Call A Priest! Mine Is Possessed! The Adventures of A Kitchen Moron
Written: Mar 13 '03 (Updated Jan 07 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works great if you read the instructions, great for salads, nice looking sprayer.
Cons: Body can get slippery, the lid is sneaky!
The Bottom Line: Remember, olive oil. Not vegetable, sunflower, peanut, canola, soybean or sesame …
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| Freak369's Full Review: Misto - The Gourmet Olive Oil Spayer |
I had seen different oil sprayers on The Food Network and always thought they would be a cool like gadget to have around the house. As luck would have it, my local Albertson’s had a small display of them hanging in the baking section and I took it as a sign of fate – I was destined to have one of these. I hadn’t seen them at any other stores or Bed, Bath & Beyond so I tossed one in the cart and continued on shopping. Slightly distracted by my Misto find, I started thinking of what I could use it on, how great it would work for salads and when barbequing. One thing that always stressed me out about using the aerosol type cans of cooking spray was the possibility that it could explode if left too close to the grill. I know, the chances of that happening are slim to none – but it could happen.
Misto Olive Oil Sprayer
The Misto is without a doubt a great kitchen tool that can be used to reduce your overall fat intake. Aside from the health reasons, it’s a lot easier to spray on olive oil than to have to pour it – which makes it great for salads, marinating, grill use, coating pasta before it cools to keep it from sticking and tons of other uses. Since it is refillable you will save some money in the long run when you compare it to Pam or other non-stick sprays. I’m a gadget person and love to try out new products so it was inevitable that this would make its way into my house. The premise is simple – a metal pump sprayer that will deliver a moderate spray of olive oil to food.
The sprayer is seven and a half inches high and six and a half inches round – basically the same ‘roundness’ of a container of Season All or other spices. I think that mine is one of the original Misto Sprayers because the box has 1999 stamped on it. I saw that this was listed in the database however only the green band and aluminum brushed finish were available. This sprayer features a black band around the neck and a matte metal finish [not shiny]. When I first saw these I thought that the brushed aluminum ones [shiny] looked better but I would think that this version would help to hid the fingerprints and oil marks a little better.
Directions
This is pretty much an ‘out of the box, into your hand’ type product. I didn’t bother to clean out the inside of the Misto before I filled it with oil but you might want to. The directions are easy – fill it with about three ounces of your favorite oil [olive oil], replaced the screw on pump assembly, pump the lip / cap until you feel resistance or pressure [usually about ten to fifteen pumps] and spray the oil. It takes a little while to get the feel of how much pumping you will need to do to get a good solid charge but after a while you just ‘know’ when enough is enough. There are no grips on this sprayer so you might want to have some clean dry paper towels on hand so you can get a firm grip on this to repump it.
If you have any type of wrist ailment you might want to think twice about purchasing this. It does require a bit of pumping to build up the pressure as well as subsequent pumping to rebuild it. Pressing the button to spray isn’t any harder than using other disposable sprayers so that isn’t really a concern. If you are interested in this product you might want to check out a demo model that is available at home accessory stores to see if this is something that you will be able to operate without aggravating your condition.
Keeping’ It Clean
There aren’t any cleaning instructions on the package nor were there any inserts on how to properly clean this. The biggest problem I have is that the body and cap get oil all over it when I have to stop and repump it. Cleaning the outside of the sprayer can best be done with a warm soapy sponge and dried with a soft paper towel. I haven’t had to clean the inside of the sprayer [outside of when I needed to get the vegetable oil] out so I’m not sure when a full internal cleaning is warranted. If I decide to change brands or go from extra virgin olive oil to another strength / pressing I’ll more than likely take it apart again and clean it from top to bottom. I don’t suggest tossing this in the sink or dishwasher since you might get water in all the wrong placed and ruin it.
Make sure to clean the white nozzle face on the pump press so that you will get an even spray from your Misto. I usually take the edge of a paper towel and wipe off the head before I use it just to make sure that there isn’t any build up. You can visit the website for instructions on how to clean this properly as well as how to trouble shoot some of the common pitfalls that you many occur if you overfill it with oil. These can be found in the ‘troubleshooting’ section of the site or by using this URL http://www.misto.com/troubleshooting.html
That Tricky Lid
At first I thought I was losing my mind, then that the boys were playing tricks on me – the sneaky lid rises from the body of the sprayer if there is any left over / built up pressure inside it. The lid slowly slides upward and it takes a little bit of time for it to happen – but it does happen. This caught me off guard more than a few times and eventually figured out that any left over pressure would slowly raise the lid so I would try to get rid as much pressure as possible before replacing the cap.
The Kitchen Moron, At Your Service
Maybe I was too excited about purchasing this, maybe I completely lost the ability to read, maybe I just overlooked the words “olive oil” written over ten times on the package … whatever it was … it almost ruined my experience with the Misto. When I got home I ripped open the cardboard box, grabbed the vegetable oil and started to fill it up. Panting like a lunatic I frantically searched for something to try this out on. Then I saw it, Mediterranean Pita bread – how great is that for an afternoon snack – pita bread slightly heated in the microwave with a nice light spray of oil and some salt. My mouth was watering as I pumped the sprayer. I pulled off the cap, tossed it aside and pressed down on the button. Wait a minute, it isn’t spraying a nice light coating of oil it’s squirting out a stream of it.
The above account is 100% true. In my earnest attempt to use the Misto I ignored the term “olive oil” and filled it with vegetable oil. Feeling like a complete moron I quickly hid the evidence so I wouldn’t get a verbal assault from my boys that had to listen to me for twenty minutes about how the Misto was one of the modern day inventions that would revolutionize my cooking.
The Bottom Line
If I hadn’t cleaned out the original oil from the Misto and replaced it with the olive oil, there is a good chance that I wouldn’t have written a positive review about this product. It was my own fault that I had to deal with the sprayer spitting and streaming the oil and that is something that I constantly kick myself for doing. After having cleaned out all the vegetable oil from the inside of the Misto as well as the pump chamber, this has worked great! I was a little concerned that after taking it apart and putting it back together it might not work as well as it should but it’s doing a fantastic job after being gutted and rebuilt.
If you like to use olive oil in your kitchen adventures but don’t like having to deal with pouring it over salads and worrying that you added to much – check out the Misto. For about ten dollars you can pick up one of these and give it a try. If worse comes to worse you can fill it with hot chili oil and use it as a makeshift, environmentally safe weapons against burglars.
For more information feel free to visit the official website: www.misto.com
As always, thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
Need more "somewhat useless but still very cool" kitchen gadgets?
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Thanks to the H&G CL's for adding this version of the Misto Sprayer to the database.
Recommended:
Yes
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