As featured on the "Equipment Corner" page of  the February '05 issue of Cook's Illustrated

Many brands of plastic wrap clutter supermarket aisles these days.  Are they all created equal?  We bought five to find out.

     Stretch-Tite, Saran Premium, Saran Cling Plus, Glad Cling Wrap and Glad Press'n Seal all survived a microwave test and kept guacamole from turning brown for 72 hours.  The real differences came when we tried using these wraps to cover bowls made of glass, metal and plastic.  The Glad Press'n Seal stuck to all three - but only if the bowls were perfectly dry.  A glass bowl kept in a refrigerator for a few minutes gathered enough condensation to render the Press'n Seal useless.  We consider this a fatal flaw.

     The other four wraps performed equally well when used on metal or on glass.  Plastic was another story.  None of the wraps could cling to the plastic bowl.  In every case we had to wind extra wrap around the first sheet.  This is where Stretch-Tite, the stickiest of all the wraps tested, really shines.  Stretch-Tite is not as readily available as Saran or Glad products, but mail-ordering big 500-square-foot rolls is an option.  Also look for these rolls at warehouse clubs.

Hate your plastic wrap? Freeze-Tite does it right

Way back when the store's motto was "Spag's -- No Bags," I started buying my kitchen plastic wrap at the discount spot on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, Mass. It was the first and only place I ever found a product called Freeze-Tite.

Long after I left the Worcester Telegram to come here to The Journal, detours would be made to guarantee a trip to Spag's so that we always had a stock of Freeze-Tite piled up in the garage. It comes in a heavy-duty box that's almost 4 inches longer than any other store brand, so it doesn't fit just anywhere. But you make room for it. It's that good.

Whether you are a huge cook or big into take-out, a solid plastic wrap is vital to the kitchen. Without it, you find pizza slices exposed to the fridge air and cinnamon buns drying out on the counter. Without a tight seal, you can't cover a bowl of fruit and have to resort to cumbersome plastic containers. The last time my husband was on business in Worcester, he asked if he should stop to buy some Freeze-Tite. But he was busy and it was late, and I foolishly told him to forget it.

That's where my plastic wrap nightmare begins.

I ran out around Thanksgiving. Could my timing have been any worse? All those pie crusts to wrap and refrigerate, all that cookie dough to chill, what was I to do for my bigtime plastic-wrap needs?

I tried Saran Cling Plus, which promised to be improved, 30 percent thicker than before and a great value. I found it exceptionally thin and wondered what it was like when it was 30 percent less. I also was distressed at how it stuck to itself every single time, before it ever made it around a dish or food item. Christmas approaching, I bought a colored Reynolds Plastic Wrap with an EZ Slide cutter instead of a sharp cutting edge. Every time I opened the box, the whole roll, cutter and all, fell out. The plastic itself felt thick enough, but it stuck to nothing. The color didn't cheer me up. As for that cutter, well, let's just say it was unsatisfying at best.

Finally, I found Stretch-Tite. It's from the same company, Polyvinyl Films, that makes Freeze-Tite, and it's sold at some warehouse clubs and a few supermarkets including Eastside Marketplace. It's a fine replacement because it is superior to your average plastic wrap. It also shines for being the stickiest of wraps for sealing plastic bowls, as reported by Cook's Illustrated magazine in February. But Freeze-Tite is premium quality, top shelf with the highest cling factor when and where you want it. I needed it badly to keep my leftovers secure, my cold cuts protected and my extra pie crusts frozen. I should have made a road trip to Worcester, I know. But every weekend seems consumed with one obligation or another. Then there's been all that good football to watch. It's only when I reached into the wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap drawer that I recalled, again, how dire the situation in my kitchen was.

Last week, I went to Ocean State Job Lot to buy a box of disposable gloves. I find many uses for those in the kitchen, like when mixing gooey stuff by hand, mincing garlic (who needs that smell on your hands?), adding food coloring for cookies, or reaching into the garbage disposal to rescue a measuring spoon. But I digress.

Job Lot had Freeze-Tite! I bought three, resolving never to go without again. It was $3.99 for a box with 125 feet, which, by the way, is the same price as some name brand plastic wraps and only slightly higher than others.

I also found there was a Web site, www.stretchtite.com, that I could visit and even order online. I also learned that the company's headquarters are but a stone's throw from here in Sutton, Mass., making it close to a local product.

A CALL to John Baldwin at the company revealed that not only is it stocked at Job Lot, it's also sold at Benny's stores. Son of a gun, it's no longer available at Spag's since the store was bought by the Building 19 chain. Thank goodness I didn't make that road trip. I also now understand why it's so good, and so hard to find.

The company manufactures a line of Institutional Foodservice Films that are used in professional kitchens around the country to wrap and store foods. There is no room for waste in a restaurant, and that's why they have the best. It's nice for home cooks to have it, too.

On the Web site, by the way, there was a company quote highlighted: "Finally a plastic wrap that works like it's supposed to!" Finally, indeed.