A semi-deep dive on cooking oils - discuss

BUDFORCE said:
Yea annoyingly, if you look you'll find most vegetable oil (which is rapeseed oil lol) particularly sold in supermarkets here, actually comes from overseas, which is ridiculous really, because as you say it's grown here.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's frustrating a lot of the easy to come by bottles are overseas produce.

Seems to be the way with quite a few things, I know my OH often spends a good while hunting for UK grown/produced things.
 
dl8860 said:
Did no one read the whole post? Veg oil IS rapeseed oil.

You get cold-pressed rapeseed oil, which is the same thing but mechanically extracted. Maybe that's what you're referring too. But it's madness to write that 'rapeseed oil is a lot better than veggie oil'.
Click to expand...
I do apologise for misuse of the the term veggie oil but I’m pretty sure you knew what I meant.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yea annoyingly, if you look you'll find most vegetable oil (which is rapeseed oil lol) particularly sold in supermarkets here, actually comes from overseas, which is ridiculous really, because as you say it's grown here.
Click to expand...

We use borderfields rapeseed oil which is both British and available in a 5L size to
keep cost reasonable.
 
I'm just a flour/water/sourdough-starter/salt person - parents use an enriched recipe with oil/softened-butter but don't see the justification

BUDFORCE said:
Yea annoyingly, if you look you'll find most vegetable oil (which is rapeseed oil lol) particularly sold in supermarkets here, actually comes from overseas, which is ridiculous really, because as you say it's grown here
Click to expand...
we reduced uk rapeseed massively due to deceases/aphyds in crops - cambridgeshire for one you see it rarely now and 7 years ago was everywhere,
thought ukraine was (past tense) a major provider too and many of the crisp providers had had to find new sources (sunflour ?)

but yes olive oil is a luxury now even though price has moderated over past 5-6months - had been using aldi cold pressed rapeseed but that is expensive too £5/l
so for cooking/shallow-frying now use rapeseed from amazon S&S at £2/L - about half what js charges for the same,
but it's not like cold pressed where you lick your finger if any comes down the bottle.

e:ok was sunflour, in particular, in short supply https://xtalks.com/ukraine-crisis-causing-sunflower-oil-shortage-3034/
 
Last edited:
I see price coming quite a bit here. Does anyone reuse their oil? Back in the day the chip pan was always full, strained and reused. Likewise the frying pan oil. We just keep bacon fat for roasts etc.
 
I use:

Salted butter - most general frying, e.g. steaks etc., but more suited to things that benefit from salt and the light browning effect e.g. eggs and mushrooms
Sunflower oil - general frying when I'm not bother about adding flavour or salt
EV olive oil - mainly for salads, but sometimes I use for low temperature pan cooking or slow roasting to add a bit of flavour, particularly with pasta & italian dishes
Ghee - curries, and little else. I have loads of it, so maybe I should use it other cooking too. It is incredibly oily so you don't need much.
 
Last edited:
Mr Badger said:
I'm not one to get hysterical about which ingredient is supposed to be good or bad for you in the latest media report. However, I thought ghee (clarified butter) was definitely one of those high in saturated fat products that it was recommended should be used in moderation, rather than all the time?
Click to expand...
Part of a healthy lifestyle in moderation it won’t do you any harm. I know us Scots have a reputation for frying everything but it is just once a week stir fry job.

I drizzle olive oil over a baked potato but that’s the limit.
 
Ghee or avocado oil for their high smoke points, and extra virgin olive oil drizzled on to finished dishes.
Butter (grass fed), like olive oil, can also be added to made dishes to help slow down the insulin spike.
 
dl8860 said:
Talk me through why no seed oils? Looking for discussion on people's choices. Not trying some sort of gotcha, just want to find out the rationale, and if I'm missing something.
Click to expand...
I've always cooked with animal fats, ghee and lard being the main ones.
I'll also use coconut oil if I can get it cheap. Where ever possible I try to use as natural a product as possible.

Olive oil I just don't like the flavour even though I love olives I don't want my fried eggs tasting of them.
 
Last edited:
I use lard for thing like bacon and eggs, a refined light olive oil for other frying purposes and a nice virgin olive oil for drizzling. Oh, and butter for really light frying where I want a buttery taste, I do need to make ghee.

I don't really deep fry, but on the very rare occasion I would probably use a seed oil.

There are some really interesting lectures on Spotify on the subject (The Metabolic Classroom has one) and I do think it quite likely that research will prove seed oils are harmful. Either way, rapeseed oil is pretty unpleasant to consume imo, so I'm probably in the 'better safe than sorry' camp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom