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Buy at CostcoWe tested regular and heavy-duty aluminum foils from top-selling brands available nationwide. We found that, for the most part, regular and heavy-duty foils performed similarly. While we recommend almost every foil we tested, we particularly liked the sturdy boxes and secure closures of Reynolds Wrap Everyday Aluminum Foil and Reynolds Wrap Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil. If you have the space for a large container, the Kirkland Signature Reynolds Foodservice Foil is a great bulk option with a high-quality, well-made box.
Aluminum foil is a staple in many kitchens, including our test kitchen. One brand name is dominant in the foil market: Reynolds. It makes up over 50 percent of the market share of aluminum foil, according to Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm. Private-label foil makes up another 40 percent of the market. Our testing lineup included products from Reynolds, eco-friendly products from another national brand, and popular private-label options from Costco, Target, and Whole Foods. Does a name brand make a difference, or is saving a few bucks on the store brand the way to go?
How We Use Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil is handy for wrapping foods for storage and for keeping them fresh, from a leftover slice of pizza or half an avocado to a sandwich for a packed lunch. You can use it in place of plastic wrap, reusable food wraps, or food storage bags, depending on your preference.
In the test kitchen, we reach for aluminum foil to steam vegetables, to make wood chip packets for grilling, and to make foil slings when baking.
But unlike these other tools, it is also frequently used for cooking tasks such as lining baking sheets for broiled salmon, covering a pan of potatoes for steaming, making a foil pouch for steaming fish, enclosing wood chips for grilling, or making a foil sling for baking brownies.
Aluminum Foil versus Parchment: When to Use Which
Cooking juicy meats | Baking cookies | Cooking with acidic ingredients | High-heat cooking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum Foil | Aluminum Foil yes | Aluminum Foil no | Aluminum Foil no | Aluminum Foil yes |
| Parchment Paper | Parchment Paper no | Parchment Paper yes | Parchment Paper yes | Parchment Paper no |
Whether to avoid sticking or for easy cleanup, we sometimes call for parchment paper when baking food. But for cooking higher-moisture foods such as juicy meats or vegetables, parchment tends to get waterlogged, so we typically use foil instead. “Generally, all sorts of foods will stick to aluminum when cooked enough, unless there’s enough of a fat barrier,” explained our senior science research editor, Paul Adams. For this reason, we choose parchment paper for most baking tasks. However, we do use foil to make a sling for brownies because it’s more malleable and easier to fold than parchment; we use baking spray then to ensure the brownies don’t stick.
Aluminum foil is also better for high-heat oven cooking and grilling; most parchment products are advertised as safe up to about 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Aluminum foil should not be used for cooking with highly acidic foods such as citrus, vinegar, or tomatoes, as cooking in uncoated aluminum can cause the metal to leach into food.
Heavy-Duty versus Regular Foil
There are two types of aluminum foil: regular and heavy duty. The latter is advertised as being slightly thicker and is roughly 30 to 50 percent more expensive per square foot than its regular counterpart. Almost every brand we found, whether a store brand or a name brand, offered both options. Two questions we set out to answer were whether thickness, price, and brand impacted performance and whether buying one style over the other makes sense.
To zero in on thickness, we visited Mike Tarkanian, a senior lecturer in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We used a micrometer, a device that can measure extremely thin materials, and found that on average, the heavy-duty foils were 38 percent thicker than the regular foil of the same brand. Aside from one brand, the thicknesses of all the regular foils were all the same as were the thicknesses of all the heavy-duty foils.
Which Foil Should You Buy?
We found heavy-duty foil was slightly more resistant to tearing when it came to trickier tasks such as enclosing pointy wood chips in a foil pouch but not significantly so. Both styles ripped when we used them to line a baking sheet and then removed a fillet of broiled salmon with a metal spatula. We found no performance differences when using heavy-duty and regular foil for basic tasks such as lining a baking sheet or making a sling.
Is there any need to stock both types? We don’t think so. We used a texture analyzer to test the strength differences between a double layer of regular foil and pricey heavy-duty foil. We found that a double layer of regular foil was stronger than a single layer of heavy-duty, so you can always just double up for the occasional tougher tasks and avoid spending more on a product you don’t really need most of the time.
With foil, it doesn’t really matter which brand or type you buy.
And what about store brands versus name brands? With foil, it doesn’t really matter which brand or type you buy. Details like an effective cutter or a high-quality box made certain brands slightly easier to use, but what was inside the box was very similar from product to product. Here are a few things to look for to get the absolute best performance, but generally, any foil will serve you well enough.
What to Look For
- Metal Serrations: Aluminum foil boxes come with a built-in cutter to help cut each sheet easily and evenly. Our favorites had cutters that were made of metal serrations, which allowed us to tear a sheet of foil straight across in one fell swoop.
- Secure Closure: Built-in cutter serrations, especially those made of metal, could pose a danger if aluminum foil boxes are left uncovered when not in use. The best boxes had a flap closure that was thick and durable and tucked in securely, preventing the sharp cutter edge from being exposed during storage.
What to Avoid
- Cardboard Serrations: If the built-in cutter wasn’t sharp, it was virtually useless. One eco-friendly brand used cardboard serrations, which made it difficult to tear a neat, even sheet of foil.
We liked boxes that had a secure flap closure.
- Flimsy Closure: Some of the boxes of foil we tried had cardboard flaps that didn’t stay closed, occasionally exposing their metal blade and making it difficult to store in a crowded kitchen drawer.
Other Considerations
- Foil Dimensions: Most of the foil rolls we tested were 12 inches wide. This is wide enough to cover most containers such as a square baking pan for storage or transportation. It is also wide enough to line the cooking surface of a rimmed baking sheet. However, it is not quite wide enough to cover larger vessels such as a large roasting pan or a baking sheet rim to rim (our winner is about 12½ inches across). The heavy-duty foil from If You Care was 15 inches wide, which made it easy to cover these containers in one sheet, but its box was also too long to fit in a standard kitchen drawer. If you frequently use large cookware and want to cover it with one sheet of foil, look for a box of foil with wider dimensions.
The Tests
- Use foil to line baking sheet and wire rack for Miso-Marinated Salmon
- Use foil to make foil slings for brownies
- Use foil to make an 8 by 4½-inch foil pouch for 1 cup of wood chips
- Use foil to cover a large mixing bowl, a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, an 8-inch square baking pan, and a rimmed baking sheet, crumpling and reusing foil each time
How We Rated
- Performance: Note how sturdy and resistant to tearing the foil was when used for cooking, baking, and covering containers.
- Ease of Use: Evaluate how easy it was to open and close the box and neatly tear off large pieces of foil repeatedly.
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