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Cooking spray is a pressurized gas that delivers cooking oil or lubricant to cookware. It contains a lubricant, propellant, and emulsifier. Different types of sprays are available, including organic and non-flammable options, and for specific types of cooking. The PAM brand is the most well-known.
Cooking spray is a commercial product that uses pressurized gas to deliver cooking oil or another lubricant to the surface of cookware. Food items usually won’t stick to the surface of a pot or pan once a coat of cooking spray has been properly applied. Cooking spray contains three main ingredients: a lubricant, a propellant, and an emulsifier that binds the first two ingredients together. The product was first patented in the United States in 1957 and has since become a common household kitchen item.
The most common lubricants in cooking sprays are lower-priced vegetable oils such as canola oil and soybean oil. There are also cooking sprays available with higher quality, better tasting oils such as olive oil and peanut oil. Some manufacturers offer lines of cooking sprays made with all organic ingredients. Others offer alternative lubricants that are high in Omega 3 oils or offer a balance of fats that contribute to healthy cholesterol levels.
A propellant is the source of pressure in the can that releases the spray as the product is used. Most cooking sprays use nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide. None of these propellants are flammable or pose a health risk when used for kitchen applications. There are also some alternative products that are advertised as cooking sprays but are simply oil spritzers and don’t use any type of propellant.
In order for the lubricant to be combined with the propellant, an emulsifier must be present in the cooking spray. An emulsifier is a substance that allows ingredients that cannot be easily mixed by themselves to be well dispersed for a limited amount of time. Cooking sprays typically use the harmless compound lecithin as an emulsifier. Over time, cookware that is frequently sprayed with cooking spray can develop a thin film of lecithin on the cooking surface that is difficult to remove.
The inventor of the original spray, Arthur Meyeroff, soon teamed up with an entrepreneur named Leon Rubin to release the first PAM cooking spray in 1961. The PAM brand name is short for Product of Arthur Meyeroff. The PAM brand went through several owners over the next few years and was eventually distributed by ConAgra Foods, Inc.
There are different types of cooking sprays available on the modern market to suit different tastes and applications in the kitchen. In addition to the original non-stick spray, there are cooking sprays for particular types of cooking such as non-flammable sprays for the grill and special cooking sprays for baking. The cooking sprays also come in a variety of different flavors, including creamy butter and garlic. There are even cooking sprays for professional chefs designed to preserve expensive cookware during high-heat applications like searing and frying.
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