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After a definitive answer on the best type of oil for cooking with. I'd always thought that Olive Oil was best, but we had a health day speaker, (not sure of his professional credentials) that suggested that Rape Seed oil was preferable if heated as Olive Oil breaks down during cooking to a higher % of saturated fat.
However, my missis and Google suggest that the highly processed nature and chemicals used to produce Rape Seed oil still makes it less heathy to cook with.
What's actually best - and in fact is there anything even better?
It depends on what you are cooking.
Does it really matter that it’s half the saturated fat at high temperatures? You’re using a small amount of it and EVOO has other benefits. If you’re that bothered about the fat content, use a sprayer rather than drizzle from a bottle.
I wouldn’t look beyond OO and EVOO and wouldn’t concern myself over the health benefits of an alternative. There are far better things you could do with your time and diet.
Butter, but then I'm not healthy...I don't tend to use oil when cooking but a bit of butter always help.
Wouldn't be using OO for stir frying though
However, my missis and Google suggest that the highly processed nature and chemicals used to produce Rape Seed oil still makes it less heathy to cook with.
I'm pretty sure a bit of Google will prove that sunflower oil gives you Ebola.
There's really no such thing as a good oil. As above it depends what you're cooking and how. It depends what precisely you're using (extra virgin for instance is more prone to burning than bog standard) but also how it's produced.
Cold pressed rapeseed oil is exactly that, the highly processed or chemicals nature isn't true. Otoh mass produced cheap as you can anything oil is, not surprisingly, produced in ways that are not so simple, require additional processing and potentially the addition of chemicals to increase the yield from what would be the waste product of traditional pressed stuff.
The idea olive oil is good other stuff is bad is tosh. You can get "good" sunflower oil just as easily as you can get bad olive oil.
Drop frying in olive oil isn't likely to be very pleasant just as adding a huge glug of vegetable oil to your ragu is also likely to be unpleasant.
breaks down during cooking to a higher % of saturated fat
This is BS. The composition of saturated fats won't change with cooking.
The main thing to avoid from a health perspective is excessive heating of the oil - you don't want to go above the smoke point if possible.
Cooking with EV olive oil is not dangerous but is a waste of money as the heat will neutralise many of the beneficial compounds. Refined olive oil is best.
OSR is routinely sprayed with a pre harvest desiccant (like glyphosate), so you won't catch me cooking with it (or eating it) any time soon!
I would continue with olive oil for general purpose cooking.
I thought the reason for using rapeseed or sunflower oils instead of olive oil for cooking was due to the higher smoking/burning temperatures.
IANA food techy person.
iirc the guidance about smoke points and needing higher burning temperatures, mainly comes into play in commercial environments where the oil goes through repeated heating cycles. For home use the impact of exceeding the smoke point/burn temperature just once is inconsequential.
I heard that recently on a podcast with Tim Spector.
Doesn't exceeding the smoke point increase the number of free radicals, in the same way that burning your food does?
I'm not a steak eater so maybe a narrow viewpoint, but I can't remember the last time I heated oil (sunflower, olive or rapeseed) to smoking point whilst cooking, even stirfrying. Which I think makes the whole thing a bit moot.
convert
Full Member
I’m not a steak eater so maybe a narrow viewpoint, but I can’t remember the last time I heated oil (sunflower, olive or rapeseed) to smoking point whilst cooking, even stirfrying. Which I think makes the whole thing a bit moot.
Needs to be smoking for the best Yorkshire puddings!
Cold pressed rapeseed or sunflower oil are not recommended for frying, it says so on the label. I have tried it and it is OK if you keep the temp down, but if you let it get too hot the flavour goes off as well as your smoke alarm. You need to use refined oils for frying.
Needs to be smoking for the best Yorkshire puddings!
Yes but they need beef dripping or lard.
OSR is routinely sprayed with a pre harvest desiccant (like glyphosate), so you won’t catch me cooking with it (or eating it) any time soon!
Why's that then?
British Heart Foundation seem pretty happy with olive oil.
Ordinary bog standard, not extra virgin, is my go to oil for most cooking. Bacon doesn't benefit from it as the bacon fat dominates but olive oil is brilliant for most meat frying (big knob of butter towards the end though) and also makes wonderful fried bread.
Curries I tend to use veg oil and butter (approximates to ghee).
Mind you I love double cream too.
Why’s that then?
OSR is sprayed with glyphosate to make harvesting easier. <br /><br />I have no desire to eat glyphosate because: it damages the gut microbiota; it's a probable carcinogen; it's highly likely there's further undocumented health effects; I don't support the excessive use of herbicides and the entailing environmental pollution.
Just use evoo for everything. Only reason commercial kitchens use rapeseed is because it is significantly cheaper. None of them are using cold press. Mostly they use nasty, heat and chemical processed rapeseed without a care about flavour or your health.
Smoke point as mentioned above is mostly bull in home kitchen too. For evoo it’s over 400 degreees, no one here is hitting that.
Depending on what you are measuring you can make the case that rapeseed is healthy or terrible. On flavour alone I won’t touch it.
Your speaker sounds like most corporate training people… Talk crap for money, hope no one notices.
Thanks all. Well the rapeseed oil we've been using is cold pressed at least, but I reckon it's back to olive when that runs out.
if you let it get too hot the flavour goes off as well as your smoke alarm.
Huh, our downstairs alarm has been a PITA for going of recently, I'd not connected it with the change in oil. No visible smoke though.
Whatever tastes nicest in the recipie?
Rapeseed oil tastes and smells like cabbage 🤮.
Olive oil tastes utterly rank on anything with eggs.
Butter burns at even moderate temperatures.
Various nut oils and sunflower, are pretty much tasteless and don't burn.
If you want something that has half the saturated fat of a tablespoon of olive oil, use half a tablespoon.
Or just stop caring. The ammount of added oil you probably use is tiny compared to food cooked with it as an ingredient or meat, or peanuts, avocado, etc.
Coconut oil here. I don’t think saturated fats are as evil as we’ve been led to believe. Saturated, mono and poly all refer to the number of double carbon bonds within the long chain molecule. A fat can not break down into a saturated fat.
Olive oil tastes utterly rank on anything with eggs.
What? Eggs fried in olive oil are lovely!
I’ve been clarifying butter, it’s great for curries as has a high smoke point, keeps well in and out of the fridge, good flavour too. Lots of different ways of producing it but I just heat gently on the cooker (in a pan!) skim the froth off, pass through kitchen roll/strainer keep in a jar.
unsalted works best but not essential.
Well the rapeseed oil we’ve been using is cold pressed at least,
Does cold pressed not equate to virgin, i.e. unrefined. Which although good mostly, the BHF article above suggests is not so good for high heat use?
just heat gently on the cooker (in a pan!) skim the froth off, pass through kitchen roll
Monster. Those are the best bits.
Skim, seive and then brown off the solids in a separate pan and sprinkle on potatoes, veg etc.
Does cold pressed not equate to virgin, i.e. unrefined. Which although good mostly, the BHF article above suggests is not so good for high heat use?
EV rapeseed oil has a higher smoke point that EV olive oil.
@dangerourbrain yes, I know that but this is STW the land of all that is healthy, how do those brown bits affect your segments?
just heat gently on the cooker (in a pan!) skim the froth off, pass through kitchen roll<br />Monster. Those are the best bits.
Skim, seive and then brown off the solids in a separate pan and sprinkle on potatoes, veg etc.
Jeebus, I only want to soften a few onions to make Spag Bol. Heston Blumenthal I 'aint. 🤣
EV rapeseed oil has a higher smoke point that EV olive oil
Actually is Wikipedia is to be believed unrefined rapeseed has just about the lowest smoke point of all.....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils
What? Eggs fried in olive oil are lovely!
Each to their own, but you're wrong.
Wikipedia has a more complete list of smoke points, including for different modes of processing. The temperatures for the unrefined cold pressed types are lower and easily achievable just by sticking a pan on the hob.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils
PTFE coatings are supposed to be good up to around 250C, which is why you shouldn't do things like dry frying your flatbreads or dry roasting spices on a coated pan.
ETA above for some context.
Whale.
Saves faff of having different oils for cooking and lighting.
how do those brown bits affect your segments
I wouldn't put them on an orange. That would be weird
What? Eggs fried in olive oil are lovely!
Agreed. Plus the left over olive oil can be used for your fried bread which, as I said earlier, works brilliantly.
Or just stop caring<br /><br />
this is about the best advice. Unless you’re deep frying everything or your diet consists entirely of fried food then the tablespoon or so of whatever oil you use to stop stuff sticking to the pan isn’t making any difference to your life
Can I just put a good word in for using more oil at the end of the cook, instead of heating it up at the start. Sesame seed oil dripped on hot noodles, olive oil added to just drained spaghetti... mmmm...
OSR is sprayed with glyphosate to make harvesting easier. <br /><br />I have no desire to eat glyphosate because: it damages the gut microbiota; it’s a probable carcinogen; it’s highly likely there’s further undocumented health effects; I don’t support the excessive use of herbicides and the entailing environmental pollution.
I use cold pressed osr for cooking as thought it was better for roasting/frying and ev olive oil for dressing and pasta. I hadn't realised that glyphosate was used on osr as a desiccant as it can be with wheat. Did a bit of googling after reading that post froms @jamz and it seems it's used on quite a few grains/seeds in the UK. Farmers weekly came up with articles about using diquat to desicate linseed despite being banned for use in most circumstances.
So go organic with the olive oil and risk the bad fats created by high temps or get a higher smoke point oil but get slowly poisoned by herbicides 🤣 I think unless you're eating everything organic (fruit, veg, pasta, grains, bread, rice, meat, diary etc) then might as well stick with the non organic osr...
Elsewhere on STW, someone was bitching about people discussing how to tie shoelaces correctly. It's oil. So long as you're not deep frying in Castrol GTX you're probably good.
Huh, our downstairs alarm has been a PITA for going of recently, I’d not connected it with the change in oil. No visible smoke though.
You shouldn't have a smoke alarm in your kitchen, you should have a heat alarm. Same idea, different technologies.
So long as you’re not deep frying in Castrol GTX you’re probably good.
Stop kink-shaming me I'll do what I damn well like.
Stop kink-shaming me I’ll do what I damn well like.
🤣🤣
So long as you’re not deep frying in Castrol GTX
Castrol R for vegans.
You want that 'Frylite' pump spray. It's probably 90% water ergo low fat...
You want that ‘Frylite’ pump spray. It’s probably 90% water ergo low fat…
But 100% of poisoning victims have water in their system.
And you really don't want to inhale it.
A mate of mine was advocating the other day about getting some sort of spritzer bottle for oil, basically home-made Frylite. I have Frylite on the cupboard but I'm slightly sceptical of oil which is an emulsion before it's hit the pan.
I hope you're using ethically sourced, sustainable snakes.
You can't fry beef in snake oil, makes it go tight.
It's a bouef-constrictor
olive oil added to just drained spaghetti… mmmm…
Exactly, make sure it's nicely coated in oil so it doesn't soak up any flavour from the Bolognese sauce. There really are some deviants in this thread.
I will concede olive oil, parmesan, maybe some pine nuts, and some black pepper on spaghetti is 👌 though.
I use olive, walnut, sesame or coconut - always sparingly.
To stop the oil from 'spitting' add a big knob - ooh er missus - of butter.
If cooking fillet or sirloin steak, dry fry it - or oil the steak,not the pan; essential requirement is a cast iron pan - get it really hot, drop steak in, give it just enough time to start releasing it's fat; turn heat down, flip it over and cook for short time - 2 mins for fillet, 4 - 5 for sirloin; turn heat off, leave steak in pan for 3 - 5 mins then mmmm....
How long so it isn't pink? Absolutely no need to eat the animal whilst it still has life in it!
Vegetable and seed oils are ultra processed and couldn’t exist without being subjected to very high temperatures and other unnatural mechanical extraction techniques.
For best nutritional and health benefits use EVOO, butter, lard and beef dripping.
The main thing here is that when dealing with "dieticians" you need to get their professional title correct or the buggers just ignore you.
It's dietitians. They study dietetics 😉
https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-fats-and-oils
This Zoe podcast about fats has re educated me on what's best to use.
Key points for me: As someone said above in the home setting unless you are reusing oil over and over again in a deep fat fryer you don't have to worry about creating dangerous compounds so can use ev olive for roasting and frying you just lose some of the good stuff by heating.
Besides that I also learned that there's no point particularly in using standard olive oil, apart from cost, unless it's ev as it's been more highly processed and so doesn't have the good stuff in it anymore. They recommend sunflower oil if you want a flavourless oil. Perhaps I will switch to sunflower from rapeseed if it's less likely to be sprayed with glyphosate.