Topic: Veg Oil/Extra Virgin Olive Oil

[Peripatetic Phil]

I use rice bran oil.

As do I.  Mainly because it's cheap, does the job, and is (to my mind, at least) a considerable improvement over sunflower and rapeseed oils.  I used to use groundnut and/or grapeseed, but both of those are more expensive than rice bran and don't seem to offer any benefits as far as BIR cuisine is concerned, although I still prefer them for Chinese stir-fried dishes.

** Phil.

[JerryM]

but only the refined version is suitable for frying and not the extra or virgin olive oil. 

rhodriharris,

was not aware of this - many thanks.

[rhodriharris]

Glad to help, the extra virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil are not suitable for frying and i suppose neither would veg oil if it wasn't refined first.  Extra virgin olive oil is more a salad oil and i know people do try to fry with it but it simply burns up at high temps.  Use it as a garnish or sald dressing.
  If you do like the taste of it in your curry you should add it at the very end so that it dosen't recieve the high heat from cooking.  I see olive oil to be just as pungent as most spices and has a bland unique taste.
  I am intrested to know more about 'rice bran oil' as i never heard of it before.  Can it withstand high temps and is it totally healthy or not unhealthy like olive oil?  I have tried to find an oil for a long time that is just as healthy as olive oil but will withstand such high temperatures as needed for indian curries.

[Peripatetic Phil]

  I am interested to know more about 'rice bran oil' as i never heard of it before.  Can it withstand high temps and is it totally healthy or not unhealthy like olive oil? 

Alfa one 100% Pure Rice Bran Oil
No cholesterol
Plant sterols, Vitamin E
High smoke point
Light flavour
"Good for you, good for your food"
The most versatile oil in the kitchen
Contains 500ppm Oryzanol

"Make the healthier choice"
Alfa One Rice Bran Oil is naturally light and clean tasting.  It contains the natural antioxidant Vitamin E and the plant sterol Oryzanol.  With a high smoke point (250C), it is ideal for all types of cooking including baking, grilling and frying.

Ingredients : Extra cold filtered Rice Bran Oil

Oil produced in Thailand.

[PaulP]

I buy my rice bran oil from Sainsburys. It's just under 2 quid for 500 ml.

Ideally I would like to use virgin coconut oil but it is just too expensive, like about 7 quid for 500 ml. This is controversial as it is very saturated but the molecules are a unique medium length chain and the health benefits seem good.

Paul

[rhodriharris]

Ok guys i'm quite scientific and looked at rice bran oil.  I used the chart on wiki that you can get showing saturates, monosaturates and polyunsaturates along with the health benefits researched on about 15 sites.
  Its got its pros and cons and not perfect, dosen't natch up to olive oil in the kitchen health wise but it does allow very high temperatures of frying as well as hardly any smoke which is a really good benifit.  It has similar levels of fats as margerine but good amount of vitamins to make you live longer and feel healthier.  Unfortunatly refined olive oil looses some of its vitamins so rice bran oil beats it here although olive oil is better fat and cholesterol wise.  Coconut oil is basically just saturated fat so just as good as olive oil and unfortunatly needs refining, a process that uses nasty chemicals (so does veg oil,olive oil and sunflower), to allow it to be used for frying + exspensive.  Heres the best point about rice bran oil which i guess why it is gaining popularity in the west over veg oil and sunflower is that it dosen't need refining!  So yes rice bran oil is a good choice over olive oil when frying because of its high smoke point and being unrefined it still dosen't stack up to olive oil in the fats department and refined olive oil is ok to fry with (i personally don't like to even get refined olive oil too hot but see no reason why not too).
  So no oil really seems to be better and personally id stick to olive oil or coconut oil when making a curry and save the rice bran oil for deep frying and really high temps.  The main thing that i can take out of this is that there all better than vegetable oil and sunflower oil.  Hmm which oil to use, scratches head, i'm gona get back to using olive oil at home and see how it stacks up taste and heat wise compared to veg oil.  I will definatly deep fry with rice bran oil and think i am converted there being the healthiest option.  Coconut oil is too exspensive and harder too get so forget that in my kitchen dude although tell me more about it please as i never used it.  Is there any other oil that anyone on here uses that could be both better and healthier than olive and rice bran oil??

[Peripatetic Phil]

What exactly do you classify as "vegetable oil", Rhodri ?  In my classification, olive, rice bran, and coconut are all "vegetable oils", but you must be using the term to mean something different.

** Phil.

[peterandjen]

I havn't googled it but seem to remember that seed oils, sunflower, rape, peanut all are able to take a higher heat than fruit oils, olive, vegetable and the like.
Im not sure how sunflower stacks up against vegetable in terms of healthiness though.

[PaulP]

I'm keeping my eye out for this when it comes in stock:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nutiva-Organic-Coconut-8-Pound-1-Gallon/dp/B0016BO5EY

They sell this in the US for 49 dollars.

I bought 1.5 litres of organic virgin coco oil about a year ago but couldn't justify the price for the amount I was using.

It sure tastes good though!

Paul

[adriandavidb]

Oils don't have to reach a smoke-temperature before they change their properties and become less healthy.

One of the reasons I switched to groundnut oil is that I heard an 'expert' suggest that, whilst it was not much more healthy than sunflower oil when cold, after heating sunflower oil becomes extremely bad for you.

We've all heard that monounsaturates are the best, poly- the next best and saturated the worst type of lipids; and groundnut oil lies midway between the healthier olive oil and the 'neutral' sunflower oil, but apparently the situation changes after the oils have been heated just once, and to quite a low temperature!

Apparently groundnut oil is the healthiest to cook with; sunflower oil, regarded as ambivilent when unheated becomes EXTREMELY bad for you after heating.  Olive oil effects the taste of the curry.

I have used Rice bran oil too, but I excepting it's relatively benign properties when cold, I have no idea what it's like after it has been heated!  I'd like more info on this!

Anyway the Misses and I stick to groundnut for curry and chinky, and olive oil for the Mediteranian stuff; which we think is a good compromise on taste v. health.

Low-fat food is SOOOO boring!