Mind the oil used for cooking

[osim]

bzb:

So for frying food you use sesame + peanut oil because it is more stable under hing heat. Which brand of these oil mixture you choose?

Also for olive oil, it has many different grades: virgin, extra virgin, 1st pressed, cold pressed. Which one you use for sauteing?

I am not so technical with the types of oil. I go for the fragrance. I like extra virgin olive oil because the olive smell is more intense and I use it on salad too. It helps if you heat your pan hot then add the oil.

For deep frying, I use cock brand.

[HAPPYH]

bzb:

While having a brisk-wailking at night in the city, I came to take a rest in a restaurant at Clarke Quey. On the table there is this specialty in the menu of the restaurant that wrote something like this:-


\"We use healthy olive oil to fry your food\"...

Dear ksp, do you have a voice on this?

Olive oil is perceived as healthy oil because of it's higher content of omega-3 essencial fatty acids as compared to other cooking oil. Omega-3 is well-known for protecting our heart, lowering the chorestyerol level and improving blood circulation.

But is it appropriate to use olive oil to fry food? As to what I know, food frying is done in high temperature. And high heat can destroy the good Omega...

Yes, you are right. At high temperature, omega 3 will become saturated fatty acid. We don't need to pay such a high price when there is no benefit.

[bzb]

Thanks all for the contribution.

Thus the important thing abt olive oil is not to over heat it till reaching the smoke point. Below is the for smoke point for different types of oil to share…

Fat\tQuality\t Smoke Point
Almond oil\t\t216°C
Avocado oil\tRefined\t271°C
Avocado oil\tUn-Refined, Virgin\t190-204°C
Butter\t\t121–149°C
Canola oil\tExpeller Press\t190-232°C
Canola oil\tHigh Oleic\t246°C
Canola oil\tRefined\t204°C
Castor oil\tRefined\t200°C
Coconut oil\tExtra Virgin (Unrefined)\t177°C
Coconut oil\tRefined\t232°C
Corn oil\tUnrefined\t178°C
Corn oil\tRefined\t232°C
Cottonseed oil\t\t216°C
Flax seed oil\tUnrefined\t107°C
Ghee (Indian Clarified Butter)\t\t252°C
Grapeseed oil\t\t216°C
Hazelnut oil\t\t221°C
Hemp oil\t\t165°C
Lard\t\t188°C
Macadamia oil\t\t210°C
Mustard oil\t\t254°C
Olive oil\tExtra virgin\t191°C
Olive oil\tVirgin\t199°C
Olive oil\tPomace\t238°C
Olive oil\tExtra light\t242°C
Olive oil, high quality (low acidity)\tExtra virgin\t207°C
Palm oil\tDifractionated\t235°C
Peanut oil\tUnrefined\t160°C
Peanut oil\tRefined\t232°C
Rice bran oil\t\t213°C
Safflower oil\tUnrefined\t107°C
Safflower oil\tSemirefined\t160°C
Safflower oil\tRefined\t266°C
Sesame oil\tUnrefined\t177°C
Sesame oil\tSemirefined\t232°C
Soybean oil\tUnrefined\t160°C
Soybean oil\tSemirefined\t177°C
Soybean oil\tRefined\t238°C
Sunflower oil\tUnrefined\t107°C
Sunflower oil\tSemirefined\t232°C
Sunflower oil, high oleic\tUnrefined\t160°C
Sunflower oil\tRefined\t227°C
Tea seed oil\t\t252°C
Vegetable shortening\t\t182°C
Walnut oil\tUnrefined\t160°C
Walnut oil\tSemirefined\t204°C

[fable]

Good thing to think about. But using olive oil is generally ok, especially if its not extra virgin, because deep frying temperature is about 190 degrees. My preference is rice bran oil.

[osim]

fable:

Good thing to think about. But using olive oil is generally ok, especially if its not extra virgin, because deep frying temperature is about 190 degrees. My preference is rice bran oil.

I don't think anyone will use extra virgin olive oil for deep frying. It's too expensive.

[osim]

bzb:

Thanks all for the contribution.

Thanks to YOU, for providing the list of smoke point of the different oils.

[bzb]

Osim, with the key word "smoke point" you provide, I got this list from Google

After researching, found out that the best olive oil for salad and pasta is cold pressed… This technique press out the oil at a controlled room/low temperature to preserve the fatty acid. It also do not undergo unneccessary processes such as refining. As I belived once the food needs additional processing, it is just meant for extracing the most out of that natural fruit to increase the yeilds thus profits as a whole. I’m looking for which is the best brand to buy.

[osim]

bzb,


I am impress by your enthusiasm with cooking oil. I am quite flexible with brand. Bertoulli ( not sure of spelling), or Borges are quite good. The latter is cheaper and has promo more often.

[bzb]

Sometimes food without oil really taste weird While with little bit of oil makes cooking easier. Tried using non-stick pan or whaever, later found out that those coating on the pan is not realiable and is not human-safe.

So die die still need oil... But the main culprit of casuing high cholestrol is this saturated fat and I am trying to keep the cholestrol level in between the range.
My spouse got me 2 bottles of Natural Extra Virgin and 1 Carepelli 1st cold pressed... why do I need so many bottles at once...
Thanks Osim. I will go to the store to take a look what are the price differences.

[osim]

Talking about price comparison between same products of different brands. I was in Australia last week. Went shopping for grocery at WoolsWorth supermarket. I notice for every product, other than giving the price per item, they also give the price per unit. The unit can be 1 liter, 1kg, 10 pieces, etc. I suppose they choose the unit based on the product category. I find this information so useful as one can easily compare the different brands. I hope Singapore will some day do the same so I don’t have to use calculator.


As for saturated fat. There is much talk about trans fat being worse than saturated fat and also about butter being better then margarine. There is also some talk from Richard Seah’s website (he is a macrobiotic specialist and has a blog called Health Promotion Blog) about Singapore and Malaysia products being trans fat free as they do don’t use the so called fractioning process. It’s all so cheem, but if you are keen you can read about it.