The verdict: Use butter if you want to. If you have extreme concerns about your cake sticking, use shortening (which is pure fat with no water), cooking spray, or baking spray. Coconut oil or bacon fat will also work, as will clarified butter which has the milk solids removed.
You can use butter or shortening for this method. If you're using butter, you can just run it around the pan, bottom and sides, using the stick. If you're using shortening or a tub of butter, I like to use a paper towel to wipe it all over the pan.
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.
Greasing a hot pan is essential to prevent food from sticking: No matter what type of skillet, frying pan, or griddle you use, your cookware needs to be primed well to ensure uncooked ingredients don't catch or burn, potentially ruining the meal (and filling your kitchen with smoke in the process).
When a cake bakes in a non-greased pan, it will adhere to the glass or metal instead of having a thin layer of fat or oil working as a layer of defense. So, in your attempt to remove the cake from the pan the cake will struggle to come out, which will often result in the crumb tearing or falling to pieces.
You can use anything from a canola oil or olive oil spray to coconut oil or butter. Olive oil can be used in a pinch, but is a little harder to get to stick to the sides of the pan if you go too heavy handed. My personal choice is an olive oil spray, so it still sticks all around the pan and is easy to use.
If you are baking a cake, always grease and flour the pan before adding the batter if you want the cake to unmold cleanly and easily. This is extra important if you're using a fancy bundt pan or making a tall, multi-layered cake.
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.
According to Bon Appétit, oil is a great base, but lacks any personality and flavor, so you wouldn't want to use it on its own when cooking. By mixing oil and butter together, you can increase the smoke point and the flavor.
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.
"Butter adds flavour and creaminess to foods, richness to sauces and can help balance strong acidic foods like tomato sauces and lemon-heavy hollandaise," says Fiona. Butter can also be vital in baking, acting as a carrier for creaming sugar and adding pockets of air to give baked goods a lighter, fluffier crumb.
To pan-fry with butter, preheat your pan over medium heat and add butter. When it is melted, add your ingredients.
Calphalon says, “For better cooking results, preheat the pan using the setting you [intend] to use when cooking, before adding butter or oil.” Lesson: Be sure to read the instructions for your particular equipment.
Pan-frying: Yes, you can use butter for simple pan-fried recipes! Like sautéing, you'll want to slowly melt the butter and let the moisture cook off before adding your food.
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!
With clean hands rub butter inside the pan, making sure to smear it across the entirety of the pan's interior. Use a spoonful of flour and dust inside the pan. Or put the full spoonful in and shake and tap the cake tin until you can see a light coat of flour covers the whole inside.
A Little Oil Is Needed in Nonstick Pans
Even though some pans will carry a label or are marketed to imply that no oil or grease is needed, it helps to keep foods from initially sticking if you use a tiny bit of oil, margarine or butter.
Here's how I see it: Greasing a pan is meant to help you remove the cake without its sticking, tearing, or breaking—if you are lucky. Greasing and flouring also forms a thin, even golden brown crust on the bottom and sides of the cake.
Greasing and flouring is primarily necessary when you want to have an extra barrier between a high-sugar cake and a pan to decrease the odds of the cake from sticking. If in doubt, I would do both, but most of the time greasing with oil or cooking spray (my two favorites) will be plenty.
Sautéing and stir-frying—The most common question I get on this topic is how to sauté or stir-fry without butter or oil. The trick is to use small amounts of water or broth, adding just a small amount (1 to 2 tablespoons) at a time. Do this as often as needed to cook and brown the food, without steaming it.
You do not need to put any grease or oil on the parchment paper. Cookies will slide off the paper if you pick them up with a spatula and a cake will come out of the pan easily. Parchment paper can be used for several batches of the same recipe being baked on the same cookie/baking sheet in a few batches.
Cooking eggs with olive oil is considered to be a healthier opinion when compared with butter (via Live Strong). The Olive Oil Source details exactly what kinds of benefits different olive oils have. Extra virgin seems to be the best for fried eggs because it has the highest smoke point.
When you cook, solid margarine or butter is not the best choice. Butter is high in saturated fat, which can raise your cholesterol. It can also increase your chance of heart disease. Some margarines have some saturated fat plus trans-fatty acids, which can also be bad for you.