So it turns out I've been using the wrong kind of coconut oil

[Scam]

Being the middle class west-London couple that we are (), the girlfriend and I watched with great interest the Food Unwrapped section on coconut oil, last night on TV.

Turns out we'd been buying the organic, virgin, unrefined stuff which has a lot lower smoking point than the refined stuff. I didn't even know there was refined/unrefined Perhaps this could explain why we get a particularly "burning" smell when using it to stir-fry in my wok? I thought it was just me being quite over-vigorous with the heat. And it seemed authentic, woops. We use a mixture of olive oil (not virgin) for frying, groundnut and coconut oil depending on the dish.

Should we buy refined coconut oil for stir-frying then?

 

[tom_e]

Why are you using coconut oil in the first place?

 

[FrenchTart]

Generally speaking, unrefined oils of most kinds tend to have a lower smoke point (e.g. light olive oil vs extra virgin). Depending on what you're using the oil for and the intended benefits you're hoping for you should use different oils. For stir-frying you do indeed want high smoke point oil so anything refined will likely be better.

Virgin coconut oil is very good for you and very nice in lots of things but if you're trying to use it due to wanting not to hit the smoke point of oil in your stir-fries then yeah, it's not optimal.

That said, hitting the smoke point of oil when stir-frying is such a minor minor thing health-wise that I'm not sure I would care personally.

Also, there's no such thing as being over-vigorous with the heat with stir-fry

 

[Scam]

Why are you using coconut oil in the first place?

Because my girlfriend tends not to like the flavour of olive oil and as FrenchTart said it is a lot better for you. What I didn't understand was that there is refined/unrefined and that I was hitting the smoke point.

Can anyone find out what the smoke point of groundnut oil is compared to refined coconut oil? I wonder which would be best for stir fries.

I just realised I seasoned my wok with that (unrefined) coconut oil

 

[FrenchTart]

https://jonbarron.org/diet-and-nutrition/healthiest-cooking-oil-chart-smoke-points#.V1a8VNkrJhE

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.html

Groundnut oil is okay but there are plenty of options to choose from for high smoke-point oils

 

[Scottland]

I tend to favour rapeseed oil these days, plus it's British (food miles and all that).

 

[tom_e]

Refined coconut oil will lose most of the coconut flavour and almost all of the health benefits, better off switching to a different oil for stir frying if you're worried about the smoke point and keep the coconut oil for other uses.

 

[Scam]

https://jonbarron.org/diet-and-nutrition/healthiest-cooking-oil-chart-smoke-points#.V1a8VNkrJhE

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.html

Groundnut oil is okay but there are plenty of options to choose from for high smoke-point oils

They're good links (fairly sure I'd read the SE one before) but neither mention refined/unrefined coconut oil. Nor do they mention groundnut oil. Or is that peanut oil to Americans?

 

[tom_e]

Yep groundnut is peanut.

 

[robfosters]

If you're interested in all this healthy stuff you should catch a programme in iplayer called the truth about healthy eating. They showed that rapeseed oil is just as healthy as coconut oil and about a quarter of the price.

 

[jpaul]

agree with rapeseed proposal (Aldi now have their own good value virgin)

I had bought a job lot of MrT's rice bran oil which was similarly a mistake, although it was high temp , left a yellow residue in pans that was difficult to clean (so using that up over the years making oat biscuits to go with cheese)

[ I will fast forward through my recording this evening presenters & dumbing-down nauseating, but can learn things. ]

 

[Hodders]

It never surprises me that 'superfoods' go in and out of fashion.

The food industry simply repeats:

Begin loop
Choose new superfood
Pump food
Increase price stupidly
Profit
Wait until claims dismissed
End Loop

 

[Scottland]

agree with rapeseed proposal (Aldi now have their own good value virgin)

I had bought a job lot of MrT's rice bran oil which was similarly a mistake, although it was high temp , left a yellow residue in pans that was difficult to clean (so using that up over the years making oat biscuits to go with cheese)

[ I will fast forward through my recording this evening presenters & dumbing-down nauseating, but can learn things. ]

I get it from Aldi too, £2 for 500ml compared to £4 in most other places. I still have Extra Virgin Olive oil for dressings/salads etc - but rapeseed oil works for everything else and is great for making mayo with.

 

[Glaucus]

If you're interested in all this healthy stuff you should catch a programme in iplayer called the truth about healthy eating. They showed that rapeseed oil is just as healthy as coconut oil and about a quarter of the price.

I wouldn't believe that in the slightest. Because they are totally different fats.
and when rapeseed is compared to olive oil, it offers no health benefits over control group, whilst olive oil does.
infact most of these "health" benefits of oils are not substantiated at all.
pretty much the only one with a huge body of research behind is olive oil. then the others have far less research and most claims are based purely on the composition and not through clinical trials.
and even the ones with clinical trails that are deemed good, are deemed good as they change your cholesterol balance in a certain way. Which doesn't make them good, it often changes it for the worst but because of old thinking, the still deem those cholesterol profiles good.

while coconut does have some research and health benefits thanks to it's MCT. All though nearly all the claims online are just rubbish.
but realy fats need to be broken down even further.
both vegetable and fish oils contain omega3, how ever fish omega3 is long chained iirc, and is utilised far more efficiently. While vegetable is short chain omega3.
this is where diet advoce gets extremely confusing, as it's over simplified and well in most cases poorly researched.

 

[Scam]

If you're interested in all this healthy stuff you should catch a programme in iplayer called the truth about healthy eating. They showed that rapeseed oil is just as healthy as coconut oil and about a quarter of the price.

We caught some of that. To be honest my girlfriend first bought it when she had braces as it can be used for that too. ("oil pulling"). Meh. I'm not one for fads but as I thought it had a higher smoke point it had it's uses in cooking as well.

We investigated rapeseed oil a while ago when that was a fad. I'm sure it was crazily expensive then, too!

What does everyone stir fry with then?

 

[Scottland]

We caught some of that. To be honest my girlfriend first bought it when she had braces as it can be used for that too. ("oil pulling"). Meh. I'm not one for fads but as I thought it had a higher smoke point it had it's uses in cooking as well.

We investigated rapeseed oil a while ago when that was a fad. I'm sure it was crazily expensive then, too!

What does everyone stir fry with then?

You've hit the nail on the head - fads

I use rapeseed or groundnut personally, although I tend not to buy groundnut very often so it's generally rapeseed.

If you're interested in all this healthy stuff you should catch a programme in iplayer called the truth about healthy eating. They showed that rapeseed oil is just as healthy as coconut oil and about a quarter of the price.

We watched that as well, and with any of these programs they tend to have an agenda behind them - this one was trying to 'rubbish' some of marketing claims of health benefits etc. I think their conclusion was bob on though, there's no magic bullet that has special health properties. Just have a balanced diet that contains a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables and limit the amount of processed food that tends not to be as nutritious as fresh.

 

[Scam]

I think their conclusion was bob on though, there's no magic bullet that has special health properties. Just have a balanced diet that contains a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables and limit the amount of processed food that tends not to be as nutritious as fresh.

I totally agree and the girlfriend and I are very much into "everything in moderation" rather than getting sucked into fads.

I was also under the impression that rapeseed has a low smoke point more akin to virgin olive oil hence why I never bothered replacing olive oil with it Again, not on those links

 

[Glaucus]

I was also under the impression that rapeseed has a low smoke point more akin to virgin olive oil hence why I never bothered replacing olive oil with it Again, not on those links

depends on its refining process
avocado is one of the highest but it's expensive.
a cheep and good high smoke point, is ghee 250c 485f

canola is rapeseed

200's
225 F: Canola Oil, Unrefined
: Flaxseed Oil, Unrefined
: Safflower Oil, Unrefined
: Sunflower Oil, Unrefined
300's
320 F: Corn Oil, Unrefined
: High-Oleic Sunflower Oil,
Unrefined
: Olive Oil, Unrefined
: Peanut Oil, Unrefined
: Safflower Oil, Semi-Refined
: Soy Oil, Unrefined
: Walnut Oil, Unrefined
325 F: Shortening, Emulsified
Vegetable†
330 F: Hemp Seed Oil¥¥
350 F: Butter (Good Eats)
: Canola Oil, Semi-Refined
: Coconut Oil†
: Sesame Oil, Unrefined
: Soy Oil, Semi-Refined
356-370 F: Vegetable Shortening
361-401 F: Lard
375 F: Olive Oil (Good Eats)
389 F: Macadamia Nut Oil††
400's
400 F: Canola Oil, Refined
: Walnut Oil, Semi-Refined
406 F: Olive Oil, Extra Virgin*
410 F: Corn Oil (Good Eats)
: Sesame Oil**
420 F: Cottonseed Oil†
: Grapeseed Oil¥
: Olive Oil, Virgin**
430 F: Almond Oil***
: Hazelnut Oil***
435 F: Canola Oil (Good Eats)
438 F: Olive Oil*
: Rapeseed Oil***
440 F: Peanut Oil†
: Sunflower Oil†
450 F: Corn Oil, Refined
: High-Oleic Sunflower Oil,
Refined
: Peanut Oil, Refined
(Good Eats)
: Safflower Oil, Ref.
(Good Eats)
: Sesame Oil, Semi-Refined
: Soy Oil, Refined
: Sunflower Oil, Semi-Refined
460 F: Olive Pomace Oil**
468 F: Olive Oil, Extra Light*
485 F: Grapeseed Oil**
495 F: Soy Bean Oil†
500's
510 F: Safflower Oil†
520 F: Avocado Oil, Refined

 

[robfosters]

Isn't ghee ridiculously unhealthy?

 

[Glaucus]

Isn't ghee ridiculously unhealthy?

no, saturated fat is not unhealthy. Well to a certain degree of sensibility.
whats worse is a lot of the margarines everyone consumes, they would be better of both health and taste wise going back to butter.

what is realy damaging is high refined carb diets that are also high in fats and these diets are generally poor quality fats and poor qauilty carbs.