Cooking Oil - what do you use?

[schweppes]

Busymom:

Do you use this for all your cooking or only baking certain dishes?

We also use sea salt, but just the ordinary ones.

i have the normal sea salt too. Usually get Maldon sea salt - maybe it's because I get my recipes from reading Nigella Lawson and Jamie O's cookbooks and they usually mention Maldon sea salt.

haha... sounds so atas right? Feel like a food snob. lol

[Busymom]

schweppes:

Busymom:

Do you use this for all your cooking or only baking certain dishes?

We also use sea salt, but just the ordinary ones.

i have the normal sea salt too. Usually get Maldon sea salt - maybe it's because I get my recipes from reading Nigella Lawson and Jamie O's cookbooks and they usually mention Maldon sea salt.

haha... sounds so atas right? Feel like a food snob. lol

Atas meh? This is called know how to enjoy life :imcool: :celebrate:

...but me suaku... Don't know them :oops:

[tinkertinker10]

I just attended a healthy workshop for cooking and the chief use coconut oil for baking as well.

[janet88]

I use olive oil for frying eggs…corn oil for cooking other dishes.

[onlyoliveoil]

SAHM_TAN:

I'm also confuse abt the olive oil. I'm not sure which type to use.

Normal cooking temperature is between 160-190°C. Ideal frying temperature is about 180°C.

On the other hand, the smoke point of the extra virgin olive oil is between 190-215°C, depending on its quality. The lower the Free Fatty Acid (FFA), the higher the smoke point.

A smoke point is defined as the oil begins to smoke and starts to form unhealthy compounds when heated over its tolerable limit.

Therefore, use extra virgin olive oil for low to medium temperature frying, and use pure or extra light olive oil or other cooking oils for deep frying.

Do note that pure or extra light olive oils are \"refined oil\", which have undergone chemical refinement and using heat and water in the extraction process. It is flavourless and odourless, and most, if not all of the nutrients have been lost during the extraction process.

Extra virgin olive oil is the highest grade among the olive oils. It is produced directly from the olives and does not use chemical, heat or water. Hence people call it \"olive juice\".

For health and flavour, use extra virgin olive oil to prepare your meals. For frying, also consider using extra virgin olive oil as much as you can, for example when we fry vegetables or eggs. In this case, we could reap the health benefits from both ingredients.

An illustration of how extra virgin olive oil could be best used: We make our chili oil using extra virgin olive oil. As it is an \"olive juice\", we feel safe to use the chili oil, instead of the traditional cooking oils where they are \"refined oils\" where chemical solvents have been used to make the oils.

For more information, please read the article at http://onlyoliveoil.vas.com.sg/use/

[onlyoliveoil]

schweppes:

cherrygal:

Yup, butter can eat but in moderation. When baking, use butter instead of vegetable shortening. Actually, coconut oil (not palm) is also good for baking - nice aroma and has health benefits. Not cheap...

I have decided to follow the dietician's advice so I am alternating the oils I buy. Just finished a bottle of canola and canola-olive blend so I went to buy pure peanut oil.

One thing about soy or corn oil is they make the kitchen very sticky. Some pple say that means the oil sticks to your arteries as well... dunno if true.

i heard about coconut oil being good for cooking and baking too. but thought coconut oil can bring about high cholesterol? or is that coconut milk instead? am a bit confused with the benefits of using coconut oil for cooking.

have u tried it? if yes, can share what brand is good?

Whenever we see butter, we can replace it with olive oil. It is healthier. Other people have written about it. You can read one here http://thepassionateolive.com/wp/baking ... of-butter/

[onlyoliveoil]

schweppes:

cherrygal:

[quote=\"Busymom\"]
Yes, I have read somewhere that coconut oil is good, but will read up more about it. Thanks for sharing

By the way, why must buy virgin grade coconut oil? Non-virgin grade not good enough?

I have not seen non-virgin grade coconut oil leh. Dun see them in the supermarkets too...

So far, they are marketing coconut oil as a health product.

:scratchhead: maybe extra virgin grade is supposed to be the more superior quality - just like in olive oil?[/quote]Here is an article you can read to find out the difference between coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. The benefits of coconut oil only surface up recently.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/j ... rt-health/

There are places that sell extra virgin coconut oil but it is very expensive.

For a starter, use premium quality extra virgin oil in your daily culinary preparation. Extra virgin olive oil has been proven a health and heart healthy oil. It contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidants as well as monounsaturated fatty acid which are very good to our health.

Please read this article for the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil http://onlyoliveoil.vas.com.sg/health

You can buy World's Best Premium Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Singapore at a very affordable price. Please visit http://buyoliveoil.vas.com.sg

[MyPillow]

Any comments on rice bran oil?

[onlyoliveoil]

MyPillow:

Any comments on rice bran oil?

Rice Bran Oil is a healthy oil too, and has a higher smoke point. Good for deep frying, i.e. high- temperature cooking/frying. But use it with care. Explanation is below.

It has Vitamin E more than extra virgin olive oil. Both have the antioxidants needed by our body. The health benefits are very much similar to extra virgin olive oil.

However, Rice Bran Oil has high polyunsaturated fatty acid, about 35% versus the polyunsaturated fatty acid in extra virgin olive oil which is only about 11%.

Polyunsaturated fat consists of omega-3 and omega-6. Too much of omega-6 is not good to our health - it is pro-inflammatory, especially if we are taking meat at the same time, this will increase the omega-6 in our body and hence causing problems. Whereas omega-3 is anti-inflammatory.

The best ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:1 but 1:5 or in between is considered good or balanced, and in US, it is 1:10 according to studies.

The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in Rice Bran Oil is 1:35 because it virtually does not have omega-3 in it. Whereas the ratio for extra virgin olive oil is about 1:10.

Moreover, Rice Bran Oil is not cold extracted being a seed oil. Hence, chemical refining and high heat are involved in the extraction process where good nutrients are likely lost. Being a seed oil, we also have to be careful that it is not a genetic modified seed, like canola oil. For reading http://draxe.com/canola-oil-gm/

I think it is important for us to treat each cooking oil as a tool just like we would when we are using technology to improve our productivity - each one has its advantage and disadvantage.

I will advocate using different cooking oils for different purposes. My suggestion is to use extra virgin olive oil to fry vegetables, eggs or other meals that required low to medium temperature frying so that we could reap the benefits of both ingredients used in preparing the meals.

And use other cooking oils for high temperature frying - anyway we should try to avoid deep- frying food as generally it may not be good to our health though deep frying may give out good taste.

Extra virgin olive oil has one advantage that other cooking oils do not normally enjoy, besides its health-enhancing and heart healthy benefits, and that is, it has aroma and flavour that could enhance our meals.

For reading about Rice Bran Oil, here is one article you may refer to http://preventdisease.com/news/13/02111 ... ages.shtml

To read more about extra virgin olive oil, you can refer to http://onlyoliveoil.vas.com.sg/health

Extra virgin olive oil and its use http://onlyoliveoil.vas.com.sg/use/

To buy World's Best Premium Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Singapore at an affordable price http://buyoliveoil.vas.com.sg

If you are interested to find out why it offers affordable price for World's Best Premium Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you can read the story at http://onlyoliveoil.vas.com.sg/vas-sav

[janet88]

Either sunflower or canola oil.