shiny

Did you know why aluminium foil has a shiny side and a dull side?

We use it for all kinds of household chores: aluminium foil. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t use it and we’ve wondered about a thousand times why this handy foil has a shiny side and a dull side. What’s the difference between them? Does either of them have a special function and which side should we be using for the best results?

The dull and shiny sides are the result of the production process.

Fable
We’ve been told that the dull side is a better conductor because it supposedly creates a flatter surface. The shiny side, on the other hand, is sometimes said to retain more heat which makes your meat or fish come out more crispy when baked in the oven. It turns out this is all untrue! In fact, the two different sides don’t have special functions at all. Aluminium foil has two different sides purely because of the production process. Yes, it really is that simple.

Production process
“The foil is ‘milled’ in layers during production,” Reynolds Kitchen, a manufacturer of aluminium foil, explains. “Milling is a process whereby heat and tension is applied to stretch the foil to the desired thickness. We mill two layers in contact with each other at the same time, because if we didn’t, the foil would break during the milling process. Where the foil is in contact with another layer, that’s the ‘dull’ side. The ‘shiny’ side is the side milled without being in contact with another sheet of metal. The performance of the foil is the same, whichever side you use.”

Want to save this article for later? Pin it on Pinterest!