8 Spray Butter Brands, Ranked

Non-stick spray is such a wonderful invention. Not only does it assist in greasing your pans, tins, skillets, and griddles, but it also comes in a convenient little spray container. I do a lot of baking, and greasing the cake pan is always the least enjoyable part of any bake. Instead of struggling to fit parchment or wax paper into everything, I've discovered just how simple a nice even application of non-stick spray can be. A non-stick spray can save the day in so many ways as long as you're not using it in your air fryer.

Most non-stick sprays have a canola or olive oil base these days, though you can find everything from ghee to avocado sprays if you're in the mood for them. Very little tops the taste of butter, in my experience. Butter is just one of those amazing things that can elevate practically anything it's applied to. If I had a choice between an over-medium egg done in olive oil or butter, I'm choosing butter every time. Real butter is expensive, and margarine isn't far behind. That's where butter-flavored non-stick sprays come in. I'm determined to figure out which one gives me the most bang for my buck and can still give me that beautiful buttery goodness without breaking my bank. I'll be putting each spray to the test by greasing a pan and cooking a pancake with it to see how each spray will influence the bake, and flavor, of a straightforward dish.

Shaw's is one of many brands that is owned and operated by Albertsons Companies Inc. If you don't have a Shaw's near you, but know of Safeway, Balducci's, Market Street, or United Markets, then you've more or less been inside a Shaw's grocery store. Different colors, same suppliers. Signature Select is the store brand for Albertsons, and unless you count its frozen breakfast sandwiches, I haven't had any issues with the brand up until now. Like Great Value, it sells everything from food to toiletries for a cheaper price than your typical name brand of the same product. Unfortunately for Signature Select, whatever is bottled in its no-stick butter flavored cooking spray is rotten.

This was the only spray that made me scrunch my nose up as I sprayed it. Sure, the spray came out powerfully and coated the pan well, but the odor it left behind was one part toxic fume and three parts movie theater butter dispenser. Unfortunately, the spray imparted much the same flavor to the pancake I was grilling. While the toxic fume smell didn't translate, the spray did make my pancake strangely sweet. I made a standard pancake from a box mix and added a half a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter, so I have no idea why this pancake was so overwhelmingly sweet. This Signature Select spray deserved last place. It was not worth the $3.29 I paid for it.

Dollar General has a wide variety of grocery items available at its locations. I wasn't surprised to discover it even includes a butter flavored cooking spray. I have long associated Clover Valley with Dollar General and have been pleased with its offerings in the past. Be aware though, for $3 this is far from the most inexpensive spray I'm rating today. One thing I do enjoy about doing these ratings is seeing how my perception of a brand stacks up to the actual tests.

Clover Valley was odorless when I sprayed it. That's not a knock, but it didn't even smell like aerosol. The spray that I got out of the can was weaker than most, and it required a double application to make sure I'd covered the entire cooking area of my pan. If that had been the only issue with this spray it may have scored higher. But after cooking was done, I discovered the spray had a marked effect on the pancake — and not in a positive way. It made the pancake sweet. Thankfully not horribly oversweet, or to the point of tasting fake, but it was noticeably sweet. In my opinion a pancake should not be sweet on its own unless it's had berries or chocolate chips added. A pancake is a vessel for sweet syrups and berries, not a sweet treat in and of itself. Sadly, Clover Valley did not come through in this round of taste testing.

Ah, Great Value. As someone who loves a good deal, I am pretty intimately familiar with Walmart's brand of products. While some Great Value products are worth buying and there are some items from Great Value you should avoid, I always approach these store brands with the same mindset as one might approach an unfamiliar cat. Wary, but hopeful. There were no immediate outward signs that I might have a bad time with the Great Value Butter Flavored Non-Stick Cooking Spray. The ingredients list was nearly identical to Stop & Shop's version, and this one only cost $2.52.

The spray had a bit more of a kickback than I expected. It felt like I was holding a mini-fire extinguisher for a moment. It coated the pan pretty quickly, at least, though it left a greasy, fake butter smell hanging in the air. Not my favorite. It also browned in the pan a little too fast for my liking. I had to clean the pan once and try again on the lower end of medium heat to not end up with a charred-looking pancake. Thankfully, any worries about the quality were unfounded. It imparted exactly no flavor to the pancake, nor did it enhance the flavors present in any way. For all the smell in the air, this spray was a neutral grease. I've had worse, and I've had better. The reason this ranks so low is the fake butter smell. It was really noxious.

None of the butter flavored sprays that I'm testing actually contain butter, at least not according to their labeling. Most of them are a blend of canola and other vegetable oils, and a few contain coconut oil. Stop & Shop's house brand of non-stick cooking spray is, according to its label, pretty much all soybean oil. Soybeans are all well and good for adding to hummus, but I'm going to say that they don't work very well in a flavored cooking spray. The spray has an allergen warning for milk as well, though the ingredients list says the milk is being included for flavor. It could have fooled me.

Using the spray wasn't a problem. It sprayed easily enough, though the stream was a lot narrower than some of the other aerosol sprays on offer. It took a second longer to coat the pan — not a big deal. There was no smell of butter, though it did smell like hot oil. When I cooked my pancake, it came out with absolutely no butter or oil flavor. Nothing was added to the experience in using this spray. It's perfectly serviceable as a non-stick spray, but if you're going to advertise butter flavoring, it might be prudent to make sure your product imparts a buttery taste. All in all, this was a truly neutral experience. While the price of $2.79 wasn't terrible, considering the narrow stream and hot oil smell, I couldn't rate this any higher.

A Pam-sprayed pan is almost as classic a concept as using the butter wrapper to grease your skillet. The brand has been around since 1959, and its original spray is a pretty solid choice for any time you need to grease something up. I was expecting great things from such a well-known name brand. I will admit to being a little surprised by the lack of artistry on the can itself. I would have assumed that a company with so much money behind it would have a more put together logo and design. I will chalk the plainness of the can up to the adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The spray was completely clear with absolutely no foaming or backsplash. It even sprayed evenly and at what I would consider a normal pressure for an aerosolized product. The spray immediately gave a nice buttery smell to the kitchen — a leg up on previous sprays — and made me very eager to taste the pancake I was making. Imagine my surprise, and mild disappointment, when I took bites from the pancake and tasted ... nothing. For a $3.98 butter-flavored cooking spray, it was disappointing. I will say this: It didn't taste bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure the flavor of the pancake was enhanced. However, I can find no difference between Pam butter flavored cooking spray and Pam original cooking spray, which is why it's not higher on the list.

I will admit I had no idea that Crisco did sprayable greases. My only experience with Crisco previously was with vegetable shortening, which is about as far removed from easy non-stick spray as one can get. While Crisco is great as a crispy, flaky hack for pie crusts, to say I wasn't expecting much from this spray would be an understatement. While it's nice when a brand branches out and takes some chances, it can also go horribly wrong. While a name brand resting on its laurels is also a problem, it's always a coin toss when it does diversify. Branding is tough, y'all.

The spray was foamy. Like properly foamy. I almost put my pan back into the sink. I was afraid I hadn't rinsed the soap off of it well enough. But no, a quick spray on a paper towel proved it was the Crisco, and not my pan, that was fluffing up. Despite cooking the pancake the same as the others, this one came out with a little crispy crust on the edges. That's actually a bonus, as I like a little snap on my pancakes. Aside from the surprise crispiness, there was no actual buttery flavor imparted to the pancake, but it did make the flavors found within my pancake really pop. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the $3.97 Crisco made it into my top three. Glad to know that a name brand can diversify and still deliver!

I would never consider butter flavored non-stick spray something fancy, but I was still pleasantly surprised to find that my local Dollar Tree had some in stock. Dollar Tree has surprised me in the past with the variety of things I can buy there, which is why I made the effort to pop in and see if it had anything I could add to this list. Healthy Chef was not a brand I was familiar with, but it looked innocuous enough. At worst I was expecting another beef stew situation, so color me impressed when this turned out to be a hidden gem!

The Healthy Chef canister went off like a cannon when I sprayed it. For a small can it packs a big punch. It was a wide and very powerful spray, but after a couple attempts I had to stop and read the instructions on the side, as the spray was evaporating as soon as it touched the pan. To utilize Healthy Chef spray, the brand advises using a cooled pan, not a pre-heated one. It makes sense as it seems like it doesn't have as good of a smoke point as the other sprays. The pancake I made with the Healthy Chef spray was delicious. I couldn't believe it tasted so good for a $1.25 product. It gave an actual buttery flavor that enhanced the taste of the pancake. Aside from the strangely sweet smell left in the air, I had no complaints about Healthy Chef.

Unlike the name suggests, I've never mistaken I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! for the real deal. Not because it doesn't taste good, but because there are some key differences between butter and margarine. I actually use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! in my day-to-day life. I had not branched into the sprayable variety; however, after this experience I may add it to my cart regularly. This butter spray delivered in spades! For a margarine product it sure tasted the most like butter.

The only issue I had with the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! spray was the actual spraying part. It doesn't spray so much as it spritzes. Spritzing is fine and dandy for a perfume, but for coating a pan — even a small one like the one I was using — it can get a little tedious. Unlike some of the aerosol sprays, it took me a good 10 to 15 seconds to feel confident I'd greased the pan enough to fry up my breakfast. This spray imparted the best butter flavor of all of them. It added a hint of saltiness that really complemented the fluffy buttermilk pancake and enhanced all the other flavors found within. This was one of the few sprays that I could actually taste the little splash of vanilla I added to my batter. No unnatural flavors or preservatives indeed. This is my top pick and well worth your time and $3.98.

The steps involved in testing the performance of these sprays varied a little from other traditional taste tests. I did consider just spraying some in my mouth, like Easy Cheese, but dismissed that pretty quickly. So I settled on testing each product's convenience when it comes to spraying — how fine is the mist, was the jet too powerful, did it spray evenly, and whether it smelled were all things I took into consideration with each spray.

I got my pan to a nice medium heat, as you should for most pancake recipes, and applied the spray. Once it was applied, I dropped a quarter cup of batter into the pan and made a pancake. Once the pancake is made, I turn off the heat to let the pan cool down. While the pan is cooling, I taste-tested the pancake. I made sure to get two full bites of each to see whether I could taste the butter flavoring or if it was a bit of a dud. If the spray affected the bake on the pancake, I made note of that as well. All these factors played a role in how I rated each spray. Between each pancake I thoroughly cleaned my pan to prevent cross contamination of the sprays. If you're concerned about food waste, fear not. My family adores pancakes, and all eight pancakes were consumed happily and enjoyed with a generous helping of maple syrup and blueberries.