Cooking oil questions

[Mel!]

Hello

I think the difference, in the oils, is in taste, and health properties.
ie olive oil is healthy, while vegetable oil is toxic, to the body.

I think sun light wont harm the oil. But if u leave the oil with an open spout on the counter, u may risk insects going into the spout, especially in Summer.

Mel

[kitchenelf]

Originally Posted by Mel!

while vegetable oil is toxic

That's not quite true. A liquid vegetable oil is a "good" fat. If an ingredient in something says vegetable oil you don't know what kind of vegetable oil it is - then it may very well be hydrogenated, and a bad fat.

[Snoop Puss]

I buy olive oil in large quantities by most people's standards (enough to last a year from one harvest to the next) and store it in the dark. People here in Spain who know more than me about olive oil claim that it deteriorates if exposed to light.

[jennyema]

Originally Posted by Mel!

Hello

I think the difference, in the oils, is in taste, and health properties.
ie olive oil is healthy, while vegetable oil is toxic, to the body.


Mel

Olive oil is vegetable oil.

What evidence to you have of "toxicity?"

[DynArb]

I use sunflower unratified oil. It has the aroma which can't be compared with any other aromas. So natural and appetite! Yum!

[jennyema]

Originally Posted by DynArb

I use sunflower unratified oil. It has the aroma which can't be compared with any other aromas. So natural and appetite! Yum!

Do you mean "unrefined" sunflower oil, maybe?

[Gretchen]

I think Mel may be referring to the very unfounded stuff about canola oil. It is off the wall, in my opinion.
And I have heard about the unrefined oils--peanut, sunflower, etc. Surely wish I could find them. They sound very delicious.
And some vegetable oils apparently do have partially hydrogenated fats in them. KFC has done an extensive study on getting an oil with no trans fats to cook their chicken without compromising the taste and have finally accomplished it, apparently. In the news this week.

[college_cook]

I like to buy peanut oil b/c it can stand high heat, although the brand I purchase is essentially flavorless. If I want to impart flavor with my oil then I use some good extra virgin.

[thymeless]

Originally Posted by Gretchen

And some vegetable oils apparently do have partially hydrogenated fats in them.

Trans fats occur naturally in milk and ruminiant animal fats (for food purposes, cows and sheep)

Hydrogenation is an artificial process, usually resulting in a or some trans fat. Don't confuse it with saturated and unsaturated oils even though they are a related topic. Hydrogenation is a way to artificially increase the saturation of oils.

Many vegetable oils contain some saturated fats among their plentiful unsaturated fats. Those saturated fats are not trans-fats (aka hydrogenated fats).

KFCs problem is that they pressure fry the chicken. That is it is deep fried in a pressure cooker. (every home pressure cooker I've seen explicitly says to not use them to deep fry.)This requires a high smoke point oil and a non foaming oil. That's a difficult combination to achieve without tampering with the oil chemically. Well, more accurately, it costs more to achieve naturally than to do so through hydrogenation.

thymeless

[miniman]

For those who are environmentally aware, try to avoid palm oil, a prime constituent of some vegetable oils as most is from plantations planted on areas cleared from tropical jungle in Borneo destroying the habitat of orangutangs.

miniman