10 best roasting tins for rustling up the perfect Sunday lunch
Where would we be without roasting tins? They might seem pretty primal, but there’s beauty in simplicity and as the good people say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The best roasting tins have a primary function in our minds, and that’s to churn out Sunday lunches come the weekend. They’re the backbone of producing any good joint, allowing you to get both succulent meat and a layer of cooking juices for gravy, and they also step up when it comes to potatoes too. It’s probably about time we give them an inch more respect, frankly. No more leaving them to soak in the sink for a week before accepting that they will live their lives stained. These guys deserve to be looked after properly.
Worth your time and care is our collection of the best roasting tins we’ve found in the shops at the moment. Each one brings something a little different to the party, from roasting racks and pouring lips through to easy-clean non-stick coatings. We’d recommend stashing away a couple of different roasting tins in your kitchen for different jobs. A deep one is perfect for a piece of beef or a whole chicken, for instance, while something a little shallower is ideal if you’re going to be making roasties and want crispy edges.
Aside from providing the goods when it comes to a Sunday dinner, roasting tins are always great for lazy mid-week meals where you throw together a handful of veggies, herbs and maybe some meat, stick everything in the oven and hope for the best. Some of our favourite recipe books recently have shared incredible one-tray meals that transform everyday produce into something special, like in a Spanish-style dish where potatoes, chicken thighs, chorizo, and veg all combine for a real family crowd-pleaser.
How we tested
It’s only by using them ourselves that we can make confident recommendations to you, so we judged these roasting tins in a few different ways. We looked at style, design, functionality, and price point to settle on our favourites, with each one having to score a good level under each category header. In terms of functionality, the main thing we looked at was how quick each roasting tin came up to heat, how easy they were to manoeuvre once full, if they had extras like pouring lips or racks, and finally how easy they were to clean.
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The best roasting tins for 2021 are:
Best overall – Kapka colour pop enamel roasting and serving dish, yellow: £23.99, Souschef.co.uk
Best hardwearing roasting tin – Le Creuset non-stick rectangular roaster: £40, Selfridges.com
Best luxury roasting tin – Staub cast iron oven dish with handles, 32cm: £109, Amazon.com
Best multi-tasking roasting – Falcon enamel baking dishes set of five: £64, Libertylondon.com
Best roasting tin for chicken – Lakeland enamel self basting oval roasting tin with lid: £22.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best roasting tin with rack – M&S carbon steel non-stick roast & rack: £25, Marksandspencer.com
Best value – ProCook non-stick granite roasting tin: £11, Procook.co.uk
Best family-sized roasting tin – Lakeland large roasting tin with pouring lip: £12.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best non-stick roasting tin – Circulon ultimum 5 piece bakeware set: £65, Circulon.uk.com
Best for Aga owners – Aga Cookshop half size hard anodised deep AGA roasting tin: £43, Agacookshop.co.uk
Kapka colour pop enamel roasting and serving dish, yellow
Best: Overall
Rating: 10/10
If you’re the type of cook who is happy to serve straight from pan to table (aka, our kind of cook) this stylish example from Kapka is perfect with its modern design. Because it’s made from enamel, we found this super easy to manoeuvre even when full, which made us feel confident in the kitchen despite it getting hot quickly. It comes up to temperature fast which helped with mid-week meals, and we liked that it was a bit smaller than some of the other examples – perfect for a meal for two. Because enamel is basically bomb proof, we chucked this in the dishwasher with no problems, and any residual staining easily scrubbed off when we could be bothered giving it a bit of extra love.
Buy now £23.99, Souschef.co.uk
Le Creuset non-stick rectangular roaster
Best: Hardwearing roasting tin
Rating: 9/10
It feels almost too predictable to include Le Creuset in a round up of the best cookware, but its products are consistently top picks because they just work. One of our favourites during testing was this non-stick roaster, which had the handy addition of silicone inserts at either side – a seemingly small detail that made a big difference, resulting in our grip feeling extra secure for easy and safe handling. This one isn’t dishwasher safe – which in this day and age is surely illegal – but given its top-notch non-stick coating it was actually very easy to wash by hand with just a bit of warm soapy water and a sponge cloth, so we were willing to forgive this blip. The ease with which stuck on bits slid off was a godsend come tidy up time, and it was good at the actual roasting bit too. This came up to temperature really quickly and made equally as good one-tray meals as it did crispy roast potatoes.
Buy now £40.00, Selfridges.com
Staub cast iron oven dish with handles, 32cm
Best: Luxury roasting tin
Rating: 10/10
Cast iron has many benefits, not least its ability to get ferociously hot and maintain its temperature incredibly well – cookware made from it sort of acts like a mini oven inside the actual oven for double impact. This cast iron roast dish from Staub is weighty, there’s no denying it, but with its heft you get incredibly even cooking results. Thanks to the natural non-stick coating that builds up over time on cast iron, this made cracking roasties that were dislodged with ease, and it was large enough for a small roast chicken or a one-tray meal for a couple of people. The downside is that cast iron does need a little bit of special handling, but if washed and dried as per the instructions this will quite literally last a lifetime, and makes a solid investment for any avid cook.
Buy now £79.19, Amazon.com
Falcon enamel baking dishes set of five
Best: Multi-tasking roasting tin
Rating: 9/10
A classic brand, Falcon roasting tins come with their own legion of mega fans. Whether you’re looking for sizes for a family roast or a few potatoes for one, this handy set has something for every scenario. Pleasingly easy to stack, despite providing you with five different dishes, they’re pretty easy to store and they’re lightweight too, for safe manoeuvrability. The enamel coating is fused onto the steel core, which is a pairing that results in quick heating and easy cleaning (the dream). We’re of the opinion that these are stylish enough to serve straight from, and they come with the added benefit of being suitable for using on nearly any heat source, which makes them ideal for making gravy in after a roast or even for taking camping.
Buy now £64.00, Libertylondon.com
Lakeland enamel self basting oval roasting tin with lid
Best: Roasting tin for chicken
Rating: 8/10
Call us crazy but there was something we found really endearing about this retro design, like it might have been passed down from your nanna. One of the main elements that gave this an edge over the rest was that it was suitable on the hob, meaning one pan gravies were a goer: a true godsend. We like the option to have a lid on our roasts, which actually made a huge difference to the outcome of a roast chicken. We covered it for the first hour and uncovered it to brown in the last thirty minutes for the most perfectly moist meat without the loss of the good stuff: crispy skin. It was lightweight and easy to store, although the neat person in us didn’t like that it wouldn’t nest with our other rectangle roasters.
Buy now £22.99, Lakeland.co.uk
M&S carbon steel non-stick roast & rack
Best: Roasting tin with rack
Rating: 8/10
A good size for a small family (between two to four people, we’d say), this M&S roasting tin is a solid all-rounder for both Sunday lunches and one-tray dinners. The addition of the rack really ups its functionality, meaning you can roast large joints evenly while simultaneously separating out the fat. Double handles on the rack make it easy to lift a chicken or piece of meat straight from the tray and onto a chopping board or serving plate, and the overall look is smart too. A decent non-stick coating meant even burnt bits cleaned off easily, and the whole thing is dishwasher safe too. The only slight niggle we have is that the rivets on the exterior handles have the potential to build up grime over time, so upkeep could be an issue if you like to keep your cookware looking like new.
Buy now £25.00, Marksandspencer.com
ProCook non-stick granite roasting tin
Best: Value
Rating: 7/10
We’ve been fans of ProCook for a while now thanks to its competent design coupled with its accessible price point, we think its products are pretty good all-rounders. The granite non-stick roasters are no different to the rest of the range in that they are pleasingly high functioning. The coating claims on this pan really mean business, with no marks even after a sticky pork roast, and happily come clean-up time it can be popped in the dishwasher to minimise stress. We quite liked the look and thought it would age well even if marks did build up over time, almost offering a camouflage for splashes to keep it looking good for years to come. The ten-year guarantee is an added bonus.
Buy now £11.00, Procook.co.uk
Circulon ultimum 5 piece bakeware set
Best: Non-stick roasting tin
Rating: 7/10
The ridged base on Circulon pans means increased airflow, which in turn results in crispier food. We found these great for roasties and freezer food like fish fingers, but with a full roast little bits did get stuck between the grooves. That being said, the pans are dishwasher proof, so very easy to clean, and the main ticket items did slide right out with just a few smaller bits left to wipe out once the meal was served. The pans were also super sturdy, with no evidence of buckling even when put straight into a very hot oven, and meat cooked evenly when we did come to make a Sunday lunch.
Buy now £65.00, Circulon.uk.com
Lakeland large roasting tin with pouring lip
Best: Family-sized roasting tin
Rating: 7/10
One of the largest roasting tins we tested, we thought this proved to be incredible value for money in terms of look, design and functionality. The pouring lip made straining off the juices quick and easy without the usual stress of the meat sliding all over the place, and the deep sides mean even large joints sit in it comfortably. The generous sizing also meant veggies, meat and potatoes could all be cooked together in one pan to save on washing up and to also allow all the flavours to get together in the pan and mingle for a top-quality roast dinner. The little bumps across the bottom increase airflow for even cooking, but do mean you can’t really whisk up a gravy in it, which could be off-putting for some.
Buy now £12.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Aga Cookshop half size hard anodised deep Aga roasting tin
Best: For Aga owners
Rating: 7/10
This one might seem a little bit niche given it’s specifically designed for Aga cookers, but we’re converted thanks to a few clever features (and this smaller one does actually fit in regular ovens FYI). First of all, the rounded corners and wide edges make the perfect pouring lips for transferring cooking juices or excess fat from the pan without drops. Secondly, they are light but super sturdy, and showed no signs of deterioration despite some – ahem – slightly heavy-handed scrubbing after one particularly *well done* sausage bake. We liked the deep -sided one best, but we think it’s probably worth noting that Aga Cookshop also does a shallow one that makes the best roast potatoes (£43, Agacookshop.co.uk).
Buy now £43.00, Agacookshop.co.uk
The verdict: Roasting tins
Call us basic but we can’t see past the fun that the Kapka colour pop enamel roasting dish and for its price point we thought it offered great value for money. Its capability isn’t hampered by its design either, with it coming up to temperature fast, while its shallow sides meant great roasties. For a real investment piece – and the perfect gift for any avid cooks in your life – the Staub roasting tin is a one in a lifetime purchase that you’ll never regret. The only reason we would be hesitant in making it the best buy (despite it undoubtedly being the top performer cooking-wise) is due to its sky-high price tag. If you’re willing to splash the cash though, the cast iron is unwaveringly hardwearing and its ability to conduct heat is second to none – this is a proper cooks’ bit of kit.
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