Please can someone tell me which side you are meant to use with Tin foil. When you cover something (i.e.fish) and put it in the oven, is the shiny side meant to be on the out side or inside and why. My house hold keep arguing about which is the correct way to use it.

stephanie2093 there are no hard or fast rules as to which side of the foil to use, it makes no difference to the use other than as presentation the shinny side looks more attractive.

Hi Stephanie - when I use tin foil it's only ever to line things like the grill pan - therefore I use it shiny side up because the heat coming down from the grill will be reflected back up - therefore does it make sense not to have the shiny side outside when wrapping as it will deflect the heat???? Am I wrong? Someone will tell us - never fear!

Well, if you are wrong Lil'Abby then I am too as I do exactly the same as you!

Yup, that is what I have always thought as well. So I line with shiny side out, and wrap to cook with shiny side in.

Bit of an urban myth....there is no difference in using either side for any job.

So why do recipes often say "shiny side up" or "shiny side out" Frexy? For wrapping I would say that maybe one side is more non-stick than the other, although a brush with oil or butter will help with that, but for covering a cake whilst cooking to stop it over browning?

Oh and of course energy saving tips by the power companies, refering to putting aluminium foil behind radiators. Shiny side facing the rad.

Hi ya all,

Thanks for clearing up my tin foil dilema. It does make sence to use the shiny side up when lineing something and shiny side in when covering a dish. cheers

to return to the topic of shiny versus dull, this is because of the way tinfoil is manufactured.
It goes thro rollers and the side that touches the rollers becomes shiny and the other side is matt.
So it does not make any difference for conducting heat as they both do it at the same rate.

That may well be Frex, but just do a google search on

"energy saving shiny side".......

But of course if it was Gold(miners) Plated that would be a different matter, come out of the Arcade Frexy

Did an AOL search for properties of Aluminium foil which told me about the manufacture of foil so pick your search engine Rustie, 10 paces turn and fire.....
Sorry Rustie forgot to get some Seconds before I started duelling!

Used to have a marketing friend who worked for 'Reynolds' and she said that there was no difference between the shiney and dull - it comes off the machine like that. I always used to put the shiney side up but since she told me that I don't bother any more.

Hmmm and I thought we would be using foils.....

and there was I thinking I had rapier wit!

Shiny side out reflects the heat. You would use this option to shield food from heat. For keeping food warm the shiny side should be inside acting as an insulator. If you look at the inside of a thermos flask it is lined with a highly reflective silver lining.