Cooking Oil?

[lightningandsnow]

What kind do you use? I always see tons of different kinds in the grocery store and I'm never quite sure how they differ from each other. I use olive oil for things like salad dressing, pasta, and the like, and canola oil for frying, sauteing, baking, and/or when I don't want something to taste like olive oil.

[The empressof all]

1. For Most Frying I try to use Peanut Oil

I haven't seen any recall notices on Peanut Oil so I'm assuming it's not included in the Peanut Scare. If you don't have problems with allergies IMO it's the best for deep frying and for many Asian dishes. It has a very high smoke point so it can get really hot and give you great flavor as well. For most pan cooking I use Olive Oil or an Olive Oil/Butter combo. But I tend to cook with Mediterranean flavors which this complements. If I want a less flavorful oil I go with Safflower or if I have to Canola. What is a "Canola" anyway. I'm a little turned off to it because I'm not really sure what the heck it is.

[Tesha]

6. Canola used to be called "rapeseed oil". Probably renamed for political reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola

> The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978.

[Lucinda]

2. Bill is the fry king and he likes canola

He would probably prefer peanut oil, but we avoid it due to my allergies.

I use butter/olive oil for most everything I do. Occasionally Crisco.

[Warpy]

3. Canola oil gives me outrageous heartburn every time

to the point that I need to ask restaurants what they use. If it's canola, I request baked or steamed everything.

I use safflower for deep frying and light Chinese fare. I use olive for sauteeing, the greener and stronger tasting the better.

[Shakespeare]

7. Same here.

If I'm not using olive oil, it's usually sunflower oil or peanut oil.

[hippywife]

4. I've been using canola oil and olive oil

for cooking but the canola is gonna be gone since I found out that most of it is made from GM seeds. Yet another thing I need to switch over to organic.

If I'm sauteing, I still like a light olive oil or olive oil/butter mix.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Olive oil for most things, even bread, but...

I like peanut oil when I need a higher smokepoint and can use the flavor-- like in stirfry.

Grapeseed oil has a fairly high smokepoint, but a neutral flavor.

Canola and corn oils for more general use (mainly 'cause they're cheaper than safflower.)

And, there's always good ol' butter and lard for the real goodies when just nothing else will do.

(My theory is that just about everything out there will kill you at some point, so go with the best tasting poison.)

[Stinky The Clown]

8. We a LOT of olive oil ...... not much else except for some peanut or corn oil on rare occasions

We also use sesame oil, but that's a condiment, not a cooking oil.

We wok with peanut oil.

On the very, very rare occasions when we pan fry something (maybe two or three times a year) we use corn oil and almost always just throw it away as it would likely go rancid before getting reused.

[housewolf]

9. Don't care for the taste of canola or soy oils, so

butter, olive oil, corn or safflower oils, depending on what seems most compatible

[Lucinda]

10. Totally agree with you about canola and soy

I don't like the flavor of either.
Bill likes the the crispiness he gets with canola, but I want good flavor.