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Which cooking oils do you use?

Winnie53

Winnie53

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Location
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Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
Came across this article on "heart-healthy oils" today.

Warning, the article is anti-saturated fats - (which further reinforces my belief that professional organizations for dieticians are owned by the food industry) - but the accompanying bar graph, "Fatty Acid Percentages of Various Oils" and table, "Characteristics of Various Oils" was inclusive of quite a few oils so all was not lost by reading the article - (note the "Click to enlarge" option)...

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/021115p24.shtml

I'm mostly using butter and bacon fat for cooking and olive oil for salads. Working up to cooking with coconut oil. I've read that adding a pinch of salt reduces it's sweet flavor.

Worried about whether or not your olive oil is pure? Learned this last night...

"You can test to see if your olive oil has been cut with soybean, cottonseed, or corn oil. Just put it in your refrigerator. Within a day or two, pure olive oil solidifies. If there is more than 20% of these other oils in it, it will never solidify at refrigerator temperature." - http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/low-carb-cooking.html

Another happy find on this site was two recipes for mayonnaise that don't use soybean oil (or olive oil mixed with soy bean oil)...

- Buttery Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/homemade-mayonnaise-recipe.html

- Bacon Mayonnaise http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/bacon-mayonnaise.html

I miss having my tuna, sweet pickle, and mayonnaise cheddar melts but don't want to eat mayonnaise high in omega-6 fatty acids. I'm going to try making one of these recipes this weekend. :)
 
Salad dressings are generally olive oil. UK Extra Virgin is pretty much 100% olive for various reasons.

For frying/roasting , we use butter, Goose fat, avocado or cold pressed rapeseed oils. We've done the homework and are happy with these.
 
I wish I could rename this topic and also ask what fats people are cooking with too.

Tim, where do you get things like goose fat?

NoCrbs4Me, I'm gluten-free too. What does macadamia nut oil taste like? Did you switch from olive oil for flavor or health? I'm trying to find recipes for vinaigrettes and dressings that I like, also mayonnaise. I made a Caesar dressing two nights ago, but it's solid by the next day from the olive oil - (which is fine, I just warm the jar with hot water).
 
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My husband does the cooking for our main meals and says he's using olive oil and butter for me. I use olive oil and the lighter tasting walnut oil for salad dressings, and usually olive oil or butter for cooking/baking, occasionally my walnut oil for baking, and rarely (as it's so expensive) extra virgin coconut oil for frying.

Robbity
 
Winnie53 said:
Worried about whether or not your olive oil is pure? Learned this last night...

"You can test to see if your olive oil has been cut with soybean, cottonseed, or corn oil. Just put it in your refrigerator. Within a day or two, pure olive oil solidifies. If there is more than 20% of these other oils in it, it will never solidify at refrigerator temperature." - http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/low-carb-cooking.html

:)
Click to expand...
I'm going to try that.
The food industry is so dishonest it's scary.
Google fake honey.
I was reading today about honey laundering .... it's scary!
 
Winnie53 said:
I wish I could rename this topic and also ask what fats people are cooking with too.

Tim, where do you get things like goose fat?

NoCrbs4Me, I'm gluten-free too. What does macadamia nut oil taste like? Did you switch from olive oil for flavor or health? I'm trying to find recipes for vinaigrettes and dressings that I like, also mayonnaise. I made a Caesar dressing two nights ago, but it's solid by the next day from the olive oil - (which is fine, I just warm the jar with hot water).
Click to expand...
It's quite mild tasting. I switched for the omega 3:6 ratio. It's not cheap, though. It's good for frying.
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
I switched from olive oil in my salad dressing to macadamia nut oil. I only sauté with butter or bacon fat. I don't use any other fats/oils.
Click to expand...

Olive oil is good in my book, but not for frying or other high-heat cooking as it oxidises at lower temperatures than other oils. It's very low in Omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and that's good. So I use extra virgin olive oil for salads and home made mayonnaise and I also add it to some cooking near the end when it's just simmering.

I now mainly use cold-pressed rapeseed oil for pan frying and other high heat cooking (though not in the deep fat fryer), like roasting. It's currently very good value in Aldi at £2/500ml bottle. This oil still has Omega 6 in it but much less than corn or sunflower oil and its smoking point is good for high temperature cooking. It does have a strong green colour and can smell a bit cabbagey but you get used to this and taste is not that affected. I sometimes combine with butter for frying.

I can't seem to find macadamia nut oil anywhere locally. It used to be sold by Sainsburys as a salad oil but not recently. It's also very expensive where it is sold. If I could find a decent priced supply I would use this in the deep-fat fryer. I used to use sunflower oil but have used groundnut (peanut) oil for some time now. I have noticed that there is a lot less ***** residue and the oil stays fresh a lot longer.

I am not against saturated fats now, and use quite a lot of butter, but there are problems I find. I quite like the idea of using lard or dripping for frying chips (for the members of the household who can eat chips!) for two reasons; they taste better and certainly compared to sunflower oil which I used to use it should be healthier. But in my experience lard or dripping can get a bit wiffy in the kitchen when used. I am also not sure if it's advisable to use a fat that goes solid at room temperature in a deep fat fryer for safety reasons. I do use left over bacon fat for some recipes.

I haven't yet used coconut oil - part of my family come from the far east and the 'luxury' price of coconut oil here would make my relatives laugh, or gasp - or both. I just find it hard to take £5/300ml (which is at the low end of the price scale here in the UK) seriously. We are being ripped off a treat. But I am sure it would be great for cooking certain dishes where the coconut flavour would work well.

Apart from that I use small amounts of toasted sesame oil as a flavour for some dishes.
 
Winnie53 said:
I wish I could rename this topic and also ask what fats people are cooking with too.

Tim, where do you get things like goose fat?

NoCrbs4Me, I'm gluten-free too. What does macadamia nut oil taste like? Did you switch from olive oil for flavor or health? I'm trying to find recipes for vinaigrettes and dressings that I like, also mayonnaise. I made a Caesar dressing two nights ago, but it's solid by the next day from the olive oil - (which is fine, I just warm the jar with hot water).
Click to expand...

Goose and duck fat is widely available in most supermarkets but can be difficult to find. Sometimes it's placed near the meat section rather than near the rest of the cooking oils and it can be supplied in tins as well as glass jars but not usually in bottles.
 
I would only buy extra virgin olive oil - this is cold-pressed and should not have anything else added to it. It's usually a dark green colour. Other types of olive oil are usually extracted as a second pressing which can include using heat and solvents that do not sound very healthy (no idea if they are or not but I prefer not to use them) plus blended with other oils which I am probably trying to avoid.
 
I use butter, chicken fat, duck fat, lard or coconut oil for frying, sometimes olive oil, depends on what I'm cooking and at what temperature. Olive oil on salads mostly. I have a few different kinds of olive oil and coconut oil for different uses.

What would you suggest as a good oil to use for making mayonnaise?
 
Totto said:
I use butter, chicken fat, duck fat, lard or coconut oil for frying, sometimes olive oil, depends on what I'm cooking and at what temperature. Olive oil on salads mostly. I have a few different kinds of olive oil and coconut oil for different uses.

What would you suggest as a good oil to use for making mayonnaise?
Click to expand...

It depends; I use cold pressed rapeseed (canola) and extra virgin olive oil, with some Dijon mustard, wine vinegar, salt, lemon juice and vinegar and of course egg yolks. My mayo has quite a strong flavour from the oils, mustard and garlic but I like it that way. Macadamia nut oil would make the taste milder if you preferred and without adding unwanted Omega 6.
 
Kat100 said:
I use olive oil ....have done so for many years , long before my diabetes ...
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You can get milder olive than extra virgin but I am not that keen on anything than first cold pressed oils and I think most milder olive oils are extracted that way - please do let me know if I am mistaken :) I'd love to try a mild extra virgin olive oil if it wasn't too expensive.
 
I dug out my food processer a few days ago and am wondering if I can use it to make mayonnaise. I'm still hoping to find my hand blender. Hoping I didn't donate it on one of my purges...

I didn't know until this week that coconut and rapeseed/canola oil have a medium-high smoke point. Perhaps it's better to use fats for pan frying. Not sure. Need to do some more reading on this.
 
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vit90 said:
You can get milder olive than extra virgin but I am not that keen on anything than first cold pressed oils and I think most milder olive oils are extracted that way - please do let me know if I am mistaken :) I'd love to try a mild extra virgin olive oil if it wasn't too expensive.
Click to expand...
I just look,for offers for the extra vigin olive oil ...no not cheap that is right ...
 
Skydog76 said:
because i don't use any
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Ah, I see, I thought it was advice! Sorry.

Why don't you use oils? I find coco nut oil immensely useful and couldn't live without olive oil.

So what fats do use instead of oils?
 
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