Homemade Cooking Spray

Homemade Cooking Spray 

http://naturesnurtureblog.com/2012/04/03/tiny-tip-tuesday-homemade-cooking-spray/

I’m starting a new series here on Nature’s Nurture. I’m calling it Tiny Tip Tuesday – where I’ll be sharing quick and easy tips for the kitchen and home every Tuesday! So, without further ado, this week’s Tiny Tip is how to make homemade cooking spray!

Every time I purchase a new can of cooking spray, I tell myself Ok, this is the last time. I must find a way to make this at home; it is just oil, after all! Well, I finally finished my last can just as I needed to spray my waffle pan for the whole-wheat banana chunk waffles I made last weekend, and leave it to desperation to push me into creative mode!

I figured hey, I’ll just put some olive oil in a spray bottle and see what happens. Well, it sprayed, but it wasn’t misting – it just shot out more in a jet stream. Not at all what I was looking for. So after experimenting a little, I found that adding water to the bottle gave it the right consistency to spray like a mist. And it works great!

Edit: In fine-tuning this recipe, I just kept adding more water to the oil until I got it to mist. My proportions were eyeballed, instead of actual measurements, so feel free to start off with a smaller ratio (2:1 or 3:1) and go from there. Also, I used olive oil, but if you’re using another type of oil, your results may differ, so please experiment to find what works for you!

UPDATE: Recently, I’ve been enlightened as to the effects of working with water when making homemade recipes such as this one. We need to be very careful when using water, since it of course harbors bacteria (both good and bad), and needs to be handled very carefully so as not to jeopardize the purity of our products. Here are some tips I got fromCrunch Betty about working with water, that can be applied to this cooking spray, to keep it from going rancid or growing nasty bacteria:

• Always use distilled/filtered and boiled water
• Sterilize your spray bottle in boiling water to kill any lurking bacteria
• Only make a small batch at a time – enough to last maybe a week or so (I’ve kept mine longer than that, without issue)
• You may want to store the spray in the fridge to keep bacteria at bay (although I just keep mine in a cool, dark cupboard)

So here’s how to make your own homemade cooking spray. It’s non-toxic (no nasty propellants), it’s cheap (one less item to buy), it’s green (no more spray cans to throw away), and you can use whatever oil you wish (except maybe coconut oil because of its low melting point).

For a helpful list of the heating and smoking points of different oils, visit this link.

Read more about why you should stop using commercial cooking spray here.

Homemade Cooking Spray

Recipe Type: Kitchen Tips

Avoid the nasty propellants in commercial cooking sprays by making a homemade version!

Ingredients

• 1 part olive oil (or your choice of oil)
• 4-5 parts boiled distilled/filtered water (start with 3, and work your way up)
• 1 misting spray bottle

Instructions

1. Sterilize your spray bottle in boiling water.
2. Place oil and water into spray bottle.
3. Shake well before use.
4. Store in the fridge for no longer than a week or so.

Do you use cooking spray in your kitchen? Try this homemade version and let me know what you think!

Some more notes: (This post is the #2 most popular link on this site, and in the process, I’ve read numerous comments with tips, suggestions, and concerns. So below are some of the most common points to consider):

• As with all homemade alternatives, this will not work as well as the commercial products, so don’t expect it to. You may need to experiment to get it to work properly for you. If all else fails, some good ol’ straight oil or butter in a pan always works!
• I use this more for baking than I do for cooking on the stove. I make mostly cookies, muffins, and quick breads, and find that if I spray a good amount on the pans, it mostly works pretty well. I may have to help my muffins out of the tin a bit, and sometimes there are tiny muffin crumbs left in the tin, but I don’t really mind it. Again, if I’m really concerned with sticking issues (like in cake pans, for example), I just brush on some melted butter or straight oil.
• DO NOT spray this onto a HOT pan! The water will make it to splatter everywhere, and may cause burns! Instead, spray it onto a cold pan, and let it heat up gradually; in the process, the water will evaporate, leaving the oil to do its thing.
• The bottle in the pictures is NOT food-grade plastic, so I would recommend sourcing either a food-grade plastic spray bottle, or a glass spray bottle with a fine mist. Here’s a good site someone shared: http://www.bottles.us/
• Yes, oil and water do not mix, but giving the bottle a quick shake/swirl will allow them to combine just enough to be sprayed out of the bottle at the same time. The water is only used as a vehicle to propel the oil out of the bottle.
• I’ve read very mixed reviews on products such as the Misto or Pampered Chef sprayer; some love it, and some hate it. So you may want to try that out if you’re having trouble getting this homemade version to work for you.