I get that there is probably a more complex answer in reality, and probably an objective ranking, but I’m interested in what people’s perceptions are.
In order from least healthy to most healthy:
- Moldy Gym Sock Drippings Oil
- Dumpster Guac Grease
- Three-Year-Expired Sunflower “Oil” That’s Now a Solid
- Fish Tank Backwash Extract
- Hair Salon Sweepings Oil
- Used Frying Oil from a Carnival Deep-Fryer
- Regular Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
- Plain Old Canola Oil
Avocado, grapeseed, or coconut for high heat. Olive for dressings and marinades. Butter for flavored frying (eggs, rice, etc.). Olive for skin and herbal infusions. Argan for my daughter’s hair. Motor for the car. WD40 for squeaks.
Well, there’s a FLAVOR ranking and a HEALTH ranking. :)
Tops for both are avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil.
My general preference is Lucini Olive Oil, they have Italian and Argentinian variants depending on how much you want to spend, and it’s readily available pretty much everywhere.
https://www.delish.com/kitchen-tools/cookware-reviews/g46931475/best-olive-oil-brands-ranked/
Olive Oil: Healthy
Motor Oil: Unhealthy
Unless your a car, then flip that around
- S tier: tallow, duck fat, butter, ghee, lard
- A tier: coconut oil
- B tier: olive oil, avocado oil
- C tier: peanut oil
- F tier: everything else
Peanut oil fries are the best imo
How does duck fat compare taste wise to beef fat?
Both are amazing for flavor but the duck tends to be more unique, savory, and delicious.
- Extra virgin olive oil for anything where the taste is a good thing
- Any oil with high monounsaturates and zero saturates (the rest being polyunsaturates). This may be a seed oil.
Extra virgin olive oil (and it has to be extra virgin) is known and scientifically proven to be very good for you.
Seed oils are today highly controversial - I avoided them for many years - but current science research suggests that they are perfectly safe, and indeed good for lowering cholesterol.
Here’s a real scientist, working and published in exactly this area, talking about this exact question: https://youtu.be/VRlleOTBq7k
Fwiw, I’m pretty convinced that the anti-seed oil crowd is approximately as grounded in science as the anti-vaccine crowd - that is to say, not at all.
Im not a doctor, but trained in (doing and reading) science. I’ve read up on this and can pretty confidently say you’re right.
They are all quite unhealthy and claims about magical compounds within this or that refined oil are largely nonsense. That said, plant-based oils are generally much less bad for you than butter and lard, and increasing unsaturated fat proportion is a good idea.
Oil in general is overused as an ingredient when savory flavors can be achieved with mushrooms, msg, nutritional yeast, tomato, and more. However it is certainly useful as a tool for heat transfer in cooking but can be used in much lower quantities for that purpose than you might expect.
I generally use avocado oil for any very high heat cooking surface like a wok, olive oil or avocado oil for other general high heat cooking surface, and nice flavorful olive oil or spiced olive oil for oil as an ingredient.
Mayonnaise
For frying I use avocado oil, it has a high smoke point.
There just was an oil comparison on Dutch tv. Basically all refined plant based oils perform the same. So sunflower or canola do just as fine as avocado oil.
For half the price (or more)
Everyone sleeping on sunflower oil, fr.
Sunflower oil gang rise up!
Great cooking versatility, great flavour for fried foods, high smoke point, cheap as heck.
Only just started using this, it’s excellent. Makes a great mayo too.
FYI, there was a similar thread recently on [email protected]
“don’t care taste good”
I hope you don’t live in China. Check out gutter oil.
Isn’t it common that shitty places, like a fries stand in a village festival or in tourist areas, recycle oil all the time, and the food tastes like bad oil?
My friend once asked a guy at the fries stand if he changed his oil this month. The guy was visibly shaken and said of course he has, this oil is no more than a week old.
Coconut, olive, anything else just for occasional flavor but better if avoided, canola and soy are the worst. that’s my personal unresearched ranking.
Researched input on your ranking: canola and soy are healthier than coconut since they’re both multiply unsaturated whereas coconut is saturated and has shorter chains. As far as I can tell, canola has a pretty good profile of fatty acids.
Okay, again I haven’t read a thing so I’m not saying you are wrong. I’ve just heard too many times that coconut is better for cooking, especially frying, and also to be eaten raw. Something about oxidation and temperature. Whatever. If canola is healthier I might switch to it, it’s far cheaper after all.
Hmm maybe that means it yields some better results, flavour and texture-wise? I’ve only ever used coconut oil as a cosmetic, and the only research I’ve done is health-based. As a general rule of thumb though, saturated fats are worse for you than non-saturated ones, and the less saturated a fat is, the lower the temperature where it goes from liquid to solid. Ie, butter melts at a higher temperature than coconut oil, so it’s more saturated. Coconut oil melts at a higher temperature than canola (canola goes solid way below the freezing temper of water), so it’s more saturated.
I was in a post on reddit sometime when we all got lectured about how every vegetable oil sucks and it’s better to eat lard or duck fat or tallow. “You clearly don’t know about lipids”. Haven’t figured out of that’s true or not but I’d definitely rather use butter than margarine.
Veggie oils are totally fine and animal fats, while tasty, are definitely worse for you.
I still use butter in cookies though.
Seed oils are probably bad for you but the rest are either good or neutral. Olive or avocado oil is probably at the top but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with butter either
Seed oils are definitely better for you than the alternatives, especially butter.
I love butter: but it’s absolutely worse for you than canola oil.
