what is your standard cooking oil?

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Peanut oil for deep frying and stir frying, butter for eggs. Can't stand "canola" rapeseed oil due to the slightly fishy smell (must be that omega whatever compounds). Don't mind using olive oil but its pretty expensive. I can even taste the soybean oil in some mayo. Tried coconut but for some reason didn't like it. I guess the taste doesn't go with the other food I'm cooking it with. I don't think there are perfectly neutral oils and it's how the oil tastes in conjunction with the ingredients and what you are used to tasting that determines your preferences for cooking oil.
 
Canola =/= rapeseed to clarify.

And on behalf of all Manitobans I apologise -_- were responsible for the monstrosity here
 
Grapeseed is my default when cooking. Peanut when frying or a blend. Have used Wesson when it was the only game in town. Someone recently left a lg bottle of avocado behind and I like it but probably won't replace it. Only use EVOO for low temp saute (base for sauces). I don't get the fishy smell so have no down side.
 
Noodle Soup said:
I'm not saying it isn't used but I've never found coconut oil common in Thai curries. Most places I've been in Asia, Thailand, China, Viet Nam, like to use corn or soybean oil because its cheap. And cheap tends to rule the day.
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I like to use it when cracking the cream for frying the paste. I feel it gives a head start over just cracking pure cream. Cracking pure cream yields coconut oil in any case, and this technique is very traditional in Thailand. I guess cheap doesn't rule my day. Put another way, I don't feel that a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil puts much of a financial damper on a meal for a few people. Funnily enough, I drenched some brussels sprouts and stringed russets in warm coconut oil and baked them the other night in a CI skillet. Really pumped in the umami and my 3yo hoovered the sprouts, which I think she'd not have otherwise!
 
Is the elusive "light olive oil" actually ever found on shelves in the US, or would they rather sell you anything that ain't biodiesel as extra virgin?
 
woyuskinny said:
I like to use it when cracking the cream for frying the paste. I feel it gives a head start over just cracking pure cream. Cracking pure cream yields coconut oil in any case, and this technique is very traditional in Thailand. I guess cheap doesn't rule my day. Put another way, I don't feel that a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil puts much of a financial damper on a meal for a few people. Funnily enough, I drenched some brussels sprouts and stringed russets in warm coconut oil and baked them the other night in a CI skillet. Really pumped in the umami and my 3yo hoovered the sprouts, which I think she'd not have otherwise!
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I've certainly used coconut cream rendered to oil that way but basic stir fry oil used in the same dish was always something else.
 
LifeByA1000Cuts said:
Is the elusive "light olive oil" actually ever found on shelves in the US, or would they rather sell you anything that ain't biodiesel as extra virgin?
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That's a good question. Even the cheapest, crappiest olive oils here are usually labelled "extra virgin." Makes one wonder where all the 2nd and 3rd pressings of the olive oil go. We've long known that olive oil fraud is rampant, but it's hard to imagine how it could be this rampant.
 
That all being the case about olive oils, I think you can buy a light olive oil for cooking based on the color / clarity and the price. If it's a light color and very clear, and inexpensive, it probably won't have a lot of flavor or too low a smoke point. So it will probably fine in spite of the inevitable "extra virgin" label.

It's harder to buy high quality, flavorful olive oil, for raw dishes. The kind that SHOULD be labelled E.V.. You just don't know what you're getting anymore. It's easiest if you know some specialty shop that lets you taste them. In NYC Williams Sonoma used to have them set out on a bar, with pieces of bread (they stopped doing this ... I no longer have a reason to go into W.S.). If you can't taste the oil first, you have to trust other people's descriptions and take a gamble.
 
I'm not in the US, and it's uncommon here too... was wondering because it is oft mentioned in US literature and websites, eg as a solid and inexpensive performer for deep frying...
 
I know second and third pressings are mixed with canola oil here for a cheaper version of evoo used in commercial kitchens and I guess by uninitiated home cooks.

I'm not saying anything about the validity of evoo on Canadian shelves it's never really been my thing at home or at work strangely.
 
I thought "Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed bred to be low in erucic acid" - according to wikipedia.

spoiledbroth said:
Canola =/= rapeseed to clarify.

And on behalf of all Manitobans I apologise -_- were responsible for the monstrosity here
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WingKKF said:
I thought "Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed bred to be low in erucic acid" - according to wikipedia.
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There's more to it than that. I'm from Manitoba as well and it was developed at the university here.

As for what I use… mostly coconut oil and/or cultured butter for sautéing and med temps, evoo for finishing or lower temp (when the tastes jibe), also avocado oil when higher heat… would like to find some decent peanut oil for stirfrys. Also have organic lard and duck fat I should use sometime for frying with distinct taste.

For raw uses I like flax, hemp, coconut, evoo and something new I tried is called camelina oil (not camellia oil)… it has a mild asparagus like taste and is great in salads, but apparently can also take heat well. Kinda pricey to use for frying though.
 
Using rapeseed and canola as interchangeable is akin to not differentiating between a Roma and a San Marzano. Not the end of the world in most cases but not technically correct especially in the context of a discussion between foodies :wink:
 
I meant to ask earlier in thread. But.

Well south of the border I've always been told that Rapeseed oil had some inherent marketing problems with the name. An entity called Canada Oil or something like that relabeled it and sold it in the states as Canola oil. It's one of those truths that I've never thought about nor questioned.

What's the true story?
 
Basically rapeseed is the higher classification of canola.

Therefore as Roma is to tomato, so Canola is to rapeseed. And yeah I believe the actual name for that grain is rape leading to some obvious optical issues where marketing is concerned. But canola is genetically distinct from rape. Technically rape with enough erucic acid can be legally designated canola, which muddied the waters a bit I think. At least that's my loose understanding. Most of my family were farmers, quite a few still are.
 
I use a lot of different oils; the main one I haven't seen mentioned much is clarified butter. That's my go-to fat for eggs and for browning meats; it gives the majority of the flavor of whole butter but without the risk of burning or becoming beurre noisette. I sauté in it quite a bit too. EV olive oil for anything low temp or raw; I sometimes use it for braising. I also use whatever rendered animal fats I end up with -- bacon grease and beef tallow, and duck or goose fat when I have it (got about a quart from the Christmas goose!) especially for meats and potatoes. Sometimes I match fats, e.g. beef fat for burgers, goose fat for chicken, and sometimes I mix and match.

To the original question, though, if I had to specify "my" cooking fat, definitely clarified butter for the flavor and high smoke point.
 
At home : avocado oil for sautée, olive oil for raw/wanted taste and the rare time I feel like deep frying something, peanut oil. I do keep rendered jars of beef fat, pig fat, and some duck confit in the fridge/freezer for when I actually feel like doing something interesting. Beef fat rice with bulgogi for example. At work : canola and olive oil, butter when needed.
 
@spoiledbroth still, realizing "a roma or a san marzano, whichever, will make usable sauce or soup - a red water balloon won't" is 90% of the rent, no?
 
Nemo said:
Off topic (sorry), but CC, I gotta say, I love that dog (in your ikon). Is it yours?
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Thanks! She's my twelve year old puppy. Still kicks my ass in the mountains (hiking...she used to mountain bike with me too but age is finally catching up).
 
EVOO and butter for eggs, peanut is really my go to. I found some squeeze bottles from a bakery shop and I love squeezing oil in a pan for some reason. I used to use coconut oil all the time for everything but now I'm almost stick of the stuff, best used for South Pacific Asian IMHO. My roomate has avocado oil but for how friggin expensive it was, we just use it for salads sometimes but on salads I mostly make dressings using sesame. I stopped using lard because I'm lazy and rather not but Whole foods would give me their trimmings and I would boil down beef fat. It was good but very distinctive flavor, made me feel like a cowboy. And the best for last. Bacon or sausage drippings, obviously not saving them up but sometimes I just throw on a slice or two of bacon just to use the fat. And to eat some bacon.
 
@spoiledbroth - Thanks for the explanation regarding Canola vs. rapeseed oils. Like @daveb I thought the naming stemmed from a marketing problem encountered by the word rapeseed and blithely believed it for decades. Don't even think I've seen oil labelled rapeseed in Australia.

Thanks to @paulraphael and @Casaluz for the links regarding olive oils. At least olive oils down here seem fairly labelled - local and imported.
 
Confused home cook here...

What are some of the best oils for high temperature use? (Specifically - searing sous vide proteins)

Clarified butter?
Bacon fat?

Thanks!
 
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