Small Falcon Tin Pie Dish, 20cm Rectangle

One great piece of kit for cooking is the Falcon range of tin pie dishes.  I’d spent 20 years or so accumulating a large collection of cookware that never really got used as I never had occasion to use it.  When I sold up and ‘went travelling’ without knowing how long before I’d have a fixed abode again, I got rid of everything.  Then, my main criteria was that items should be cheap, lightweight and easy to own – which is when I started using plastic picnic plates and melamine plates to eat from – and silicone bakeware to cook with.  Silicone bakeware’s great as it weighs nothing and doesn’t get damaged or dented, it also never rusts!

Most of what I now have available as cooking dishes are the items I’ve acquired in the last 2-3 years, since I bought my own home and it felt like I was probably rooted! 

One great house-warming gift, from a friend, was a small Falcon tin pie dish.  These are great because they’re so robust.  Often called camping-ware they’re usually white with a blue edging.  The small Falcon dish is oblong and 20cm long and it’s a great dish for making pies, or crumble, in.  It is a very generous portion-size if you’re cooking for one, but it’s great if you want to make something now, with another portion to either freeze or eat in the next 1-4 days.  I do tend to use this dish to make two meals, ending up eating the whole lot in one go though!

Made of strong steel, they are then coated in enamel and are also great in the oven or the freezer, so you can make a pie, freeze it, then reheat it in the same dish later!  If you’re a dishwasher owner, then they are dishwasher safe too.

Not Suitable for Microwave Cooking!

Falcon pie dishes are oven safe up to 250°C – this is plenty as most items tend to be cooked in the range 180-200°C.  These small pie dishes are METAL, so they CANNOT be used in a microwave oven.  Never use metal dishes in a microwave oven, they cause sparking and can break the oven.

Perfect for Slow Cookers!  

These pie tins are great to use in a slow cooker, if you’re making something like a slow cooker nut roast.  This 20cm dish is a perfect fit for my small, oval, 3.5 Litre slow cooker.  Always check what fits in your slow cooker before you plan to do this … not half way through the cooking process when you discover it won’t fit!

There’s quite a range available and, another benefit of these dishes, is that they’re stackable/nestable, so they take up very little room.  They’re robust too, making them great if you’re moving about a bit, or camping often.

The pie dish I’ve got is just about the perfect size to cook a whole packet of 8 regular supermarket sausages.  There’s no need for extra fat as the sausages will release their own fat.  Simply empty the whole pack of sausages into the dish, then stick in the oven at about 190°C – turn them after 10 minutes and they should be cooked and nicely browned after about 20 minutes!  It’s that easy.  I do like to use dishes that are “the perfect size for ….” as it can make some cooking tasks appear easier to be bothered to do 🙂

I’ll probably get another dish at some point and also a nice enamel pie plate to make plate pies.

If you’ve a BBQ then you can probably also use these on the BBQ – either to keep things warm, or to use as a dish in its own right.

I’m really looking forward to using it in my mini oven as they’re the perfect combo for size! A perfect solution for 1-2 servings.