All About Cooking Oil

by Diana Rosen

This week Natalie Duncan puts Kitchen Sleuth on the cooking oil trail ...
Hello Kitchen Sleuth:
Which oil is best for frying? I see a lot of recipes ask for olive oil for their frying. In the past I used sunflower oil and canola oil, but after reading your article, SUNFLOWER OIL: Our 101, I'm not sure it is the right choice.

Dear Natalie:
The tremendous choices of cooking oils on the grocer's shelf certainly make decision making a lot more difficult these days! In selecting oils for food preparation, it's best to remember that some are best for cooking, such as plant oils, others for baking, such as lard and butter, and still others are best for salads and garnishing because of their intense flavor or aromatic fragrance (nut oils are a good example).

The best (and least expensive) oils for deep-frying or frying at high temperatures are refined and unrefined safflower and sunflower oils, peanut, oil, and soy oil.

Refined almond, camellia, rice bran, and cottonseed oil also work very well and many home chefs like canola oil. Avocado oil is very expensive, so even though it has a high smoking point and flavors foods beautifully, its cost prohibits frequent frying. Olive oils vary a great deal in intensity of flavor and smoking points and they're relatively expensive; they're best used for sautéing or for delicate frying where you don't need much oil to create your recipe.

Before choosing oils, home chefs should consider: 1. What is the smoking point of the oil when heated? 2. How does it taste when cooked with food? 3. What are its health applications?

What Is The Smoking Point?
When choosing an oil for frying or sautéing foods, it's important to know its "high smoking point," the culinary description for the temperature an oil can be heated before it discolors and smokes, both indications of decomposition of the oil and signs that it could create carcinogenic compounds.

You always want to avoid heating oil until it smokes.

Oils with a high smoking point are those that can reach above 400°F. Oils with high polyunsaturated fat content can invite oxidation which breaks down the good qualities of the oil.

Examples of oils with high smoking points are avocado oil (the highest at 520°F.), unrefined safflower oil (510°F.), soybean oil (450-495°F.), refined safflower oil (450°F.) and refined peanut oils, regular and high oleic sunflower oils (450°F.) Refined oils are preferable to solvent-extracted oils. Rice bran oil, popular in Japanese restaurants, is similar in composition to soybean and peanut oils.

Grapeseed, cottonseed, virgin olive oil, and almond oil have smoking points from 420 to 440°F. Refined canola oil has a smoking point of 400°F. Camellia oil, from the tea plant, also has a high smoking point but is less accessible and expensive. Corn oil is popular and inexpensive with a relatively high smoking point (450°F.), yet it frequently foams and smokes at lower-than-expected temperatures, so it is not a healthful choice for frying.

What Does It Taste Like?
The second criterion to consider when choosing oil for frying - and no small thing - is how does the cooking oil taste and how will its taste affect the food you're frying. Most home chefs use canola, safflower or sunflower oils because they don't have any strong flavor that can contribute to or compromise the flavor of the foods they're cooking. There are alternatives, however, and peanut, coconut, rice bran, or tea oils not only can endure high smoking points, they offer a delicious flavor to the foods cooked.

What is the Best Oil for Your Health?
As we've all read and heard, frying foods is perhaps the least appropriate way to cook food. There is no such thing as saturated fat-free oil or one containing only the "good" polyunsaturated or only monounsaturated fats. What counts is the proportions of each of these three types of fats in each oil and opting for those with poly or monounsaturated fats are always the better choices.

As for cholesterol, all plant-based oils are naturally cholesterol-free. All animal oils and fats contain cholesterol.

All oils are 100% fat, and all are high in calories: a hefty 120 calories per tablespoon. Unless you're using spray cans of oil, frying definitely uses more than one tablespoon to create delicious fried chicken or hash browns or any number of other admittedly delicious albeit fat-heavy foods.

If you fry rarely, use the oil or fat you find the most delicious, be it bacon grease or plant oils. Consider frying a treat; opt for the best flavor in the foods you're preparing. For sautéing, butter or olive oil or a combination of the two, are great on the palate and easy on the diet when used judiciously. To be even more cautious, use spray cans of oil to greatly reduce the quantity of oils you use for all your cooking. High-temperature frying, ironically, creates less oil absorption than normal temperature ranges (325°F to 375°F) which cause foods to absorb 8 to 25 percent oil.

Storage:
Do not buy bottles or cans of oils that are additionally wrapped in plastic as that speeds up the time it can turn rancid. Refined oils high in monounsaturated fats can keep their flavor and consistency for a year if kept in the refrigerator. Those high in polyunsaturated should last about six months under refrigeration. Extra virgin and virgin oils can keep their freshness for about a year and do not need refrigeration. Nut oils become rancid quickly; always refrigerate after opening. For most other oils, storage in a cool dark cupboard, away from oven and stove, should suffice. Although the temptation is great to re-use fats and oils, especially the more expensive ones, it's more healthful to use them once and discard any residue.

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