Grease them with crisco and wash well....Pam baked on to that stickey goo.

When it comes to muffin pans, I would line them with muffin papers - no grease or spray should be necessary. You may want to make a test recipe of muffins and see how well the pans perform WITHOUT greasing or lining with papers. Where non-stick surfaces tend to fail is when people damage the surface, either with kitchen tools or improper cleaning methods. -Grainlady

And only use plastic or wood utensils to remove muffins or whatever it is that you are baking. Even with extreme care, using a metal knife can wreck a non-stick pan. I let the muffins cool 5 minutes or more in the pan so I can use a plastic knife or spreader to remove them from the pan. ~ Teresa

I always use PAM. I don't use liners and I really only make one muffin recipe consistently. I spray PAM all over the top too. I take the pans out of the oven, wait a few minutes, and then tip each one out. Hint, if you are putting mini chocolate chips on top of your muffins, place them all in the center, like a sunflower. That way, when you tip out the muffins, you will not touch hot chocolate and the chips will have spread out from the center somewhat.

I hate that spray junk. Ruined enough pans with it - won't ever use it again. I usually use butter, shortening or oil depending on what I'm making. Sometimes flour it or dust with cocoa on something chocolate. Often with decent non-stick pans I don't grease them at all.

I'm not going to start using any kind of grease initially. Just figure at some point or when baking some delicate item (who knows what might happen) it will start sticking.

I have the Wilton 12-cup non-stick muffin pan. One day I was making blueberry muffins, and forgot to grease the pan before putting the muffin batter in. I baked the the muffins, expecting them to come out of the tin in pieces. Instead, they came out perfect, all in one piece, with just a small prod from a butter knife around the edge. I mean, the pan is a non-stick pan, right? I took the experiment one step further. The next time I made blueberry muffins, I greased half the pan with butter, and didn't grease the other half. I already knew the muffins would come out easily regardless, but I was curious about whether there'd be texture differences. To my surprise, there weren't. You couldn't tell which muffins came out of the greased side, and which came out of the non-greased side. They were tender and delicious. The cherry on the sundae was that the pan cleaned up so easy (I don't put them in the dishwasher). I haven't greased it since; I just bake, relying on the non-stick coating.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilton 12-cup non-stick muffin pan

For whatever it's worth:
A very kindly middle aged gentleman sales person
in the housewares section of a Bed Bath & Beyond
told me one day that Pam will ruin non-stick surfaces.

He went on to say that most other brands are fine,
But never use Pam on any non-stick surface.
He also went on about he didn't know why anyone thought they needed anything on non-stick surfaces.
But that is neither here nor there,
Especially as I am one who thinks something IS needed!

So again, for whatever it's worth,
I stopped using Pam in my non-stick skillets,
& now use a store brand spray.
(I read the list of ingredients to make sure it differed)

And lo & behold, my currant 'cheapy' non-stick pan is lasting a LOT longer than others I've had in the past.
Same brand.

But back to the OP's question.

I always use liners in muffin tins.
No spray, no butter, no grease, etc.
Any drops of dough on the pan wipes off easily.
I have the Wilton non-stick jumbo size, and love them.
I like to use liners because it makes eating out-of-hand so much easier.

And the muffins don't look naked. ;>)

Rusty

Interesting Rusty.
I never use Pam, always cheapo store brands.
I thought it was the temp and oil that make it stick, so figured all sprays were taboo.
Maybe the knock-offs don't have oil in them at all?

I disagree with the sales rep. After a time, no-stick, stick.
I make muffins and popovers in my tins mostly. Don't make tarts though my mom has a killer recipe for butter tarts. I choose the ones with the most pastry.....I prefer pastry over filling.

I'm practically a non-baker but I don't like the gunk the sprays leave either. I prefer not to use liners even though the muffins may be easier to eat out of hand. I like the brownish crust on the outside of the muffins and don't find they crumble very easy anyhow.

Cupcakes are a horse of a different color. I don't really like cupcakes but the liners would probably be better for them.

I've found more trouble with muffins sticking when I try to make low fat varieties. I imagine the no-stick pans would work for regular fat muffins.

Jude, you're like me!
I don't bake a lot, and with my bran muffins I love the crust around the edges of the top, and the base being well done.
Cupcakes need liners but neither of us care for those.

It depends on what I want the muffin crust to be like. If it is say, a corn muffin or banana nut muffin, I use crisco. It makes it brown and crunchier. If it is a cakey muffin or a cupcake, like say a blueberry muffin or a chocolate cake cupcake, then I use liners. I still use pam in the liner as I want as much of the cake/muffin to come out of the liner!

I asked if it were necessary to spray a new Wilton muffin tin before I bake a cauliflower bite recipe. I will be trying the recipe in the next few days and let you know how it comes out without using any spray on the muffin tin, first. Appreciate all the comments even though most of them were several years old .

I recently bought a set of silicon muffin cups, which of course are reusable, but I haven't used them yet. When I do, I will post the results. Otherwise, I use paper muffin cups, which might not be suitable for cauliflower, but the silicon should. I threw out one mini muffin pan because I could never get it clean, but it was old and was starting to rust. I may have to invest in some paper mini muffin cups for the future.

Esther -- good information is never too old to be usable here.