CATEGORY
Cooking Oil Spray
2007 CHEFSBEST® AWARD FOR BEST TASTE WINNER
Crisco
What Makes a Great Cooking Spray?
Whether frying eggs, baking cookies, or making a light vegetable stir-fry, cooking oil sprays can be very useful—especially when you don’t want an oily pan. Because they lightly coat pans with just enough oil to prevent foods from sticking, cooking oil sprays can be a healthier and cleaner way to cook.
Our chefs define high-quality cooking oil sprays as having a light color that does not transfer to cooked food. Olive oil should give olive oil sprays a greenish-yellow tinge, while butter-flavored sprays should be slightly yellow without having an unnatural appearance.
The spray pressure for oil sprays should make it possible to evenly coat a wide pan, but it should not be so strong that oil spatters onto clothes or adjacent countertops. The oils, once sprayed, should stick to the pan and not run down the sides into a pool. However, oils should not be so thick that they become foamy and only cover a small surface area. Whether spraying horizontally or vertically, the wide spray should evenly cover a large surface area.
Exhibiting fruity and nutty characteristics, olive oil spray should have noticeable flavor intensity when sampled by itself. Butter sprays should deliver a low but discernible butter flavor.
In application, it is appropriate for butter-flavored sprays to give a yellowish tint to egg whites, and there should be a light, discernible butter aroma and flavor that should not overpower egg whites or other foods. In addition, no aroma or flavor off notes—like aerosol, metallic, chemical or old oil notes—should transfer to the foods cooked in oil sprays.
When eating foods cooked with oil sprays, the oil should leave a clean mouthfeel without being waxy or coating the palate.
Product Category Definition
The product judged was defined as cooking oil spray for the consumer market, not including non-spray oils, better-for-you sprays, pump-style, spreads, margarines and margarine spreads. This judging included regular, olive oil and butter-flavored oil sprays.
Other Leading Brands:
Mazola, Pam
ONE-STEP IDEAS
Spray a little oil on your cheese grater. Grating cheese will require less elbow grease, and clean-up will be a snap.
Use to spray measuring cups and spoons before measuring honey or molasses. The sticky ingredients will slip right out.
A thin coating sprayed over turkey or chicken before roasting will encourage even browning.
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TASTING
TERMINOLOGY
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FUN FACTS
- Because they are applied in a thin layer, cooking oil sprays usually have fewer calories than poured cooking oils.
- U.S. olive oil sales are expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2010.
- The first patent for a non-stick cooking spray was granted in 1957.
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The ChefsBest Award for Best Taste is awarded to the brand rated highest overall among leading brands by independent professional chefs.
