Frying Olive Oil

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Hey guys, wondered if you could possibly help clear up a point of consternation betweeen me and the other half :D

I was cooking earlier, and began by frying some onions in some olive oil, at this point she begins looking at me as if I had become possessed, and asked me what the hell I was doing... anyway, long story short, she insists that anything which involves heating up olive oil does something wierd to it and makes it not good.

Now I'm perfectly willing to admit I'm wrong, and change my cooking habits if some of the more experienced members of the forum can enlighten me, but I always thought that olive oil was a far healthier option in almost any case where cooking with some kind of oil was required?
 
I've never heard that before and I cook everything in olive oil and not noticed any taste changes.
 
Olive oil is fine for frying. Extra virgin OO is a bit pointless when frying as you'll lose the flavour of it, but aside from that there is nothing wrong with frying using olive oil.
 
Well there was a bit of an urban myth a few years ago that if olive oil is heated too much it produces carcinogenic particles. However this is TOTALLY unfounded and untrue and it is perfectly safe to heat, but as mentioned above try not to make it smoke as this impairs the flavour.



This article explains it a bit better

Cancer Concerns With Olive Oil
8/8/2001 - There was a deluge of mail from persons concerned about developing cancer from frying with olive oil. It is unknown where this latest food myth comes from but this sort of misinformation seems to spread like a computer virus. Perhaps it was the finding of contaminants in Spanish refined olive oil in early 2001 which prompted the concerns.


continued here

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/oliveoildr-cancer.htm

 
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I've heard that you shouldn't reuse oil that you've used for shallow frying. Some of my elderly relatives have been known to pour oil back into the bottle after using it, particularly olive oil cos it costs more.

Maybe you G/f has been given the same advice but got her wires crossed.

Or maybe she's thinking of castrol. :p
 
It makes little difference.....

Unless she is really particular about it.


In which case she should be more concerned about the metal used for cooking (these teflon and stainless cheapo pans just don't cut it next to copper...and the heating method (gas - oh, how nasty... it even smells the kitchen). And if she wants to be a real puke about it, she could test the realtive humidity of the air around the frying medium.... I hear real chefs even measure the air temp and humidity (just to show off and look as if they know about cooking ;) )

Just dump it in there, cook it and tell her to settle down.
 
I don't know about health concerns but olive oil has lower burning point than regular vegetable oil. So temperatures that groundnut oil will happily accomodate olive oil will be smoking away, not good.
 
Olive oil/sunflower here :) (butter if there are no oil reserves in the larder)

I get the usage correct so i don't have to put any back in the bottle. :p
Not that i would in the first place.....
 
I think it's fine to use olive oil for frying. Though there is one to be careful of, when it smokes or get's too hot, it your cooking at a high heat for a long time i'd used veg or sunflower oil.
 
Yep - just what everyone says. Olive oil for low temperature normal frying is fine. Don;t use it on steaks etc if you're going to flash fry - as someone has said ground nut oil is a good alternative - flavourless and will withstand high heat.

Interesting point about using extra virgin. I've always used this because it's pressed by mechanical means without the use of chemicals to extract the oils - can I use a different olive oil that's not been chemically extracted?
 
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