Oil v. Oil

I was asked by my cousin Jen if I could do a little write up to clarify the difference between vegetable oil and canola oil. Thought that was a great idea and that I could actually expand on that to talk about a couple of other commonly used oils as well.

Looking back through my culinary notebooks, I found a nice little section that talked about "Fats in the Kitchen." While nutritionally fats are not necessarily good for you (understatement), in the kitchen they are essential. Fat is where your flavor is and you use fats to bake, fry, cook, and dress (as in salads).

You should probably be aware that not all oils are interchangeable. Some of better for baking, some are better for stove-top use, and some are better for frying…and even within that category some are better for frying at high temps while others are better for frying at low temps, depends on their smoking point. Smoking point refers to the temperature at which a cooking fat or oil breaks down and, literally, starts to smoke. The smoking point is also where the flavor and any nutritional value start to degrade (degrade = bad, but then again so does smoke in a kitchen).

COOKING OILS

So what are the most common types of oils used in the kitchen?

Vegetable Oil – most veggie oils are a combo of various oils. The most commonly used ones are corn, soybean, palm, and sunflower, all of which have very high smoking points, between 440-460°F, which make vegetable oil good for high temperature frying. It’s also great to use in baking, not so much for your salad dressing mixes though. Unfortunately, veggie oil is high in omega-6 fatty acids so doesn’t make it a strong nutritional candidate.

Canola Oil – canola is made from rapeseed, a type of (bright yellow) field mustard. Nutritionally, next to olive oil, this is your best bet. It can be used for frying, but at medium temperatures (smoking point of 400°F). It’s good for baking, but can also be used in salad dressings. Canola oil is low in saturated fats (bad fats) and high in monounsaturated fats (good fats) and has omega-3 fatty acids (also good for you).

Sunflower Oil – is made from sunflower seeds. It has a moderately high smoking point at 440°F. It’s low in saturated fats and high in vitamin E (a fat-soluble antioxidant). I read that because it has some health benefits, it is preferred by companies to use in making their snack foods (e.g., chip companies). It can be used to fry, bake or dress.

Peanut Oil – is made from peanuts. While most highly refined peanut oils have removed the allergens to make it safe for use/consumption by the majority of people with peanut allergies, if you’re not sure about it, then I recommended not using it at all. Its smoking point has been listed anywhere from 437-450°F which means it’s good for high temperature frying. In fact, it’s the most commonly used oil to fry turkeys with at Thanksgiving.

Olive Oil – is considered the healthiest of oils being that it is very high in monounsaturated fats. While it is great for dressing of the salads and stove top and low temperature cooking, it’s not a great high temperature frying oil. I have used olive oil in some specialty baking products, but for cakes and pies, I find it doesn’t work as well as some of your other oils.

HOW TO

Store – no matter what kind of oil you have, you should make sure to store them at room temperature where they can maintain their liquid state. In a dark, dry place like a pantry is best. Oils with high monounsaturated content will keep up to a year that way. Certain refined olive oils will keep up to a couple of years. The shelf life of most other oils is approximately 6-8 months after opening.

Dispose – the best way to get rid of any used oil is to put it in a leak proof container and take it out with your regular garbage. Alternatively, you may be able to take it to a special disposal facility (where you take used oils and paints). You should NEVER pour it down your sink drain because oils have a tendency to congeal, especially at cooler temperatures, and will block your pipes, messy and expensive to fix.

Thanks, Coz, for your question. I actually wasn’t familiar with the distinction between the first two types of oil myself and now we all know! (We are getting SO smart.)