There are several different types of grease that are suitable for greasing cookware, including shortening, nonstick cooking spray, olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, bacon fat, and butter. Be aware that a little bit of the grease's flavor is likely to make its way into your baked goods.
There's a multitude of choices when it comes to greasing a baking pan. You can use anything from a canola oil or olive oil spray to coconut oil or butter.
To properly grease your nonstick pan, rub a small amount of butter or oil directly onto the pan before putting it on the heat. You don't need a lot of fat here—you are using nonstick after all. Depending on the size of the pan, one tablespoon or so should do.
When it comes to greasing pans, vegetable oil and shortening are actually better choices. They may not impart any extra butter flavor to the “crusts” of your cake, but they are both more effective at preventing cakes from sticking than butter.
Be sure to select a light-colored, shiny pan, which will conduct heat evenly. Glass or dark-colored pans can cause the edges to overbake or even burn. Always grease the pan thoroughly with shortening, softened butter, or cooking spray. (Do this even if the recipe doesn't specify.)
Note that while some brownie recipes do call for melted butter instead of oil, the butter can aerate the batter, altering the texture of the brownies and making them cakey rather than fudgy. So, while you can substitute butter for oil and vice versa, remember that it might alter the texture.
Forgetting to grease or flour a cake pan can put you on a fast track to dessert disaster. Kimball has a simple fix -- fill a larger pan with hot water and set your cake pan inside. Let it sit for three minutes, then remove the cake from the pan -- it should come out easily!
We generally try to reach for monounsaturated fats when pan-frying. These healthy fats are liquid at room temperature (as compared to saturated fat like lard, butter and coconut oil that are solid at room temp). Our favorite healthy fats for pan-frying are avocado oil, canola oil and olive oil.
To ensure your cakes slide easily out of the pan, we recommend swapping the cooking spray for butter. First, grease cake pans with unsalted butter.
It's best to heat the pan first, then add oil or butter. You add oil after the pan is hot to prevent the oil from breaking down prematurely. It can make a huge difference because broken down oil becomes sticky. And sticky oil can ruin your culinary creation - not good.
To pan-fry with butter, preheat your pan over medium heat and add butter. When it is melted, add your ingredients. Cook,stir, watch closely, and adjust heat accordingly.
Here's everything you need to know to substitute butter for oil in baking or cooking. In all cases, butter and oil should be substituted with a 1:1 ratio.
Cooking with the wrong kind of fat in your nonstick pan.
As a result, the effort needed to scrub off the residue can end up damaging the pan. Instead, opt for cooking fats like butter or olive oil to avoid this.
Greasing the bottom of a baking pan makes cakes easier to remove. Many recipes also call for flouring the pan after it is greased, typically when the recipe is particularly high in fat. The whole idea is to form a barrier, to keep the batter from clinging to the pan.
You can replace nonstick spray with butter or oil when baking, but you will not be able to get the thin, consistent coat you do with the spray. Oil is often spread too heavily, and butter can clump in spots.
Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of your recipe. This is especially important in certain baked goods where the pure, sweet cream flavor of butter is key (butter cookies or pound cakes). As it pertains to cooking, unsalted butter lets the real, natural flavor of your foods come through.
Outside of baking, salted butter is a great all-purpose choice - even better than olive oil. You can grease a pan, spread it on bread, put a pat in your pasta, or melt a little on your vegetables. It does double duty for recipes that need just that little bit extra of fat and flavor.
When you cook, unlike when you bake, you can taste as you go – and in fact many savory recipes instruct you to “add salt to taste.” Thus if a recipe calls for unsalted butter, but you add salted instead, you will be able to taste the dish's saltiness and then add as little, or as much, extra salt as you would like.
Coconut oil is a good choice for greasing pans
One of coconut oil's strengths as a cooking fat is its high smoke point. That means it can stand up to higher oven temperatures without burning, making it great for greasing your baking pans in any recipe, vegan or not (via The Kitchn).
Use Butter or Lard
Butter and lard are great cooking spray alternatives. They're soft enough to spread into loaf pans and muffin tins with your fingers. You don't have to get your hands messy to use these products, either. Use a piece of parchment paper or paper towel to help grease.
3) Make your own pan grease (MY PREFERRED WAY)
All you need are equal amounts of 3 simple ingredients: vegetable oil, all-purpose flour, and shortening.
Greasing the pan is a necessary step even when using a nonstick pan. Whether you're using a bundt pan, cake pan, cupcake pan, or cookie sheet, applying a thin layer of grease to the sides and bottom of the pan will help your baked goods release with ease.
Mistake 4: Leaving your pans unwashed
All that greasy residue, leftover food and even dishwater will do damage to the non-stick coating, wearing it down over time. Your best bet? Wash up asap.
Greasing your cake pan correctly will ensure your beautiful bake doesn't crumble when you try to remove it.
You can absolutely substitute butter for the vegetable oil. Use the same quantity specified in the directions (for example, if it calls for 1/3 cup of oil, use 5 1/3 tablespoons of butter). Melt it down, then let it cool a bit. You might not ever go back to oil!