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

I've purposefully never tried cooking with ghee because I'm worried I'd start using it in everything :D

Agreed about margerines etc though. Depending on the dish I do cook with proper butter occasionally and for spreading we always buy spreadable butter without any oil in it. Again, everything in moderation.
 
Scam said:
I've purposefully never tried cooking with ghee because I'm worried I'd start using it in everything :D

Agreed about margerines etc though. Depending on the dish I do cook with proper butter occasionally and for spreading we always buy spreadable butter without any oil in it. Again, everything in moderation.
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spreadable butters should probably be avoided, as they've must have had there fat changed to be soft at fridge temp. But it all depends how healthy you want to be and no I'm not super healthy, I'm like one of those doctors who smoke, know or at least think I know what current research says, but cant resist that Hagen daz or pizza.

Trouble is there's a lot of bad science out there.

Cholesterol is seen as a risk factor for heart attacks. so lowering total cholesterol with vegetable oils is seen as healthy. As such companies can advertise heart healthy oils. But we also know there are far better risk markers than cholesterol numbers that they use. But no rush to change them carry on blindly with out dated info. good old slow government, medical profession.

However there's been studies that look at the actual heart attacks rate. Rather than just cholesterol numbers, and well they heavily favour throwing margarine and a fair few vegetable oils in the bin.

from all my reading in the last three or so years olive oil is certainly top and by a fair way. coconut oil and butter seem to be neutral to beneficial. animal fats more neutral and vegetable oils generally (although it really depends on which ones) on the bad side, and margarines on the avoid list, and trans fats on the ban list

And as I read more, my thinking does change. Read an interesting piece about fructose (fruit sugar) "intolerance" that was pretty fascinating and it went on to other "intolerances"
seems to be 3 main levels of intolerance. proper diagnosis intolerances which damage gut lining etc, intolerance which doesn't cause such damage but your body rejects it often for an unknown reason, then a more general intolerance where you are just eating more than most people can handle. This piece was saying Germans especially have fruit sugar intolerance. Where Americans generally don't, but they have the more general kind where average most people can handle is about 50g a day (basically run out of a protein transporter that is needed in your intestine to absorb it), but American diet averages 80g. So have issues with IBS type symptoms.
 
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Ok I take it back watching Food Unwrapped is better than Farage and Cameron on now
[ interesting that Waitrose choose to buy an advertising slot in the break in FU pushing their number ones, also HollandBarret, no McD though ]

where is a good place to get some refined coconut oil then ?
(HB robbers have repackaged much of their stuff in smaller weights now, so do no say there)

So in FU, exclusively within the domain of high temperature cooking/deep-frying they are saying refined coconut oil is 'better' than sunflower / rapeseed / olive alternatives.
I assume there is no coconut aftertaste in stir fry ?, trying it out on roast potatoes too sounds an interesting proposition (if I can afford it)

I had read rapeseed can have a cooked cabbage after-taste but I have not experienced this myself (with Aldi virgin brand), also during stir-frying/frying it does not seem to smoke so maybe it is less virgin and more processed than advertised.
 
So all the FUD about health benifits aside.

Whats a good reasonably cheap oil for use during high heat cooking?


I use extra vrigin olive oil for lower temp stuff cause i like the taste.

Im really not that fussed about what may or may not be the next super duper 0.00001% improvement in colesterol profile.

More a simple good fat for frying stuff in
 
I'd say it depends on what you're frying. Health stuff aside, it's all about taste.

eggs: butter
bread: butter
something thai-y: coconut oil
steak: any kind of refined oil such as light olive oil, canola, rapeseed, whatever
stir-fry: sesame oil (depending on what tastes I'm aiming for)
roast potatoes: butter or olive oil..or more ideally bacon fat (in fact, bacon fat for eggs and bread is good too)

EVOO can be used for frying high temperature too but the taste can be quite strong so for more delicate things I wouldn't use it.
 
Scam said:
I've purposefully never tried cooking with ghee because I'm worried I'd start using it in everything :D

Agreed about margerines etc though. Depending on the dish I do cook with proper butter occasionally and for spreading we always buy spreadable butter without any oil in it. Again, everything in moderation.
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You wouldn't want to use ghee in everything though. Its fantastic for curries and other spicy dishes but I wouldn't use ghee to fry my eggs or cook a steak with etc.
 
FUD Aldi rapeseed we mentioned is as economic £4/L as any, I am waiting to see if anyone propose coconut at a similar price.
[apparently some of the supermarket vegetable oils maybe rapeseed so can possibly find cheaper ? britannia brand asda]

I do not know if steak cooking qualifies as high temp,but some chefs in a frypan are basting with a mixture of high temp oil and butter, which could be substituted by ghee ? (but I always use just a griddle/oven for finishing)
 
I wouldn't use ghee for steak as part of the reason for using butter is to brown the milk solids in the butter to add to the crust.
 
FrenchTart said:
stir-fry: sesame oil (depending on what tastes I'm aiming for)
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Err, I thought sesame oil was definitely not for cooking, ever? We use it to season stir fries at the end:

Gok Wan (!) said:
Sesame oil - a finishing oil rather than a cooking oil, you should only ever add sesame oil at the end for a slightly smoky nutty flavour. A little goes a long way.
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Glaucus said:
spreadable butters should probably be avoided, as they've must have had there fat changed to be soft at fridge temp.
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I'm intrigued by this, do you have any further information? We avoid any "spreadable" that contains oil. I wonder what the downside of this is.
 
Scam said:
Err, I thought sesame oil was definitely not for cooking, ever? We use it to season stir fries at the end:



I'm intrigued by this, do you have any further information? We avoid any "spreadable" that contains oil. I wonder what the downside of this is.
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Depends on the sesame oil. Decent sesame oil I wouldn't use for cooking but the cheap stuff (i.e. anything you get in a supermarket) is essentially a tiny bit of sesame mixed in with regular oil.
 
This was not too cheap, but I did realise I had probably used it too sparingly (just as finishing oil) such that the oil had gone off / oxidised before I had used it all up ( as I subsequently saw sesame oil is susceptible to)

sesame_zpsvzbnl5it.jpg~original
 
Scam said:
I'm intrigued by this, do you have any further information? We avoid any "spreadable" that contains oil. I wonder what the downside of this is.
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depends how it's made, adding oil is only one method. you can also change the fat chains using chemicals, which makes it spreadable but obviously changes the fat.

there's another method which does some sort of separation as it cools, so you obtain butter that sets as a colder temperature, don't know much about that one though.

generally easier just going o-natural, that trying to dig through and find out what each method does. if you can even find out what brand you use does.
just mashing butter a bit softens it up.
 
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