Cooking oils

[shyvas]

Does stir-frying count as frying-frying? I use olive oil when I stir fry veggies.

Yes, it is frying. I always use olive oil and it doesn't smoke as I use the temperature that is recommended.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I don't know that I've ever seen sunflower oil here. (You'd think ot would be all over the place, given my geographical location ) Most stores have vast shelves of corn, canola, and "vegetable" oil, plus a small section of olive oils, and then half a shelf of other oils, such as peanut. Peanut oil is 2-3x as much as the other vegetable oils, and I usually only see giant jugs of it, which are not only very expensive but would be incredibly unwieldy in the kitchen.

We use tons of olive oil, so buy it at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, as it's half as much there. A tiny bottle (half a liter) can be $8-12 at the regular store, but a full liter is $6 at TJ's.
We use olive oil for pretty much all oil needs.

 

[Second Summer]

It seems to me that certain types of olive oil (the non-extra virgin, non-virgin types) are as good as other oils with regard to smoke-point.

Here I've sorted the different oils from the Wikipedia article I linked to earlier on smoke-point temperature:

​

 

[IamJen]

I too, have found little information on the transfat issue. Fwiw, I frequently use rapeseed oil for frying...IS just doesn't know.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Apart from using a flavour infused oil, such as garlic or basil, I cant tell any difference to the taste. Is it all down to the health benefits?

 

[Calliegirl]

I use the same olive oil for dressings and frying. I usually get the one that says it's good for salads and use it for everything (except baking). I'm not rich enough to have separate olive oils for each type of use. I use canola oil for baking.

 

[Envy]

Apart from using a flavour infused oil, such as garlic or basil, I cant tell any difference to the taste. Is it all down to the health benefits?

Also price and the ecological effects.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I'm not good at picking up on delicate or subtle flavors (probably thanks to a lifetime of sinus issues), so I'm pretty sure a "good" olive oil would be completely wasted on me.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Same here Rabbit
If the health benefits come into why people chose one oil over another, I think what you are frying becomes more important than what youre frying in.

 

[mlp]

Virgin olive oil, regardless of the grade, has not been processed with the use of any chemicals. Olive oil that isn't labelled as "virgin" has been processed with the use of chemicals, which changes the chemical structure of the oil.

Cold pressed and extra virgin olive oils will have a stronger flavor than plain virgin olive oil, which is why I actually prefer the latter for many uses.

 

[mlp]

Here's a new study that indicates it is actually the olive oil in the Mediterranean diet that makes the difference as far as heart health and minimizing stroke risk is concerned: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/...-diet-lowers-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/

There were three groups, all of whom avoided red meat and ate specified amounts of chicken, fish, fruit and vegetables. The group eating extra virgin olive oil had the best outcome, followed closely by the group who ate nuts instead of olive oil. The low fat group lagged behind.

The health benefits accrue only from extra virgin olive oil, not regular olive oil.

 

[Calliegirl]

I wonder if eating olives has the same effect?

 

[mlp]

I think you'd have to eat a lot of olives to get 4 tablespoons of oil each day, and that would mean that you'd be eating an awful lot of salt.

 

[Calliegirl]

Good point.
I don't actually like or eat olives , so I didn't realize they were salty.

 

[SummerRain]

I use canola oil for frying and baking, I can't quite remember why... a book from the vegan society said for vegans it was better than sunflower oil because of the amount of omega 3/6... I can't remember the details, just that it recommended using it.

I use olive oil for when it's not being cooked.

 

[Second Summer]

I use canola oil for frying and baking, I can't quite remember why... a book from the vegan society said for vegans it was better than sunflower oil because of the amount of omega 3/6... I can't remember the details, just that it recommended using it.

I use olive oil for when it's not being cooked.

Yes, canola / rapeseed oil is very good wrt the omega 3-to-6 ratio, and I seem to remember sunflower being pretty bad.

 

[SummerRain]

Yeah, I just re-looked it up, and it says in a plant based diet it is easy to get omega-6, and so it's easy to have too much omega-6 relative to omega-3. Sunflower, saffflower and corn oil are higher in omega-6 but olive and rapeseed/canola oil are lower.

I'm not sure whether it is true that non-vegans (i.e. vegetarians and omnis) are also likely to have too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 though. I.e. I'm not sure if this is just a vegan-diet concern.

(BTW the book is "Plant based nutrition and health" by stephen walsh. No idea how accurate the science is, but it's made by the vegan society and I found it very useful. Each chapter is an area of nutrition and at the end it gives practical tips to improve nutrition easily (such as just switching oils, etc) and recommendations. I found it much less overwhelming and confusing than other books.)

 

[Second Summer]

Stephen Walsh and The Vegan Society are usually pretty trustworthy and accurate in my experience / opinion. I wonder if the omega 3/6 ratio and amount of omega 3 for rapeseed oil is valid for all qualities of rapeseed oil, though? (Cold-pressed extra virgin, refined, etc.)

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I'm not sure whether it is true that non-vegans (i.e. vegetarians and omnis) are also likely to have too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 though. I.e. I'm not sure if this is just a vegan-diet concern.

I don't think this is just a veg*n concern. I've read this over and over again, directed at pretty much everyone.
If it were just a veg*n thing, there wouldn't be four shelves of fish oil at every grocery store pharmacy these days.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I finally found sunflower oil in my grocery store. It comes in tiny pint bottles, but costs as much as a quart of olive oil.

So I'll just stick with olive and canola for my cooking needs.