Kitchen

[JeanLouiseFinch]

EVOO or Avocado Oil, sometimes coconut oil. I also use ghee and good ol' grassfed butter.  They are all healthy fats. 

Canola oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and cottonseed oil are highly processed, GMO, and inflammatory.  Sometimes they're unavoidable in processed foods, but I try to be diligent and limit their use.

[Harpa]

Cooking: EVOO from Italy, also Greece

Baking: Avacado or vegetable

Salad: EVOO from Seasons Taproom (no exception!)

Stir frying: Peanut or Avacado

[amyb]

Most recently it's:

Avocado oil for stir frying, and salad dressing mixes...anything that calls for a "vegetable oil." I used to always use cold pressed, organic canola oil for those things, and liked it's light flavor, but lately I've just been reading about better health factors, less inflamation in avocado oil vs. canola oils. Avocado oil also has a light flavor. Judge and jury probably still out for me on that, as plenty of people still consider canola good to use, but for now, I've used A. oil and liked it also. Haven't used it in a while, but grapeseed oil is also supposed to be a good, healthy choice for those things.

Extra virgin olive oil for sauteeing, and other cooking. Sometimes EVOO on salads too, but I prefer a lighter oil usually for dressings.

[amyb]

---

@Marp wrote:

I'm pretty basic with my oils.  Cooking/frying is peanut oil because of the high smoke point and no added flavor to change my recipe.

Salads are EVOO based with whatever seasoning or additions my tastebuds want that particular day because of taste and versatility.

---

Please school me on peanut oil...I've actually never really shopped for it or really recall seeing it in stores (which probably sounds nuts to people here.) I know whenever I watch cooking videos with frying recipes it's what they use. I have never "deep fried" anything at home, but if I ever wanted to...any brand peanut oil you recommend? It's just simply an unknown to me not frying at home. I watch Brenda Gantt's videos (she's from Alabama) on Facebook, and she does all kinds of deep frying in her cast iron dutch oven...and she cleans out the "bits" from the oil, saves the oil in the pot to use more than once. I just never cook the way she does, but it sometimes interests me...some things look delish. Fattening, maybe not great for my cholesterol...but...still yummy! She's a southern cook, for sure, and I'm as northeastern as it comes, lol...but I enjoy watching her. Tks.

ps. Not like I've never breaded and fried a cx cutlet or such, but that's with just covering my pan with avovado oil. It's the deep frying I'm wondering about where I see everyone use peanut oil.

[wagirl]

My daily ones are---

olive oil

a neutral veggie oil 

but my fave is white truffle oil---

[haddon9]

Extra virgin olive oil for salads.  I get mine from a local shop that sources their oils and vinegar directly from various countries.  They have samples you can taste and store their goods in big barrels.  The olive oil is so fresh and tastes amazing!

For frying I have been using coconut oil since I'm trying to stay away from other vegetable oils also known as seed oils which are supposed to be very unhealthy.

[Marp]

@amyb,  I am not qualified to "school" you on peanut oil.  I like it because the refined oil I use is neutral in that it doesn't change the flavor profile of what I'm cooking and can withstand high heat.  Also, it is considered one of the healthier oils but like all others still has its risks.

When I fry foods I shallow fry.  The last deep fried food I had was turkey and my brother was the one that cooked it.  I do know that he has strained and reused his peanut oil but not more than once because it will oxidize (as do other oils) and when that occurs the oil is no longer "healthy".

More than frying I tend to saute and for that I mostly use a combination of EVOO and butter.

I cannot recommend a brand but most supermarket peanut oils are refined.  Premium oils, cold pressed and gourmet, will impart a peanut taste.  The cheapest peanut oils are blended, usually with soybean or other oils.  For everyday use I recommend pure peanut oil that has been refined which would be what you find on most grocery store shelves.

Since you specifically mentioned cholesterol in your post this is the nutritional information for one tablespoon taken from my bottle of oil:

Calories 119

Total Fat 14 g

  Saturated Fat 2 g
  Trans Fat 0 g
  Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 0 mg
Potassium 0 mg
Total Carbohydrate 0 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugar 0 g
Protein 0 g

[amyb]

Thank you @Marp for that breakdown~all informative to me!

I prefer to "shallow fry" also, and good to know that is a fine choice that not everything needs to be submerged into a deep pot of oil to fry. I just don't see myself cooking that way.

I'll check out my supermarket for the, neutral tasting, refined Peanut oil you describe, and add it to my oils for various uses.

Tks again!

[Marp]

@amyb, when looking at peanut oils it is highly unlikely that the label will say refined but you can safely expect them to be.  Premium oils that can impart flavor are more likely to state they are unrefined.  The important part is 100% pure peanut oil.