You may have left your pizza takeaway out for a bit too long and need to reheat it before eating. Alternatively, you may have purchased a store-bought pizza and are unsure whether or not to remove the cardboard foundation before baking it.

Another cardboard dilemma: you’ve received takeout in a cardboard box that must be warmed up.

Can you put cardboard in the oven? You might be able to get away with baking cardboard at low temperatures. Still, it is not recommended since cardboard is flammable, and there is always the risk of it smoking, burning, or catching fire if left in the oven at higher temperatures.

Knowing when it’s okay to put cardboard in the oven and when it’s not will come in handy in the kitchen.

Can You Put Cardboard In The Oven?

It’s best to avoid placing any cardboard in the oven. Even at the lowest setting, putting cardboard in the oven increases the risk of spontaneous combustion or fire.

Unintentional Combustion

Will cardboard burn in the oven? When cardboard reaches a temperature of 427 degrees, it can catch fire. Most pizzas are baked at 425 degrees or higher. This two-degree difference is too close to call.

One of two things will happen if you cook your pizza with the cardboard still on it. First, nothing will happen to your crisp and tasty pizza. Alternatively, the cardboard will smoke profusely and may even catch fire, destroying your night and your pizza.

The sort of oven you have can significantly impact the likelihood of your cardboard catching fire. This is because the heating components of older ovens are more exposed to the inside of the oven, increasing the danger of fire.

The heating components in newer ovens are well protected, and the heat is circulated, making fire less likely. However, if you want to be safe, don’t do that.

While it’s improbable that your cardboard would catch fire, the very idea of something catching fire in your home should make you nervous.

Increase Cooking Time

Can cardboard go in the oven to save time? Although you may believe that keeping the cardboard on your pizza saves time, the contrary is often true.

Leaving the cardboard on the bottom of your pizza or surrounding your meal might shorten the cooking time and prevent the bottom from becoming crispy.

However, certain items are meant to be baked with the cardboard in place. Some frozen dinners, for example, contain paper plates prepared to withstand the oven’s heat.

Do not use any type of paper product that is not mainly made for baking in the oven in the oven. Simply take the extra time to remove it. The fire department will appreciate you.

Taste Changes

Can you put cardboard in the oven without damaging the taste? Even if your cardboard does not catch fire entirely, it might still smoke and emit odors. These emissions can give your meal a foul flavor and make your oven and kitchen smell terrible.

To avoid freezer burn, most frozen items come in plastic packaging in addition to cardboard. If you don’t remove the packing and just dump everything in the oven, the result might be rather unpleasant.

The plastic may melt into your meal, rendering it inedible. But don’t worry, it’s simple to prevent. Simply remove all of the packings.

The hazards of leaving the packaging on your food do not exceed the minor benefits. Remove the cardboard and any packaging materials unless it’s meant to be cooked.

Is It Safe To Bake A Frozen Pizza Cardboard In The Oven?

Can you put pizza cardboard in oven when it is frozen? It operates, but the bottom is quite mushy and potentially wet. In typical baking temperatures, the cardboard will not catch fire or scorch, but corrugated cardboard is an excellent insulator and will hinder the pizza from thoroughly heating. This is more of an issue with frozen pizzas than traditional take-and-bake pizzas.

If you bake them after they’ve thawed, make sure they’re not too difficult to handle and slide into the oven. If you decide to defrost frozen pizzas, make sure they stay frozen so they can easily slip off the cardboard circle.

Check out this video for frozen pizza baking tips:

What To Use Instead Of Cardboard For Baking In The Oven

While we’ve decided that baking your pizza straight on the cardboard foundation it came with isn’t a brilliant idea, there are several other choices to explore.

On the Rack Directly

Simply baking your pizza straight on an oven rack is an alternative that is often advised on the pizza container itself. In addition, you may get a crispier crust by baking your pizza on an oven rack since it allows for more excellent heating from the bottom.

The primary disadvantage of baking directly on the oven rack is that you will almost certainly wind up with oil and probably even toppings falling into the oven.

Pizza Stone

Ase name indicates, a pizza stone provides a perfect surface for baking pizzas. In addition, pizza stones, which are usually composed of ceramic or stone, are recognized for providing a uniform heating surface and producing crisp crust pizzas.

The porous surface of the baking stone helps to drain some of the moisture from the bottom of the pizza dough, resulting in a crispy crust.

Pizza Pan

A pizza pan is another good alternative for baking a pizza. Pizza pans come in various shapes and sizes, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Most, but not all, pizza pans are round, which is ideal for a typical store-bought pizza.

Your pizza crust will be crispier if you use a pizza pan with a perforated bottom plate since it will get more direct heat from the oven’s bottom.

The perforated bottom enables your pizza to bake faster, but it also allows some oil to leak through, which is common when baking directly on the oven rack.

Cookie Sheet

A cookie sheet will suffice if you don’t want to spend the money on a pizza stone or pan. A cookie sheet makes an excellent flat basis for your pizza and should work similarly to a pizza plate.

Just keep in mind that you won’t get as crispy a crust on a cookie sheet as you would on a pizza stone or pizza pan.

Foil (Aluminum)

There are specific possible safety problems to consider while cooking using aluminum foil. On the other hand, foil is a simple and readily available alternative to the other methods stated above for most of us.

You don’t have to clean aluminum foil, one of its main advantages. Instead, simply crumple it up and throw it away when you’re through.

However, the foil has one disadvantage: it does not give much support, especially when it comes time to slice the pizza after being cooked.

Conclusion

Can you put cardboard in the oven? Even if many people have put cardboard in the oven without incident, there is still a potential that cardboard subjected to high temperatures in an oven can catch fire or begin to smoke.

When cooking or reheating food, the ignition point of cardboard is 427°F, readily attained. There are so many alternative ways to cook or reheat meals that don’t require the use of cardboard that it’s not worth the danger of the cardboard burning or catching fire!