Fats and oils

[imbecile]

I use ghee for curry, olive oil for most pasta dishes, sesame seed oil for stir fries, random vegetable oil for deep frying, and don't really fry much else.

How important is the fat choice to the meal?

[uberscruff]

The choice of oil is quite important: you need to match the flavour/texture of the oil with the type of cuisine. The flavour of olive oil would not work well in a curry, and the texture of ghee would be all wrong in a pasta dish.

One thing though - it's not a good idea to cook in sesame oil as it burns very easily and has a strong flavour. It should be added to the dish towards the end of cooking.

[UKbob]

uberscruff said:

One thing though - it's not a good idea to cook in sesame oil as it burns very easily and has a strong flavour. It should be added to the dish towards the end of cooking.

Walnut oil also has a very nice flavour, its good stuff but also burns easily.

[CommanderJameson]

I use peanut oil for oriental stir frying, because you can get it mega hot.

[escargot]

Ground nut oil for frying bacon (and the rest of the brekkie).

[anonymous-user]

Oil is very important some are flavoured, such a walnut or sesame, some are not. Groundnut (peanut) can be heated to very high temps but extra virgin should be no more than warmed. I tend to avoid the generic vegetable oils for deep frying and use rapesead instead as its less greasy. Last year I made my own beach nut oil which turned out very well (took quite a while!)

[UKbob]

MonkeyMatt said:

Last year I made my own beach nut oil which turned out very well (took quite a while!)

Id be interested to hear your step by step procedure. Im guessing you needed several billion beach nuts?

[anonymous-user]

UKbob said:

MonkeyMatt said:

Last year I made my own beach nut oil which turned out very well (took quite a while!)

Id be interested to hear your step by step procedure. Im guessing you needed several billion beach nuts?

I only managed a small bottle. I collected rather a large amount of beech nuts (quite easy) and put them in a blender shell and all in batches, then squeezed the pulp by ringing with a tea towel then left the liqiud to settle and seperate! Got the idea from the 'Food For Free' Book.

[escargot]

I'd rather just buy it to be honest.

10/10 for effort though.