Baking – How to “toss to coat” ingredients in a sheet pan

bakinglanguage

I've been trying new recipes lately, and I often see instructions along the lines of:

  • Put ingredients in sheet pan
  • Drizzle oil over ingredients
  • Add seasonings to ingredients
  • Toss to coat

I understand the purpose of this is to evenly coat the stuff in the pan with oil and seasonings, but I don't understand how to physically do it. If I try lifting the pan to literally "toss" the contents, they all go flying out. I've tried stirring instead, but the pan is too shallow for that to be effective. I've started putting everything in a bowl or bag first and mixing it there, but that's clearly not what was intended.

I tried doing a Google search, but it mostly told me that "toss" means "mix" without giving a good technique on how to do this in a sheet pan. What am I missing? How do I quickly and easily "toss to coat" food in a sheet pan?

Best Answer

You use your hands. Or, if you're not a fan of getting your fingers oily, use a pair of tongs.

Drizzle oil over the ingredients and then pick them up with your hands and move them around to rub over each other and get evenly coated.

If you're happier with the results when using a bag or a bowl, there's nothing wrong with that. The only downside is that you're getting another dish dirty and you're losing a small amount of the ingredients that would otherwise be coating your sheet pan. If you keep using a bowl or bag, I recommend possibly rubbing a thin layer of oil on the pan as you're not "tossing" the ingredients directly in the pan.