Great substitute for cooking spray
Written: Sep 18 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Healthy, Economical use of oil, Flexible.
Cons: More expensive than plastic models
The Bottom Line: If you do a lot of cooking where you need a thin layer of oil in a pan, this would be a great product for you.
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| runningdan's Full Review: Misto Gourmet Stainless Steel Olive Oil Sprayer, G... |
First of all, this thing might be marketed as an olive oil sprayer, but you can put almost any type of vegetable oil (there are some oils that might cause it to clog up, so read your manual if you’re concerned) in this and have it work fine, I have mine filled with plain old vegetable oil. There are a few reasons that I originally chose to get the Misto olive oil sprayer. The biggest reason that I got it is, I try to eat healthy food all the time, and I don’t want greasy food full of fat, even if that fat is only vegetable oil. That combined with the fact that I love using cast iron to cook with, which usually requires at least a little oil in order to have it be non-stick, meant that I needed a good tool to get a thin coating of oil on the pan, and that is the Misto.
What the Misto does well.
After about 15 minutes of tinkering around with this thing, I was able to master the art of pumping and spraying.
So why should you get one of these instead of using normal cooking spray (like PAM)? There are many reasons.
I know exactly what is going into my food with this mister. The only thing inside the canister is vegetable oil and air. There are no weird chemicals, and the oil can be whatever you choose. Studies show that the more highly processed your food is, the worse it is for you. So which would you rather be eating, normal vegetable oil, or some concoction of vegetable oils and chemicals put under pressure with additives to improve flavor? I know I would rather eat normal vegetable oil, and let real food add the flavor.
This thing is very economical, after the initial investment of buying the thing. How much money do you think goes toward the actual spray in cooking sprays, and how much just for the pressurizing chemicals. I don’t know for sure, but I’d wager to guess that you are spending more per unit of actual oil in cooking spray than you would for vegetable oil. Also, if you ever run out of oil in this thing, you don’t need to go buy another can, just refill it. You are being better to yourself and to the environment.
So If you are going to use vegetable oil anyway, why use the mister at all, why not just pour straight from the bottle? Well to start off, you are probably using more oil than you really need if you pour from the bottle. It can be difficult to get a really thin layer of oil on a pan if you start with a pool of oil and try to spread it out. The biggest help this has been to me is when I need to grease my cast iron muffin tins. You can imagine how annoying it can be to try to get vegetable oil or shortening down into the edges of muffin tins, but not with this. In about five seconds I have a nice, even, thin layer of non hydrogenated (i.e. better for you) oil, and the muffins come out of the pan very easily.
Probably the best part of this thing is its flexibility. While it would be a hassle to change oils in one of these sprayers, you can put whatever type of oil you want into it. If you like olive oil to spray over salad, fill it with olive oil. If you like peanut oil for extra high heat cooking, fill it with peanut oil. Or get 3 or 4, they have different color bands that you can use to distinguish between them, and fill each with a different oil, so you will always be able to mist whatever oil you want on your food.
What this mister doesn’t do well.
There are a few downsides to this oil mister.
First off, the container is somewhat small, and can only be filled with about 1/3 cup of oil per refill. Now that did last me 3 to 4 weeks of daily use of this (I use it on my cast iron skillet every morning for my omelet, and then on my griddle or muffin tins etc.), but there are larger ones out on the market.
There is almost no way to tell how much oil is left in this until it is almost gone. That’s not a huge problem, but I would like to have a little warning before I run out of oil. That leads me to my next point.
Inside the stainless steel shell is a polycarbonate (plastic) bottle. If I had to get another mister I would look at the plastic misters first, to see how people rate them. You can see how much oil is inside them, they have the same basic parts as the Misto stainless steel, and they cost 5 to 10 dollars less.
I have read reviews that say this mister gets clogged up and needs to be cleaned. Misto’s website addressed this issue saying that certain oils get clogged more easily than others, and the longer you go between uses of this, the more likely it is to get clogged. I have never had a problem with clogging, and it seems that if you use it about once a day, neither will you.
Conclusions.
If you are looking for an alternative to cooking spray, or are sick of spending forever trying to oil muffin tins or the like, then the Misto sprayer would be a great option for you. It is versatile, economical, and healthier than the alternatives. I would suggest, though, that you seriously consider getting a polycarbonate mister. I haven’t done any research on them, but I do know that Cuisipro makes a model that is available on Amazon.com, so check it out.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
runningdan
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Reviews written: 50
Trusted by: 3 members
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