GoodCook 9 × 5 in Nonstick Loaf Pan

What the maker puts in writing

• “STANDARD 9 x 5-INCH LOAF PAN: This standard loaf pan is perfect for baking meatloaf, sweet or savory breads, thick cakes or brownies, smaller portions of lasagnas or casseroles”
• “EVEN HEAT DISTRIBUTION: The heavy-duty carbon steel bread pan for baking ensures long-lasting durability and even heat distribution”
• “SCRATCH-RESISTANT STEEL: Constructed from heavy-duty steel, this bread baking pan resists warping and scratching”
• “NONSTICK COATING: …a scratch-resistant nonstick coating for a mess-free release to serve your baked goods directly from the pan.”
• “DISHWASHER SAFE: This non-stick baking pan is dishwasher safe for easy cleanup after use. Hand washing is recommended for longer-lasting use.”
• Description: “It is also metal spatula safe” · “made with heavy duty gauge steel with a gray f…”
• Reference 04026 · Catalog: 268 g (9.5 oz), 279 × 152 × 65 mm (11 × 5.98 × 2.56 in)

Four 9 × 5 loaf pans on this shelf, and this is the cheapest you can buy on its own

The same published format, four times, at four prices:

this — $5.99, carbon steel, gray, metal spatula safe Sur La Table — $11.70, carbon steel, Linen White, PFOA, PFAS, PTFE free KitchenAid — $14.99, aluminized steel, Contour Silver, extended handles and a fourth inside the Amazon Basics six-piece set at $31.99, which works out at $5.33 a piece

A 2.8 times spread on one published size, from $5.33 to $14.99.

And the cheapest is the only one of the three singles that claims metal-utensil safety, which is the claim that decides how you serve out of it.

What the extra money buys, item by item: the Sur La Table buys a coating that declares what it does not contain; the KitchenAid buys aluminized rather than plain carbon steel and a pair of extended handles; the set buys five more pans.

None of the three single pans publishes an oven temperature limit. Only two items on this shelf do — the Amazon Basics set at 428 °F, which covers the fourth 9 × 5, and the Elbee set at 420 °F — and both of those are sets, not single pans.

Eleven by six inches, which is what the label does not tell you

The catalog figure here is 279 × 152 mm — 11.0 × 6.0 inches.

The KitchenAid 9 × 5 at $14.99 publishes exactly the same: 279 × 152 mm. Two makers, two pans, one number.

A loaf pan is a tapered box. The quoted size is the base, where the loaf sits; the walls slope outwards so the loaf will release, and the rim is wider than the base. Add a rolled lip and grab points and you get two inches more each way.

The flat pans on this shelf prove it by not doing it:

GoodCook 13 × 9 bake & roast, $9.99 — catalog 330 × 229 × 51 mm = 13.0 × 9.0 × 2.0 inches, which is exactly what the bullet publishes GoodCook MegaGrip 8 × 8, $10.09 — catalog 203 × 203 mm = 8.0 × 8.0 inches, exactly Waytiffer disposable loaf, $9.99 — catalog 216 × 114 × 64 mm = 8.5 × 4.5 × 2.5 inches, exactly what its bullet publishes

A shallow pan with near-vertical walls measures what it says. A tapered loaf pan does not.

What it changes: fitting two of these side by side needs 11 × 6 inches each, not 9 × 5. On a 22-inch oven shelf that is two across with an inch to spare — which is why loaves baked in pairs so often touch.

The depth is not published either. The catalog says 65 mm, about 2.6 inches. The KitchenAid 9 × 5 catalogs at 77 mm, about 3.0 inches — so the two pans that share a plan figure differ by nearly half an inch in depth, and neither publishes it. On a loaf pan, depth is what decides whether a risen dough crowns above the rim or spills over it.

Metal spatula safe, and only GoodCook says it

“It is also metal spatula safe so you can serve your baked goods right out of the pan.”

GoodCook claims it on three of its four pans here — this one, the 13 × 9 (where it is in the product name) and the 8 × 4 set of two. Curiously not on the MegaGrip at $10.09, which claims only “scratch-resistant”.

Nobody else on this shelf claims it at all.

The failure mode of a non-stick pan is not wear. It is one cut. Once the film is broken, batter works under the edge, food sticks there permanently, and the break propagates from that point every time something scrapes past it.

A pan you must serve out of with silicone is a pan that will eventually be cut, because the moment somebody wants the corner piece they reach for a knife.

And the shelf hints at why only GoodCook grants it. The Sur La Table pan publishes “PFOA, PFAS, PTFE Free” — so its coating is not a fluoropolymer, and it makes no metal claim. KitchenAid calls its coating “Swiss-engineered heavy-duty”, which says nothing about what it is made of, and makes no metal claim either.

The honest limit on the claim: a spatula, not a serrated knife sawing on the base.

Heavy-duty gauge steel, with no gauge

Five durability claims on this page, and no number behind any of them:

“heavy-duty carbon steel… long-lasting durability” · “heavy-duty steel, this bread baking pan resists warping and scratching” · “heavy duty gauge steel”

Gauge is a number. Sheet steel is specified by it — a thinner gauge warps, a thicker one does not — and nothing on this shelf publishes one.

The whole shelf, on thickness:

GoodCook — “heavy-duty gauge steel”, on four pans MegaGrip — “heavy-gauge steel” Amazon Basics — “heavy-weight steel construction” KitchenAid — “heavy-duty aluminized steel” and a “uniquely designed rim to prevent warping” Sur La Table — “carbon steel”, with no adjective at all Elbee — no material statement, only “rust resistant”

Four phrases, zero numbers, and “resists warping” asserted five times across the shelf with no thickness anywhere.

What warping actually is, since every page here promises against it: a thin pan heats unevenly, the hot part expands against the cool part, and past the yield point the sheet takes a permanent set. Once a pan rocks on a flat surface, batter runs to one end and the loaf bakes wedge-shaped. The two things that cause it are thinness and thermal shock — a hot pan into cold water, or cold water into a hot pan.

The one habit no page here gives: let a pan cool on the hob before it meets the sink.

Gray, which is not only a color

This pan is gray. The Sur La Table is Linen White, the KitchenAid loaf Contour Silver, the KitchenAid muffin pan Evergreen.

A dark pan absorbs more radiant heat than a light one and browns the crust faster. Light or shiny aluminized surfaces reflect it, which is why a pale pan gives a paler bottom crust and a slower bake at the same oven setting.

It is a real baking variable, and the one page on this shelf that sells color as a feature says nothing about it: the Sur La Table bullet reads “VIBRANT EXTERIOR: colorful pieces inspire creativity in any kitchen”.

For this pan, gray and carbon steel is the browning end of the shelf, and the aluminized KitchenAid is the other.

What is not published

No oven temperature limit, on a bread pan. Only the Amazon Basics set at $31.99 (428 °F, which is exactly 220 °C) and the Elbee set at $59.99 (420 °F, plus convection) publish one — and many bread recipes call for 450 °F, above both. Eleven of thirteen items here, including this one, say nothing, and they are not necessarily better.

No gauge and no thickness, as above.

No depth, as above — the catalog says 65 mm.

No coating composition. “Scratch-resistant nonstick” names a property, not a material. Only the Sur La Table says what its coating is free of, and only by negation.

No capacity. The one capacity figure on this shelf is on a disposable: the Waytiffer foil loaf pan at $9.99 publishes “2Lb” for a pan of 8.5 × 4.5 × 2.5 inches. A loaf pan is a volume, and the steel pans here all give only a plan size.

No warranty, which no item on this shelf publishes.

No country of manufacture, which no item on this shelf publishes either.

Availability

Read on the day this page was built: $5 at the American Amazon shop.

Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.