PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Oil Question: What is the best Oil to buy?

elchivito · #10 11-07-2013, 06:15 PM

The old fat paradigm is being stood on it's head by current research. The banning of saturated fats and replacement with polyunsaturates and hydrogenated vegetable oils beginning in the 60s not only made us fat and gave us diabetes it also didn't do a damn thing for heart disease and atherosclerosis.
I'm kind of a cooking oil nerd. The good news is that saturated fats aren't bad for you, it's the transfats found in cheap "vegetable" oils, Crisco, butter "substitutes" and the like. Here are my favorites for various purposes. You can google their health benefits. I keep others around too, various nut oils etc. for different flavors. Peanut and especially Corn oil just aren't that good for you and I don't like their flavors so I avoid them. Canola oil is industrially processed from rapeseed oil, which is poisonous. Who needs it. Tastes fishy to me anyhow and it turns out isn't all that especially healthy.

Leaf lard. Not the cheap stuff in the blue or red box. That has trans fats. Great for pie crusts and very high heat frying. Astronomical smoke point. Best pie crust in the world is 50/50 Lard/butter.
Clarified butter. Called "Ghee" by foodie persons. Make your own out of good unsalted butter. It's easy. Also good for high temp saute. CB doesn't burn like whole butter
Grapeseed Oil. Very healthy, tasteless, relatively high smoke point. Good for no taste added frying and sautee or very delicate salad dressing. I buy mine at WalMart. YMMV
Coconut Oil. Virgin only. Has a light coconut aroma but not much flavor. Good to about 350 smoke point, but what's amazing about this stuff is it's almost entirely medium chain fatty acids. Ramps up the burning of abdominal fat like crazy. I eat 2 tbsp. per day either on food or just by the shot glass. Excellent long term energy source.
Extra virgin olive oil. Very healthy, not for frying. low smoke point. Dipping, salad dressings, adding to sauces at finish or dressing pasta and vegetables.
Toasted Walnut Oil. Pricey but good deals on Amazon in bulk. Keep refrigerated, it goes off pretty fast. Awesome for dressing vegetables and salads and even on toast.
Hemp oil. I just got a bottle of this. It's reputedly quite healthy. Strong flavored but doesn't taste like ganja or anything, more like raw sunflower seeds. Made good salad dressing with it.

I cook with lots of bacon and save my own fat in the fridge. Nothing wrong with it if you don't mind nitrates and nitrites. My bacon doesn't have any so I don't worry.

The most important thing to remember when cooking with any oil is make sure it doesn't smoke. Know your smoke points. Oil that smokes is changed and it's health benefits are blown and may even be unhealthy.