Pullman pan recommendations

The cheap pans are much flimsier. They are made from a thinner material, and are colored black -- which is not a good color. I saw these at a local bakeware shop and steered straight away. 

I use the chicago metallic pans. I have 2, and they are fabulous. If I were living in the US. I would try the ones from USA pans. King's Arthur Flour sells them, and they also have a smaller pullman pan, if you want to make a smaller loaf. 

Hi Bill,

I'm UK based, I own a Chicago Metallic Pullman Pan bought from Bakery Bits, and I have done business with Invicta before as I work professionally as a baker.

You cannot fault the quality of the Chicago Metallic.

The Invicta strap should be of excellent quality.

I don't know about the ebay pans, and would not want to comment further.

My advice, or caution, if you like, is to think very carefully about the size of loaf/style of bread you want to make.

The Chicago Metallic works fantastically for me for making heavy rye loaves up to 2kg in weight.   It also makes good oblong sandwich loaves.   But if you want to make high crown bread such as the commercial-type loaves, I fear the Chicago Metallic may give you slices which are a bit small.   On the other hand, if you go for the Inicta pans, you may find they are too big and you struggle to achieve full volume in the loaf unless you can lay your hands on the cheating boys secret "improvers".

Look carefully at the dimensions of each pan before you make a decision

Best wishes

Andy

... thought was to look at professional pans ...

Often the automatic assumption is that "professional" is better for the home kitchen. But I'd suggest that isn't always a good rule of thumb.

Why? In many "professional" kitchens, the biggest problem, the consideration that outweighs everything else, is not wanting to buy new pans all the time even though the (often poorly paid:-) dishwasher frequently scratches them and bangs them up horribly. And the second consideration is the pans shouldn't be so hard they might damage anything else. So "professional" pans are often very heavy, completely un-coated (i.e. nothing like Teflon), aluminum. That might be what you want at home too  ...but it might not.

I have bought MANY things and plan to buy myself a couple of pullman pans from www.webstaurantstore.com because I have purchased from them before and have found them to stand behind their products, they have excellent customer service and really good shipping prices. You might want to give them a try! Let me know how it works out! Oh and I looked at the pans on eBay too and they were WAY too expensive!!

Janet

Hi Janet,

the OP is UK-based, so the cost of shipping from the US is likely to be prohibitive

BW

Andy

I got this, Amco Food Service Pullman Pan from Amazon. The lid is separate, but still comparable to other pans of good quality. I've been very happy with it.

cheers,

gary

Hi,

a couple of years ago  I bought a very heavy pullman pan made in iron (I guess) and coated with a dark blue film. Simply put it's the worst purchase of my life *EVER*: it rusted since the very first wash, it has holes in the lid to permit steam to escape and it leaves a kind of burnt undertone in every bake. For what twisted reason they decided to make it of iron rather than stainless steel (steel pans are  impossible to find! why?) is a mistery.

I noticed that my rye doorstops lose too much water when baked for many hours. Can anyone tell me if for 12-18 hours of baking I need a completely sealed pan to retain as much moisture as possible or if it's a bad idea? Yesterday I started with 1500 gr of dough (50% rye and 50% water) and I ended up with a 1050gr bread that once again crumbles horribly. I guess it's far too dry, simply too dense even though it's equally dense of taste:-)

Hi Bill

I have (ahem) one of those ebay ones with the holes, a French pain de mie tin and a Chicago Metallic.  The ebay ones do work but you get a strangely pale loaf of bread, with slightly angled sides.  Edit:  Actually I've just remembered we used it at Rick's baking weekend to make a heavy duty rye bread (a vollkorn type bread) and it worked ok with that. So cost wise it wins I guess..

  I have some pics somewhere I can find if you want to see. The French tin is huge and came from Mora in Paris and is very good,  but the one I like best is the CM tin and it has given consistently good results for pain de mie type breads.  I don't know the Invicta pans I'm afraid but I can vouch for the quality of the Chicago Metallic ones  from Bakery Bits if that helps.

best wishes, Joanna

PS Found my pics of the ebay one here's a link to where they are on photobucket http://photobucket.com/pullmanloaf  and here it is again on its outing to Rick's http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii263/doginspace/Mairs%20Bakehouse%20Aug%2009/?action=view&current=IMG_0437.jpg 

Pictures of the others in action on my blog.