What are the differences between frying with vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and liquid shortening?

Does it affect:
Lifespan of product?
Health?
Taste?


I've used liquid shortening, vegetable oil, and peanut oil so far and they all take the same amount of time to fry and the food comes out relatively the same. I can notice difference in quality which is reflected in the price, but that's about it.

What should I know?

1/12/2011 12:00:04 AM

taste, and flashpoint and 'smokepoint'

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats

1/12/2011 12:05:16 AM

You should use corn oil. It's cheap.

Unless that shortening is made from partially hydrogenated oils, then go with that instead.

1/12/2011 6:38:52 AM

I started substituting vegetable for canola but it's still pretty unhealthy.

1/12/2011 7:59:16 AM

My work uses rice bran oil for all its deep frying. Their fried food tastes good so based on that I recommend it.

1/12/2011 9:35:53 AM

Lets throw in soybean oil too while we're at it.

1/12/2011 9:37:32 AM

no thread about frying is complete without the mention of Crisco. Do they even sell that anymore?

1/12/2011 9:55:37 AM

why would they not sell it?

1/12/2011 10:18:43 AM

i don't know, i don't use it so i haven't noticed if it is still on store shelves or not.

1/12/2011 10:25:31 AM

I rarely fry shit, but when I do I use either olive or Smart Balance. To me it tastes good to me.

1/12/2011 11:41:26 AM

i use olive for pan frying, canola for the deep-fryer, and vegetable for the whirley-pop. i think the fries, tots, and hashrounds taste better using canola.

1/12/2011 11:47:59 AM

I use peanut oil in my fryer.

1/12/2011 11:48:26 AM

i've always heard that peanut oil was the way to go for frying. the only thing we fry is porkchops, & we use peanut oil, & they're really good. haven't tried anything else though.

i saw an episode of some show about this hosted by one of the queer eye for the straight guy dudes. i think they settled on peanut being the best tasting & longest lasting in terms of reuse, but that vegetable oil has the fewest calories.

1/12/2011 11:56:04 AM

Isn't peanut oil a type of vegetable oil?

1/12/2011 12:17:17 PM

Quote :

"I rarely fry shit, but when I do I use either olive or Smart Balance. To me it tastes good to me. "

Isn't the smoking point for olive oil too low to use for deep frying?

1/12/2011 12:32:52 PM

The last tome I truly fried something, I ended up in the hospital

1/12/2011 12:54:05 PM

^^

Quote :

"Here is what the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) has to say about frying food with olive oil: When heated, olive oil is the most stable fat, which means it stands up well to high frying temperatures. Its high smoke point (410ºF or 210ºC) is well above the ideal temperature for frying food (356ºF or 180ºC). The digestibility of olive oil is not affected when it is heated, even when it is re-used several times for frying"

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/heating-olive-oil

1/12/2011 12:55:39 PM

Quote :

"Isn't peanut oil a type of vegetable oil?"

seriously? have you never heard of peanut or vegetable oil?

vs

1/12/2011 1:03:31 PM

A peanut is not a vegetable.

1/12/2011 1:32:07 PM

^^^ Well how about that. I wonder where I heard it couldn't be used for frying.

1/12/2011 2:17:29 PM

^^^

Quote :

"Some of the many different kinds of edible vegetable oils include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil. Many other kinds of vegetable oils are also used for cooking."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

1/12/2011 2:31:49 PM

Jesus guys, vegetable oil is a catch-all term for any oil derived from plants.

However, I do wonder, what does the OP for example, mean, when he says vegetable oil? He lists canola, and corn separately, and vegetable separately.

I don't know about the US, but where I am, oil which are labeled "vegetable oil" in the supermarkets are palm oil.

Quote :

"Health?"

Ditch all the ones you listed. Go with these:

Avocado oil
Grapeseed oil
Rice bran oil

They are very healthy, and have very very high smoke points. You want to be even healthier? Don't do high heat deep frying.

Quote :

""Here is what the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) has to say about frying food with olive oil: When heated, olive oil is the most stable fat, which means it stands up well to high frying temperatures. Its high smoke point (410ºF or 210ºC) is well above the ideal temperature for frying food (356ºF or 180ºC). The digestibility of olive oil is not affected when it is heated, even when it is re-used several times for frying""

That must be partially refined. The smoke point of EVOO is much lower.

1/12/2011 2:38:58 PM

Almost everywhere I look the smoke point for EVOO is listed as 375+

1/12/2011 2:44:52 PM

320 here
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats

325 here
http://www.spectrumorganics.com/images/uploads/49623ec41cb5b.pdf

You put it in a pan and turn on the hotplate and it starts smoking in a couple of minutes if you turn it up high, so I wonder how it would survive deep frying.

EDIT:

375 here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

320 here
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/CollectedInfo/OilSmokePoints.htm



[Edited on January 12, 2011 at 2:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/12/2011 2:51:07 PM

Yeah, I've never heard of anyone deep frying with it, but a quick search just kept turning up higher #s.

1/12/2011 2:55:15 PM

have you never been to the grocery store before?? if you go to the oil section, there are bottles clearly labeled VEGETABLE OIL. i don't know wtf oils are blended, but it's not canola & it's not peanut because it's not labeled as canola or peanut (or corn or anything else). it's labeled vegetable. there are separate bottles labeled peanut and canola and corn, etc. if you don't believe me, go look.

i know you're trying to make the point that peanut oil can be classified as vegetable oil, but you are missing my point that there is a separate product labeled vegetable oil.

1/12/2011 3:17:50 PM

Quote :

"You put it in a pan and turn on the hotplate and it starts smoking in a couple of minutes if you turn it up high, so I wonder how it would survive deep frying."

Yeah, exactly. I'm having a hard time envisioning deep frying with olive oil based on a few incidents of turning the heat too high when stir frying with it

1/12/2011 4:18:13 PM

seems like deep frying with olive oil would be $$TEXAS compared to vegetable or canola oil

1/12/2011 6:09:26 PM

^^^ I did say this:

Quote :

"I don't know about the US, but where I am, oil which are labeled "vegetable oil" in the supermarkets are palm oil."

I just didn't think that there would be a stupid shitty product called "vegetable oil" in the US as well.

Just looked it up... it is soybean oil. I guess "vegetable oil" is oil of whatever is grown ubiquitously in a given country. In the US it is soybean oil, and where I am, it is palm oil.

http://www.crisco.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?GroupID=15&ProdID=303

All are shitty for health. Any oil that is so nearly colorless and uniform has been subjected to high heat, chemicals, and bleaches during processing. And then they sell them in such transparent bottles!

Canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, peanut, bin them all. If you can find virgin cold-pressed varieties of those oils, go ahead... they will have a pronounced flavor and color, and will be sold in dark bottles.

For the OP, they have these:

http://www.crisco.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?GroupID=15&ProdID=847
http://www.crisco.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?GroupID=15&ProdID=311

1/12/2011 7:33:08 PM

Quote :

"vegetable oil has the fewest calories"

you can't post about oil if you are going to say this. that's like saying sugar from sugar beets has fewer calories than sugar from sugarcane.

all oil is 14 grams fat per tbsp. and 14 grams fat is ~130 calories.

1/12/2011 8:30:37 PM

I use safflower in my cast iron, because I like to turn up the heat on them and that oil is helps minimize smoking.

1/12/2011 8:37:57 PM

I was really more addressing David0603. Obviously he's never been grocery shopping

Also, I said the TV SHOW HOST said that vegetable oil was better...

1/12/2011 8:42:44 PM

You can obviously use any oil for frying, but I don't know why anyone would use good olive or grapeseed oil for deep frying. I keep olive oil by the fridge and use it for about everything else though (still use butter for grits, baking, sauces, some other things where oil would be weird).

1/12/2011 10:11:26 PM

Quote :

"seems like deep frying with olive oil would be $$TEXAS compared to vegetable or canola oil"

I know right. Unless you could reuse it 200 times or so

1/13/2011 12:36:40 AM

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not suitable for use in high-temperature cooking. Refined olive oil is.

1/13/2011 9:28:06 AM

peanut oil is the best for frying/searing because it won't smoke your kitchen up. use canola oil for baking and olive oil for seasoning (like pasta and salad). corn/vegetable oil is the bottom of the barrel imo

1/13/2011 9:32:43 AM

i used peanut oil for deep frying turkey

olive oil or butter for normal day to day cooking

rarely use generic vegetable oil for anything at all

1/13/2011 9:47:31 AM