Cooking Oil... Which should I Use?

Cooking Oil

Which oil should I use?

The choice of cooking oils today is mind-boggling.  Just a few years ago, our choices were limited to four or five oils.  Today there are over 100 choices at my local supermarket.  Oil is necessary both for pleasing the palette and for a well functioning body.  Oil is necessary for our brains, nervous system, immune system, and cells to function correctly.  So oil is necessary to our diet, our dilemma is which oil is best for our life style.   Oil is also one of the common components used in so many recipes especially baking and marinades, because it keeps baked good moist, and meats tender and juicy. 

We have settled on four oils that we keep on hand and use regularly.  They are extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and unsalted butter.   On rare occasions, we will use bacon fat; it does add great flavor and aroma.

Olive Oil

We use extra virgin olive oil for dressings and marinades.  We will also for sautéing providing the heat is not too high, under 350 °, if olive oil gets too hot it will burn and taste horrible.  When it burns the only choice is to discard all of the ingredients in the pan and clean the pan before reusing it.

Canola Oil

Canola oil is our most used oil; it is our go-to oil for 75%-80% of our cooking.  It is an excellent all-purpose cooking oil, and if we only had one cooking oil in the house it would be canola.  Canola is what we use for all of our baking needs.  It is also what is used most of the time when we sauté, it has a much higher smoking point, unlike olive oil it will start to smoke without burning, saving your meal.  Canola oil can also be used for light pan-frying of meats and vegetables.  

Peanut Oil

Peanut oil is what we use for deep-frying, and pan-frying.  Peanut oil is the only oil that we will reuse.   Because of the amount of oil that is required to deep fry, it is very costly to use a half gallon of oil for one meal only to discard the oil after the meal. I never mix new, unused oil with used oil. 

Before using used oil smell it, if it smells rancid do not use it.  What is rancid? It is the smell of something dead or decomposing.  Therefore, if you sniff the contents and it smells like there has been a dead mouse in it, it is time to discard it.  The smell or combination of smells from what has been cooked in the oil that does not make it rancid.  Now you may not want the taste that is in the oil to contaminate what you are preparing to cook.  If that is the case, use fresh oil and recycle the two together after you are through with the meal.  

To reuse your peanut oil follow the following steps.

1. Never mix oils 
2. Allow the oil to cool to room temperature
3. Filter the oil, there are commercially built filters, but a funnel and a coffee works great. It is slow to filter with a coffee filter, but why get a special gadget for something you will only use four or five times a year. 
4. Reseal the lid tightly on the container and store in a cool dark place. We store our in the pantry on the floor.

Unsalted Butter

For me there is nothing better than butter.  The main drawbacks to not using butter for more of my recipes are its cost and it is the unhealthiest of the four.  Butter and margarine are not interchangeable, butter is a dairy product, and margarine is a man made product made by mixing vegetable oil, water, hydrogen, and salt.  Some people cannot tell the difference, but some can.  I am sure that if I were to prepare two recipes one with margarine and the other with butter, that you would also be able to tell the difference.  I only use unsalted butter because we want to control the amount of salt in our meal, it is simple to add a little salt at the end, but difficult to dilute the salt. 

We have not recommended any particular brand, we general use the store brand, but that is because where we shop the store brand is very good. If you cannot tell the difference between brands, go with the one that will cost you the least. Other than peanut oil we only buy what will be used within two months, peanut oil we usually by one gallon at a time.