

• Choose a sleeve only from a well-known brand. Before that, you should also study the reviews of those who buy such a device regularly.
• If possible, then you need to smell your potential acquisition. The sleeve should not have a toxic plastic scent that is too strong. In an amicable way, there should be no smell at all.
• It is necessary to touch the edge of the sleeve with your hands - it should not crumble in your hands and be too soft. Otherwise, even at the time of laying food into it, it will tear.

The specific sequence of actions and recommendations depends on where exactly the cooking will take place in the future. But there are also a few simple rules that must always be followed.

• A piece of the sleeve must be cut off with a margin. On average, its size should be one and a half times the volume of food that will be cooked in it.
• It is imperative that you inspect the device before placing food and make sure that there are no punctures or holes in it.
• The ends of the sleeves must be carefully and securely tied. You can fasten them either with special clips or with the ties that come with it.

Many recipes indicate that products must first be placed in the sleeve, and only then add spices and seasonings. Subsequently, after tying it, shake it several times to distribute it evenly. But often, especially when the sleeve is of poor quality, at this moment it breaks. That's why it is better to first mix all the ingredients with the necessary additives, and only then put everything in a bag.

Many are surprised that you can cook in the microwave using the roasting sleeve. In fact, cooking like this is a pleasure:

• cut off part of the sleeve to the required length;
• prepare all products for cooking, mix them with spices;
• tie a sleeve on one side, put food in it, tie the ends on the other side;
• place the workpiece in a ceramic container or microwave bowl;
• make several punctures on top of the sleeve with a needle so that the steam pressure does not burst it;
• put the sleeve in the oven, select a cooking time from 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the type of food and the size of the pieces.

In principle, it is necessary to bake food in the oven in the sleeve in the same way as to cook it in the previous method.

That is, they cut off a piece of film of the required length, tie it on one side and lay all the products. Then the ends are tied on the other side, the sleeve is placed on a baking sheet, a couple of punctures are made in it on top.

However, you can bake in different ways - with or without crusting on the food. In the second case, after placing the food in the oven, you just need to wait the required time and remove the sleeve from it. But to get a crust, 15 minutes before the end of cooking, the sleeve is cut from above and slightly pushed to the sides.

It turns out that you can use such a heat-resistant roll in a multicooker. Supporters of this method say that this way the products are warmed up more evenly, and they have a special taste and aroma.

But only the manufacturers of these household appliances themselves do not agree with this. They do not prohibit the use of a cooking sleeve in this appliance, but they consider it simply pointless. If you still want to experiment, then the sequence of all actions will be the same as when cooking in the oven.

At the very beginning of the article, we already said that housewives often confuse a sleeve and a baking bag. So, if a roll of heat-resistant film was not at hand, then you can use special baking bags. Unlike sleeves, they do not need to be cut into pieces, but they are tied only on one side.

As a last resort, instead of bags and sleeves, it is allowed to use baking foil. But only it must be folded in several layers for reliability and placed in a special baking dish, and not just on a baking sheet.

The modern culinary baking sleeve is an inexpensive and versatile assistant for every housewife. It not only allows you to save time on cooking familiar dishes, but also frees you from unnecessary washing of dishes, and also makes it possible to cook tasty and healthy meals from familiar products.

In the next video, you will learn how to cook pilaf using a roasting sleeve.