Pyrex Cook & Freeze set of 4 review: freezer-to-oven glass, nesting dishes, and lids that stay at home

Verdict

What it is

Built for batch cooking

The set’s sizes describe a routine. The 4-litre dish is a lasagne, a shepherd’s pie or a tray of roasted vegetables for four. The 2.6 and 1.5 litres are the freezer portions: dinner for two next Wednesday, or a side. The 0.8 litres is a single lunch at home or a sauce. Because the glass goes from freezer to oven, a dish frozen on Sunday is baked on Wednesday without changing container — and without a plastic box going into the microwave.

Thermal shock is the figure that makes that safe. EN 1183 measures how sudden a change of temperature glass can survive, and Pyrex rates these dishes to 240 °C. Pyrex’s own example for its Cook & Go range, which shares the rating, is straight from a −20 °C freezer into a 200 °C oven. Pyrex’s page for this set also contains a stray 250 °C; we use the figure tied to the standard and record the conflict.

The lids: read this before buying

Pyrex is unusually direct about the Cook & Freeze lids. They are for the fridge and freezer only. They are not watertight, and Pyrex says the dishes are not for transporting liquids. They do not go in the oven or the microwave.

That is not a defect; it is what the set is for. The lid keeps food covered, keeps freezer smells out and lets you stack dishes in the fridge. It does not lock and it does not seal, so a dish tipped on its side in a bag will leak. If anything in the dish is going to leave the house, the right product is Pyrex’s Cook & Go, whose lids have four locking flaps and a removable seal and are rated waterproof.

Oven, microwave, dishwasher

The glass does all three. In the oven, lid off; in the microwave, lid off, with a plate or a cover over the top if you want to keep the splashes in; in the dishwasher, glass and lids both. Glass is less prone than plastic to staining from tomato sauce and curry and to holding smells, which is much of the reason people move from plastic to glass in the first place.

Nesting and the cupboard

Empty, the four dishes nest inside each other, so the set takes the cupboard space of the 4-litre dish — 27 × 22 cm — plus the lids. Pyrex states no weight for the set, but these are glass oven dishes and are heavier than plastic boxes of the same size; a full 4-litre dish is a two-handed lift out of a hot oven.

Check your freezer drawers against the 27 × 22 cm of the biggest dish before buying; a narrow under-counter freezer may take the three smaller dishes and not the largest.

Guarantee and origin

Ten years — shared with Pyrex’s other glass and well ahead of the one-year terms on the plastic sets in our food-storage coverage — and made in France. For glass that goes between −20 and 200 °C every week, a decade’s promise is the right one.

Who should buy it

• Batch cooks who freeze portions and bake or reheat them in the same dish.
• An oven-to-table household, where the dish goes straight from the oven to the table.
• Anyone moving away from plastic for food that is heated.

Who should not

• Packed lunches. The lids are not watertight; buy Cook & Go.
• Carrying soup or stew. Pyrex says not for transporting liquids.
• A small freezer drawer. Measure for the 27 × 22 cm dish first.

Sources