Cooking Spray Alternatives To Try Today
I never stopped to think about finding alternatives to cooking spray until we got an air fryer and I researched what you need to do the first time you use one. Coating it in non-stick spray was not part of seasoning your air fryer, I learned. Long story short: cooking spray is bad for your air fryer and many other tools you use in your kitchen. Here’s why you might want to look for non-stick spray substitutes.
Why You Should Consider Cooking Spray Alternatives
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I know how convenient these sprays are and I’ll admit to having bought them in bulk at Costco because I used them so often. However, recently I got together with my fellow food bloggers for an in-person retreat and the topic cooking spray came up. Turns out I was the only person still using them. Maybe because I’m newer to the food writing scene but I came away a changed baker.
For starters, I learned that one of the reasons my baking pans were impossible to clean was because of the spray. Also, who hasn’t made the mistake of spraying a so-called non-stick pan and then that pan is ruined? Sidebar: get rid of most non-stick pans all together. If they start to degrade, you could be introducing harmful chemicals into the food you cook.
Speaking of harmful chemicals, have you ever looked at the ingredients list on your spray? Sure, the first ingredient is an oil that you recognize, like canola oil. But then there are additives that make it easier to spray and prevent the spray from foaming. You may have to Google those ingredients to understand what they are. I know I did.
Different Kinds of Cooking Sprays
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with using oil in a spray or pump can. You just may want to pick one with the fewest ingredients possible or in a container you’ve filled yourself.
For instance, Robin Donovan of All Ways Delicious told me that she prefers store-bought avocado oil spray or any spray without an accelerant. “Costco sells a really good avocado oil spray that has nothing but avocado oil in it,” Donovan says. And it’s true: I bought it and the only ingredient on the label is avocado oil.
You can make your own single-ingredient spray using an empty pump bottle and your liquid oil of choice. It’s one of the reasons I recommended an oil spray bottle in my article about must-have accessories for an air fryer. Here’s what I wrote in that article:
“While one of the significant advantages of air frying is that it uses less oil, some oil is essential to ensure the food isn’t too dry or bland. An oil sprayer helps spread the oil evenly on your food so it cooks more efficiently, with an easy-to-control application. Consider a glass oil sprayer that you can fill with oil at home.”
Alternative Ways To Keep Food From Sticking
In addition to DIY cooking sprays, there are other ways you can keep food from sticking when cooking or baking. You can choose non-stick pots, pans and baking sheets. While I normally don’t use them, I did get a Hexclad pan from the Gordon Ramsay collection. You may have seen contestants using them on his show Next Level Chef. Anyway, this is the only non-stick pan I still have in rotation and it’s held up beautifully.
Butter and grease
Another option is using fat and applying it directly to your cookware. Of course, if you’re trying to cook without adding calories, this option may not work for you. However, if you’re eating keto or following a low-carb diet, you can do what Shelby Stover of Fit As a Mama Bear does. “I personally don’t use cooking spray but instead use avocado oil or tallow to coat the pan or baking dish,” she explains. “If needed as it melts I spread it out with a paper towel.”
It’s the same for Michelle Price of Honest and Truly. “I also prefer to use butter to grease rather than the non-stick spray,” she says. “It is a more ‘surgical strike’ and doesn’t have the overspray that the spray does.”
Price learned about the surgical strike part the hard way after using cooking spray for years when baking using muffin tins and discovered they were getting ruined. “Wherever you have spray that doesn’t get covered by muffin batter — all around the edges, for example — the non-stick spray bakes onto your muffin tins,” she adds. “Over time, that’s why your muffin tins get sticky and stop releasing well and even get pitted, sometimes. That baked on nonstick spray just will not come off.”
Muffin tin and cupcake liners
I remember the thrill as a kid of getting a cupcake or muffin and peeling back the paper liner to get to the treat inside. Well, substituting liners is a better alternative for your pans than a cooking spray for all of the reasons just explained. You have two kinds of liners to use:
- paper cupcake liners, which some might see as wasteful because you throw them away. However, as long as these paper liners aren’t wax-coated, you can compost them with your food scraps.
- reusable silicone muffin cups, which are dishwasher safe. Also, you can use them in your air fryer.
Parchment Paper
I grew up in a home with a kitchen that had wax paper and aluminum foil — really tin foil. We never had plastic wrap or plastic baggies. My mother used waxed paper for wrapping cold things and aluminum foil for baking or cooking with heat. Of course, foil isn’t non-stick so she would end up using some sort of cooking spray on the foil.
Fast forward to the home where I raised my children, and we always had parchment paper on hand. My husband is the person who does the most baking in the house and he’s a huge fan of parchment paper. For instance, when he makes homemade sourdough bread in a Dutch oven, he’ll line the pot with parchment paper. If you want to bake cookies in an air fryer or the traditional oven, you’ll need parchment paper.
Silicone Baking Mats
A reusable option that works like parchment paper are silicone baking mats. There is a brand called Silpat that makes these baking mats and some people have taken to calling all silicone baking mats Silpat. Kind of like Kleenex for tissues or Xerox for all copiers. Anyway, Silpat-brand silicone baking mats come in all kinds of sizes to fit sheet and baking pans as well as round cake pans.
Final Thoughts
Clearly, it’s a personal choice to use cooking sprays or not when baking and cooking. I just wanted to share some substitute ideas if you were looking for a way not to use these non-stick sprays anymore. Hopefully, I’ve provided at least one solution that works for you. If you have others to share, I’d love to hear from you.