Purposes of Oils

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

dc2123

Cook
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
77
Location
NYC
I was curious what the purposes and uses were for different oils and which ones to avoid.
 
I use three types here at home. Extra virgin olive oil, canola oil and grape seed oil.

I use olive oil every day. Its my go to oil for anything sauted. I love the flavor.
I use canola oil for frying. Deep frying to be precise.
I use grape seed oil for high heat frying as its smoke point is higher than the other two. It like canola has little to no flavor.
 
What Roll_Bones said. Olive oil is used just about every day. Canola oil for frying but for really high heat Grapeseed is the best.
 
If you use peanut oil to make a Cajun roux, I think it gives a much richer flavor than any other oil.
 
Peanut oil has a very high smoke point. It may not be the highest but it's more than adequate.

There is a difference between "American" peanut oil and "Asian" peanut oil. The former is more refined and has little or no peanut flavor. The latter is less refined and has a pronounced flavor. You smell peanuts as soon as you open the bottle. I use the Asian peanut oil for Asian dishes and other high temp work.

I also keep corn oil and EVOOs on hand. The corn oil is also a high temp oil and gets used when the flavor of the oil is not important to the dish and in baking. The EVOO is what I reach for most often as it is both healthful and versatile. It's not as high heat tolerant as the others.

I don't use canola as I used to get a fishy smell on occasion when using it.
 
Last edited:
I was curious what the purposes and uses were for different oils and which ones to avoid.

For me (and this won't be everyone's choice):

EVOO, walnut oil, cold pressed rape seed oil - mainly for salad dressings although I use EVOO when sautéing things quickly (It's no good for deep frying, regardless of what you might read in old cookery books, because it has a low smoke point.)

Sunflower oil and ordinary rapeseed oil* for deep-frying although I don't fry much. (Useful for adding to butter when frying as it prevents the butter from burning but doesn't affect the taste.)

Mustard oil for fish curries although I believe it is not cleared for food use in the USA

Personally, I don't like corn oil because it seems to me to leave a "clarty" feeling on your tongue and the roof of your mouth after you've eaten stuff cooked in it and IMO it's equally nasty in salad dressings.

We don't use much oil in baking in the UK as most recipes specify butter or margarine but when a recipe does crop up I would probably use sunflower oil as it's fairly light flavoured. Personally I think EVOO is a bit "in your face" flavourwise in cakes.

*I think but I'm not sure that rape seed oil is called canola in North America*
 
I use EVOO for salad dressings only. (too expensive for cooking with so I get a good bottle)

I use sunflower oil for all cooking. It has no discernible flavour and works in most recipes.

I have other oils too. And I never use them.

So, two oils. One for cooking and one for using as part of the dressing in salads.
 
Oils I avoid & oils I use.

I reach for palm oil the most, then coconut. I'm fussy about GMOs and Omega-3s so I just don't bother with most other types of oil. I also use organic butter - or imported if I'm feeling rich or making something special.

I invested in quality walnut, avocado, almond oils and a really good extra virgin olive oil that I use mostly for vinaigrettes over salads (since I can't handle the thick, bottled kind at all any more).

Oh and a toasted sesame for stir fries and such!
 
Last edited:
Oils I avoid & oils I use.

I reach for palm oil the most, then coconut. I'm fussy about GMOs and Omega-3s so I just don't bother with most other types of oil. I also use organic butter - or imported if I'm feeling rich or making something special.

I invested in quality walnut, avocado, almond oils and a really good extra virgin olive oil that I use mostly for vinaigrettes over salads (since I can't handle the thick, bottled kind at all any more).

Oh and a toasted sesame for stir fries and such!
I just read this yesterday: Adulterated olive oil: How to find out if your extra-virgin is really extra-virgin.
Scary stuff. I really don't want any soy oil mixed into my olive oil. I'm not supposed to eat soy. Apparently it is difficult to test for adulterants in a lab. To make matters worse, apparently some labs are accepting bribes from the shady olive oil producers. There are Italian police who have been trained to smell the adulterants!

I think I'll be switching to a friend's brand of EVOO. He is friends with the guy who grows the olives and produces the oil. Yes, it's pricey. I'll just have to find out how pricey.
 
Canola oil can smell fishy, especially when it gets hot. I quit using it for that reason.

I use evoo for pretty much everything.

Peanut oil for stir frying.

Sesame oil for Korean.
 
You will never see extra virgin olive oil hit a pan in my kitchen. It wastes your money and ruins the flavor of the oil. I use extra virgin olive oil for finishing and drizzling only.

For sautéing, I use light tasting olive oil. For deep frying, I use canola oil, and for woking the dog, I use peanut oil.
 
I use EVOO for a lot of frying, not deep frying. I find that a bottle of EVOO seems to stay fresh longer if you use it all the time. When I miser my EVOO and only use it for vinaigrettes, etc., I find it doesn't take all that long before it develops a stale odour.
 
Asian peanut oil?

I use extra virgin olive oil most, peanut oil for frying, and whatever veg. oil is cheapest to oil cast iron and unsqueak hinges:).
Peanut oil has a very high smoke point. It may not be the highest but it's more than adequate.

There is a difference between "American" peanut oil and "Asian" peanut oil. The former is more refined and has little or no peanut flavor. The latter is less refined and has a pronounced flavor. You smell peanuts as soon as you open the bottle. I use the Asian peanut oil for Asian dishes and other high temp work.
...
Thanks Andy. This is new and useful info. It seams the "Asian peanut oil" is made from roasted peanuts. I'm used to paying about $15 a gallon for Louann peanut oil. Loriva is a domestic roasted peanut oil selling online for $4.37 for 12.7 ounces. Is this the type of product you mean?
 
Is Your "Olive Oil" Really Olive Oil?

Yeah. Taxlady. ~.~ It's amazingly frustrating to try and figure out what you're buying in the USA; our labeling "laws" favor the producer / importer / food corporations way more than the consumer

Obviously people are free to choose and buy whatever they want - and people seem to be oddly proud and protective of their right to choose unhealthy "foodlike stuff" - so more power to them. What ticks me off is that I want to choose the REAL oil (and real food ... etc.) but the reality is what is in the bottle, can or box is purposefully obfuscated because it's legal, and acceptable, for companies to mislead and outright lie.
 
Is Your "Olive Oil" Really Olive Oil?

Yeah. Taxlady. ~.~ It's amazingly frustrating to try and figure out what you're buying in the USA; our labeling "laws" favor the producer / importer / food corporations way more than the consumer

Obviously people are free to choose and buy whatever they want - and people seem to be oddly proud and protective of their right to choose unhealthy "foodlike stuff" - so more power to them. What ticks me off is that I want to choose the REAL oil (and real food ... etc.) but the reality is what is in the bottle, can or box is purposefully obfuscated because it's legal, and acceptable, for companies to mislead and outright lie.
I hear ya. People ask what kind of foods I'm picky about. Well other than the estrogenic stuff I'm not supposed to eat, it's I want food made of food. :LOL:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom