Cooking Oil

I agree with you makemeshiver, peanut oil leaves foods tasting strange.

Have you tried a few drops of sesame oil?

I haven't. You mean as a seasoning, Satt?

Okay, I just invested three bucks, American, in a bottle of sunflower oil. It was next to a jug of safflower oil like Osso mentioned, so I suppose they are not the same thing.

Sesame oil is good oil but it has too strong a flavor and it will be used as a seasoning. You could use it as entire cooking oil, of course.

I've used sesame oil w some asian cooking but I haven't done that in a while. I seem to remember adding it at the end...

Complicating matters, California/groves have been fostering some long lost types of olives. Some years will have to pass..

I'm no expert on all of this. - at the least, I have the wrong nose.

Tis a mess - the whole thing of getting a product out in a chain store. I can barely tolerate any olive from most grocery stores. Crass, crass.

I do sort of like the new almond stuffed green whatsit from Mezzetta. Relatively speaking.

Where did I mention safflower oil?

My mother probably used that... (not that it's bad, just that I am not familiar.

I'll add that I think peanut oil - not checking with wikipedia as I say this, takes the highest temps.

But I never fry like that so it doesn't matter to me and I've never used peanut oil.

So it goes.

Vegetable oils such as corn and safflower are high in Omega-6 fatty acids as are peanut oils (which is a legume... not a nut). If Omega-6 fatty acids sounds famliar, it is probably because you have heard of Omega-3 fatty acids before. Both omega6 and omega 3 fatty acids are essential acids to humans and must be consumed, however Americans consume way to many omega6 acids and way to few omega3 acids.

Excessive Omega 6 acids have been known to be disease causing (due to their inflammatory properties). Diseases include: heart disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis, and depression.

Most vegetable oils are consumed in processed foods (check the label... it is almost always vegetable oil).

Oils that are low in omega6 acids and high in omega3 acids (Which have anti-inflammatory properties) include olive, fish and coconut oils.

I use olive oil for nearly everything including baking. I would imagine that coconut oil would be good for those who dislike the taste of olive oil in their bakery items.

Olive oil, as a healthy option to use for frying, is a bit of a fallacy. All the good properties of Olive oil break down when heated, and it ends up as being no more a healthy option than ordinary corn oil.

15 W 40

Cooking does destroy some of the healthy things in olive oil, but it does not make it as unhealthy as vegetable oil. So while it may lose some of its "healthy" attributes when it is used in cooking, it does not become an "un-healthy" option like vegetable oil is.

That's what I was going to say, JP, except I got sidetracked by the NYC plane crash...

Refined olive oil can be taken for anything at least up to 210°C (410°F)

One needn't use a multiviscosity oil for cooking. Not hazardous, necessairly; just unnecessary.