Cooking oils are very important, and are mostly used to transfer heat to food.
They are also used to prevent food from sticking to pot and pans when cooking, while those with a strong flavor may also be used to flavor a dish.
There are several types of cooking oils which are obtained from either plants or animal sources. Each type of cooking oil has its unique properties.
Most of these cooking oils are packaged in bottle containers or jar, from where they are poured and used.
Cooking sprays are also used on cookware such as pots and pans to prevent food from sticking while cooking.
These cooking sprays often come as cans and have a nozzle to disperse the contents from the cooking spray can.
So what are cooking sprays and how do they differ from the cooking oil?
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Cooking oil vs. cooking spray
Cooking sprays are made using various types of cooking oil; there are olive oil, canola oil and even butter flavored cooking sprays.
One difference between a cooking oil and a cooking spray is that in addition to cooking oil, cooking sprays usually contains a propellant, antifoaming agent and an emulsifier.
Also, with a cooking spray, the cooking oil is spread even more uniformly which prevents your food from sticking to the cookware.
Therefore, lesser amount of oil is made use of with the cooking spray, which means lesser calories.
When the nozzle is pressed, the oil comes out as a fine mist which coats the surface on the pan
Using a cooking spray provides an alternative way to deliver your cooking oil when you need only a thin layer of oil to prepare the pan for grilling or sautéing.
However, cooking sprays cannot be used when larger quantities of oil are to be used such as in deep frying.
Cooking sprays help to cut down calories
Cooking oils are made up of almost entirely fats.
Fats are an important source of energy and also help to carry fat soluble vitamins.
They are also very high in calories.
Using cooking oil could therefore add a lot of calories to your meal.
Measuring the right amount of oil from a jar may be difficult, and you may have to pour larger quantity of oil to ensure it gets spread evenly across the pans.
For meals like pancakes or where you need requires only a thin layer of oil on the pan to keep food from sticking to pots and pans, Cooking sprays are used to pour only a thin layer of oil
The cooking spray allows you make effective use of small amounts of oil.
Oil is applied more thinly with a cooking spray than when a teaspoon is used or when the oil is poured directly from a jar.
What do cooking sprays contain?
The ingredients in cooking spray may written on the spray can and they often vary.
Cooking sprays may contain a cooking oil, an emulsifier, and antifoaming agent and a propellant. The cooking could be of different types such as olive oil, canola oil, avocado oil, Lecithin is used as an emulsifier in cooking sprays while the antifoaming agent is dimethyl silicone. The propellants may be propane or butane
In summary
Cooking spray is cooking oil in a can together with a propellant as well as other ingredients.
The cooking spray makes use of pressure to deliver the cooking oil as a mist on pans before cooking oil.
Cooking sprays help to make effective use of small amount of cooking oil thereby cutting down the calorie intake as cooking oil as calorie dense.
These sprays cannot be used when large amounts of oil is required, such as in deep frying.
