Various oils for cooking

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

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I got curious and did some searches to find out how many types of cooking oils exist...

Oils can be used in a variety of ways and not all of them apply to frying. They may be used as Salad Oils for Dressing, Baking Oils and Marinade Oils, to touch the surface of the diversity of ways in which food oils may be used.

Here's my list ...

Almond Oil
Avocado Oil
Canola Oil
Coconut Oil
Corn Oil
Cottonseed Oil
Flax Seed Oil
Garlic Oil
Ghee
Grape Seed Oil
Hazelnut Oil
Hemp Seed Oil
Jojoba Oil
Olive Oil, Light
Olive Oil, Extra Virgin
Orange Oil
Peanut Oil
Pecan Oil
Pistachio Oil
Pumpkin Seed Oil
Sesame Seed Oil
Soy Bean Oil
Sun Flower Seed Oil
Vegetable Oil
Walnut Oil

Additionally, there are Infused Oils like Basil Oil and Pesto Oil.

I doubt seriously, that I would be game to try all of these oils. I typically use Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but have some Vegetable Oil Blend and recently purchased Almond Oil and Peanut Oil. I consider the possibility that different Oils will subtly lend themselves to specific flavor enhancements.

There are reviews and arguments about which oils are healthiest too.

When hunting down oils, be aware that some of them are not edible, such as Body Oils, Kikui and Macadamia Oils fit into this class.
 
Don't know that ghee could technically be classified as an oil since it's made from butter, but it is a good cooking fat.

We've only ever used walnut oil as part of a salad dressing. Also because it is so expensive, as are probably all the other nut oils.
 
Maybe MG can verify or correct me, but I thought we had a cooking oil thread. I may be confused with another forum.

CD
 
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Here is another thread about oils in general and here is a recent thread on herb oils.

I've started using macadamia nut oil beside evoo as it's reasonably priced and available at local hypermarkets. The smoking point of macadamia nut oil is high (smoke point ~220°C= good heat tolerance) and it has a very pleasant, neutral taste which makes it a perfect alternative for butter in baking. I often use e.g. 50/50 butter and macadamia nut oil instead of just butter in cakes. The taste of slightly sour butter is hard to defeat so I still want to use it. Recent studies indicate that butter isn't that unhealthy either. A little vinegar and salt makes cooking oils taste a bit more like butter but e.g. walnut oil, avocado oil and (especially exta virgin) canola/rapeseed oil are generally too tangy for my taste. Avocado oil has one of the highest smoke points but it has a strong, distinct taste.

As flyinglentris pointed out, there is a great number of herb, nut/legume and and fruit based oils available. It's baffling that e.g. the smoke point of certain oils is indicated differently in different online sources and even health benefits are shown in contradictory manners both in scientific studies and cooking/user-oriented reviews. I've come to the conclusion that evoo is generally good for everyday use in cold foods and low-heat cooking and good quality (preferably extra virgin) canola oil/macadamia nut oil/avocado oil/peanut oil/sunflower oil are good for frying. I don't know whether my perceptions are scientifically correct.
 
The reason I invested in Almond Oil and Peanut Oil regards my plays on Granola and Granola Bars. For my first try with Honey Oats, I used Olive Oil and while that didn't have any adverse flavor effects, I kind of feel that a Nut Oil would be more in line with the productions.

BTW: Peanut Oil is extremely cheap. I got a whole gallon of the stuff for $11.98 USD.
 
flyinglentris said:
The reason I invested in Almond Oil and Peanut Oil regards my plays on Granola and Granola Bars. For my first try with Honey Oats, I used Olive Oil and while that didn't have any adverse flavor effects, I kind of feel that a Nut Oil would be more in line with the productions.

BTW: Peanut Oil is extremely cheap. I got a whole gallon of the stuff for $11.98 USD.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you are making the comment about peanut oil in response to my comment about nut oils being $$, but peanuts aren't a nut, they are a legume.
 
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flyinglentris said:
The reason I invested in Almond Oil and Peanut Oil regards my plays on Granola and Granola Bars. For my first try with Honey Oats, I used Olive Oil and while that didn't have any adverse flavor effects, I kind of feel that a Nut Oil would be more in line with the productions.

BTW: Peanut Oil is extremely cheap. I got a whole gallon of the stuff for $11.98 USD.
Click to expand...

Peanut oil isn't cheap where I live. I use it in my deep fryer, and I pay quite a bit more than $11.98 a gallon.

CD
 
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I have:

Peanut oil
EVOO
HSOO (that's my term for higher-heat olive oil - High Speed Olive Oil)
Canola oil blend
Vegetable shortening
Bacon grease

Funny thing, I was watching a video with a couple of the folks from America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country, where they answered a whole slew of view questions. It's a long Q&A video, like 30 minutes.

One of the questions, and I'm paraphrasing both the question and the answer, was something along the lines of, "How come you guys always talk about the smoke point of oils in your recipes, but you're always frying stuff in EVOO, which has a very low smoke point?"

Both Jack and Julia had the same sheepish answer, which was, "What we say and what we do are sometimes two different thing."

They went on to add that, with all the fancy oils out there, the only oils both had at their homes was EVOO and (I think) vegetable oil - no peanut oil, no safflower oil, or grapeseed oil, or walnut oil, or avocado oil - just olive oil and vegetable oil.
 
TastyReuben said:
They went on to add that, with all the fancy oils out there, the only oils both had at their homes was EVOO and (I think) vegetable oil - no peanut oil, no safflower oil, or grapeseed oil, or walnut oil, or avocado oil - just olive oil and vegetable oil.
Click to expand...

EVOO and Veggie Oil have been the only oils I ever had at home, until recently. As I said in a previous post, I got Almond Oil and Peanut Oil due to my wanting something that might be more easily married to Granola and Granola Bar productions.
 
TastyReuben said:
I have:

Peanut oil
EVOO
HSOO (that's my term for higher-heat olive oil - High Speed Olive Oil)
Canola oil blend
Vegetable shortening
Bacon grease

Funny thing, I was watching a video with a couple of the folks from America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country, where they answered a whole slew of view questions. It's a long Q&A video, like 30 minutes.

One of the questions, and I'm paraphrasing both the question and the answer, was something along the lines of, "How come you guys always talk about the smoke point of oils in your recipes, but you're always frying stuff in EVOO, which has a very low smoke point?"

Both Jack and Julia had the same sheepish answer, which was, "What we say and what we do are sometimes two different thing."

They went on to add that, with all the fancy oils out there, the only oils both had at their homes was EVOO and (I think) vegetable oil - no peanut oil, no safflower oil, or grapeseed oil, or walnut oil, or avocado oil - just olive oil and vegetable oil.
Click to expand...

Here is an example of my love/hate relationship with ATK. I love their equipment reviews, which include rigorous testing. The cooks at ATK don't seem to use the same level of testing. Why would anyone use EVOo almost exclusively? In so many cases, it is not the best oil to use. It is NOT a neutral oil by and stretch of the imagination. I would never use it to fry something breaded or battered, for instance.

CD
 
I love the flavour of walnut oil, but not bought it for ages. At the moment I have
Sunflower for roasting/frying
Extra virgin rapeseed oil (I like the flavour and
use it instead of olive oil which is a lot more expensive).
Coconut oil mainly for 'curry'
Sesame oil for chinese recipes
Mustard oil for 'curry'
And flavoured oils:
Lemon
Truffle
 
Right now I have:

Canola
Sunflower
Olive (EV, regular)
Peanut
Sesame

We might have a couple of speciality oils that my wife bought little bottles of - avocado, walnut.

I also have some Japanese chili oil that we use as a condiment on ramen.

Other fats used to cook around here:

Ghee
Butter
Crisco
Duck fat
 
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