Cooking Oil

It really depends on what you are making. I like olive oil best for cooking and salads. but wouldn't use it for baking sweets or for popping popcorn. (because of the taste).

I didn't want to admit it right off, but I mostly use oil for cooking hamburgers and sometimes potatos. In other words fried foods. Thanks for the suggestions so far, though.

Well, I do use an olive oil/vinegar concoction for salads sometimes.

I use extra virgin olive oil for most everything. I really probably shouldn't, but I never get a taste off of it that bothers me.

Since we didn't have any regular (canola) oil when I baked a carrot cake recently, I used the extra-virgin instead. The cake is delish!

I've no problem with the taste of olive oil. Maybe I use to hot a skillet, but it has a distinct tendency to burn and make things stick. Surely I'm not the only person on a2k that eats fried foods. Surely?

Have you tried soy or peanut oil?

I don't seem to have much of a problem with burning/ sticking. We cook stir-fries (which are by definition fried, right?) and scrambled eggs and all manner of things.

There DOES seem to need to be some sort of alchemy of a specific temperature, which I've sort of figured out but couldn't tell you what to do. Something about hot but not too hot. (See?)

yeah, just turn the stove top down a notch.

Unfortunately, some kinds of cookery do require the use of a saturated fat such as lard or palm oil. They do tend to be at hotter temperatures than 'usual' cooking. Butter is definitely out as that will burn.

I've never had a problem with using canola or sunflower oil, even when deep-frying. Extra-virgin olive oil is really best for salads and the like, bit of a waste for fried foods.

Well, soy, peanut, and sunflower oil. I'll give them all a fair chance then, but not all at once. The stuff does last a long time. Thanks.

I also use olive oil, but it started sticking. I decided to buy new frying pans (Silverstone) because they tend to wear out after a year or so.
After that, no more problems with the olive oil.

I have noticed that nonstick doesn't mean nonstick forever, Colorbook. That is another solution.

Rog - peanut is almost solely used for stir-frying and Asian dishes, it has a stronger flavour than other oils. But it can be used for deep-frying.

When I deep-fry, I always use plenty of oil (at least 500mls) and wait till the oil is good and hot before adding the food. This seals the food, stopping moisture from getting into the oil.

When it is still hot/warm I drain it through kitchen paper to remove any food-stuffs that would contaminate the oil and usually toss it away after 3 uses. It can't be used for any other cooking purpose.

Thanks for staying with it, Mr Stillwater. I'll take the peanut oil off the list and try the sunflower next. Believe it or not, I've wondered about this for some time.

roger, I know that I am not hep to this modern stuff but I still use LARD....and until a few years ago rendered all my own lard from my own hogs.

It stands up to the heat alright, dys, and my corn oil isn't bad in that respect either. Just trying to get some healthy stuff without changing lifestyle or habits. What the world needs is a good, healthy .50/pack cigarette. Till then, sunflower oil will be my next experiment.

Deep fried olives taste best done in olive oil.

Lard is better than trans fats (hydrogenated whatever), methinks and so is real butter.

On frying, I have never deep fried, as I am a ninny about flames reaching to the ceiling and catching my sleeve, etc., your basic chicken. But I do saute frequently, and choose the oil to go with the ingredients. Since I seem to have a magnetized eye for italian ingredients, I do use olive oil a lot, and when I am sauteing with it, I don't use the best. Save the really good stuff for salads, and maybe make it even better... there are lots of levels of good olive oils.
There is a mix at my italian deli, a sad specimen of italian delis but all I've got around here, that is a canola olive oil mix. Cheaper than olive oil, prob burns a little hotter.

Canola and olive are monosaturates, which are rated best for keeping the good fats high and the baddies low.

I've read - but, oh, where? - that higher temps bring higher carcinogens or whatever the questionable byproducts are. Burny bits are apparently suspect.

But that works out, since I am pretty interested in braising for various reason anyway. Tender flavorful meat relatively slowly, even very slowly, cooked. Cav has done a thread or two on braising, I think. And my favorite porchetta is a braise.

I don't remember about corn and safflower. Corn appeals to me because... I like corn. I have never cottened on to safflower, seems sort of manufactured, but I have no basis for that assumption. Peanut oil has long been the choice for
deep fat frying because of the temps it can bear. But since I don't do that, I am peanutoilless.

Your peons refuse to work!! Crack that whip man!

Down here in the south....most of us use Vegetable Oil for frying....and contrary to popular belief about us down here, most of us hate peanut oil. We have a few food chains that tried that with chicken. YUCK! They didn't last.

I had a mother in law that used lard.....for everything. I didn't take me long to figure out that my new family had 5 major food groups.....LARD, FRIED MEAT, MASHED POTATOES, MILK AND BREAD! I caught her putting it in her mashed potatoes one day, and that wound me up there! Talk about packing on the pounds......GRRR

Olive oil...I love to use for a base to a marinade for grilling. It seems to help tenderize it.