Julie Bove > wrote:

:"David Scheidt" > wrote in message
...
:> Kenneth > wrote:
:> :Pam is a combination of vegetable oil, and lecithin. I
:> :believe that it is the latter that very significantly
:> :increases the "non-stick" characteristics.
:>
:> The horror. An important component of egg yolks in the spray you use
:> to cook your eggs.

:Lecithin is a preservative. It is generally derived from egg or soy but
:recently I've seen it made from corn.

No, it's an emulsifier. It's why you can make mayonnaise using egg yolks;
it's important for all sorts egg based emulsions, like hollandaise sauce.
It's an important ingredient in chocolate. It keeps added cocoa butter
from separating. It's present in non-stick cooking spray because it's a
surfactant, which means it reduces the surface tension of the fat. That
means it's easier to atomize it as it comes out of the nozzle, which
means it forms smaller droplets, which means you need less of it coat the
surface of whatever you're spraying.

I suspect that most of it in the US comes from soybeans, but it can
come from just about any oil bearing seed.