What oil do you use to fry food?

From what I have read on the LCHF posts and lots of recipes the preferred choice is coconut oil.

Coconut oil, animal fats, depending what I'm eating, goose fat, duck fat, even lard!
Butter is very popular, but I can't do butter! Have done bacon fat etc.

Don't touch nowt else, have heard that unless you get olive oil from source you don't know what you are getting. All vegetable oil, rape seed and the like are not recommended.

Gezzabelle said:

It Isn't hard to get confused is it lol...so basically it is all the ones we were told NOT to use and to avoid the ones were were told to use that were meant to be so healthy....thank you

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Yes, you have it now, you think you are confused!

It was the recommended NICE, NHS, diet that made me so ill! But of course they didn't have a clue about what they were doing.

Just to add a vote for butter and coconut oil for cooking. Also duck/goose fat from a jar or after a roast, and even chicken schmaltz, if that's the right word. Basically, saturated fats which do not get damaged when heated.

NHS, I don't even try any more... I feel much safer taking my health into my own hands and informing myself on this forum.

Olive oil is an unsaturated fat and believed to be better ( it is very close to the body's oil i.e lipids that form the cell membrane in all the cells in uor body), i love butter. Fried potatoe will lessen the chance of a bg spike as the fat/oil slows down the absorption of carbohydrate mash potatoe may cause a spike unless you add a lot of butter ;-)

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It is said that Rape seed oil is best, lowest sat fats.... but I find it tastes like something really nasty.... so I stick to EOO, butter and or coconut oil, the latter has a pretty strong flavour, which suits some foods better than others.... imho....

Gezzabelle said:

I have some rapeseed oil spray that has all but nothing of anything in it..makes me wonder if it has been processed to death

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It probably has, at very high temperatures, according to Mark Sisson: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healthy-oils/#axzz3ayNLyvxj

What you want to avoid is polyunsaturates. That means all cooking oils except olive oil (which is monounsaturated). And all sat fats are good. Including butter unless you have a special reason for avoiding it.

Two extra things: if you see clarified butter in the shops, try that. Provided it tastes nice, that's even better than butter as it has no milk solids.

You can also get coconut oil modified so it no longer tastes of coconut.

Don't be afraid of sat fat. Thats the whole point of the recent change of heart.

LucySW said:

What you want to avoid is polyunsaturates. That means all cooking oils except olive oil (which is monounsaturated). And all sat fats are good. Including butter unless you have a special reason for avoiding it.

Two extra things: if you see clarified butter in the shops, try that. Provided it tastes nice, that's even better than butter as it has no milk solids.

You can also get coconut oil modified so it no longer tastes of coconut.

Don't be afraid of sat fat. Thats the whole point of the recent change of heart.

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Will you stop mentioning butter!

Next will be, what can I fry my chip butties in?

I also like Kerrygold.

Gezzabelle, for the most part I only use [whispers "butter"] for pan frying meat and vegetables, but I am collecting bacon grease in the fridge - http://www.ehow.com/how_4523256_store-bacon-grease.html I haven't looked at other animal fats.

This article is helpful... http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.html

Lots of disagreement on this topic, though I think most here, rare exceptions excluded, are in agreement to NOT use polyunsaturated cooking oils at all.

I encourage you to do your do your own research. A place to start is to do a search on "cooking oil smoke points". It's confusing though. I read one thing on the lists then something different on the cooking oil's label - (typically it's a lower smoke point).

After reading a lot of lists, articles, and labels, I finally settled on refined high oleic organic sunflower oil with a smoke point of 450 degrees F for all cooking purposes, including making mayonnaise, but it's expensive.

I think it's okay to cook with coconut oil for sautéing or low temperature pan frying, though probably not for caramelizing vegetables. I prefer butter for that, partly because of it's flavor.

I just looked at the label on my extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). It's suggested uses are "dressings, marinades, bread dipping". "Marinades" surprises me. I don't think they're referring marinading meats to be cooked on the grill. I've been told to not heat EVOO, which is confusing because so many recipes use olive oil.

Let us know what you choose.

I have just knocked up a chicken Korma for tomorrow.
Chicken fried in a mix of rape and red palm oil.
Something someone gave me to try.
I usually use olive oil, butter, coconut oil, beef dripping.

According to my go-to source for nutritional info (Mark Sisson), cooking with EVO is OK, except maybe at exceptionally high temperatures (which I'd avoid anyway because of the acrylamide issue):

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/defending-olive-oils-reputation/#axzz3b0ShYwjY

Indy51, is that what he's saying? I re-read that part of the article twice. I think he's saying on the one hand it's okay if you're really careful, but on the other hand perhaps it's better to use it in other ways. He's also discussing two things: storage of the oil and cooking with the oil.

"But then there’s this study, in which subjects were given heated olive oil meals, heated safflower oil meals, unheated olive oil meals, and unheated safflower oil meals. Both of the heated oils and the unheated safflower oil resulted in elevated postprandial oxidative markers, while eating unheated olive oil resulted in none. Note, though, that the olive oil was probably refined or light (otherwise they would have called it “virgin” or “extra virgin”) and thus devoid of significant phenolics with antioxidant properties. Also, the oils were heated at 210 degrees C (410 degrees F) for eight hours, which seems excessive. The home cook sauteeing some shrimp and onions in white wine and EVOO is unlikely to hit 210 degrees C, let alone stay there for eight hours."

...

"Keep your intake moderate, don’t use it as a frying staple, choose the good stuff, and try to use it mostly at room temperature. I find that the culinary benefits of extra virgin olive oil (the taste, the pepperiness, the subtle depth) and the nutritional benefits (the phenolics, primarily) become heightened when added at room temperature (or at the most gently warmed) to dishes. I love butter and ghee and coconut oil as much as anyone, but the undercurrent of fear surrounding the exposure of olive oil to slightly elevated temperatures and to oxygen is unfounded and, in my opinion, misguided."

This was a big issue in our household because my husband loves to use olive oil in everything. I did too. I used it in baked items - (though not when entertaining guests due to it's off taste) - and we used it when roasting vegetables in the oven. It took us a while to break these ingrained habits, and to this day, I keep a sharp eye on my husband when we're cooking.

I love EVOO and regularly use it at room temperature on salads or warmed and mixed butter to add to steamed vegetables.

If I pay attention, I can cook on the stovetop without overheating butter in the pan, so likely could do the same with EVOO but I'm easily distracted when cooking so fear I'd overheat it.

My bad - that'll show me for not reading the whole article in detail

I hardly ever use olive oil myself because I prefer the taste of macadamia and avocado, but I rarely cook with either except in marinades. If I'm cooking with oil (which I hardly ever do as using fatty cuts of meat I find they usually have enough oil without adding more ), I use coconut, ghee or dripping. I never use deep frying as a method of cooking and try to avoid cooking at high temperatures in general.

Indy51, we've done much the same. We use butter to pan fry meat, and don't fry foods in oil anymore. It's not that healthy, and it's expensive too. Though, I'll always miss eating a small potato sliced and pan fried in oil.