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In Spain everyone and their mother cooks / fries with olive oil. Nonetheless, there’s this idea that we shouldn’t be doing it as much, but mainly because of the

In Spain everyone and their mother cooks / fries with olive oil. Nonetheless, there’s this idea that we shouldn’t be doing it as much, but mainly because of the strong flavor and low smoke point; better to cook with other oils and then add olive oil for the flavor if needed.

mardifoufs 4y ago
Is it with virgin olive oil? And yes you might be right, the taste is much stronger with olive oil. It might be just that, but now I realized I never asked my mom why we don't do it!
berjin 4y ago
Ideally you would cook with a saturated fat like tallow, lard, coconut fat etc as they don't have a double bond to break. Monounasturated fat like (real) olive oil at least has fewer double bonds than polyunsaturated fats (seed oils). Cheaper olive oil is extracted with heat and solvents or even blended with seed oil.
- tkzed49 4y ago
  not sure that tallow and lard are necessary, but here's an interesting article that does suggest frying with saturated fats such as coconut oil or ghee, or alternatively, unrefined mustard seed or canola oil. It also has a table with data for several kinds of fats. The disadvantage to animal-derived fats, according to this, is the long-chain saturated fatty acids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990724/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990724/
  - berjin 4y ago
    Interesting table - very easy to see which fats are the worst. It's a pity they don't include animal fat in there but I guess it's all from an Indian context. Coconut seems like a good option but it can still go rancid if you don't refrigerate it. Some the early citations [2 &3] are not the best quality as they are based on questionaries. In the Minnesota Coronary Experiment which involved 9400 institutional participants eating controlled meals they found that cutting saturated fat can reduce blood cholesterol but that doesn't actually make one live longer. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/records-found-in-dusty-basement-undermine-decades-of-dietary-advice/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/records-found-in-...

mardifoufs 4y ago

Is it with virgin olive oil? And yes you might be right, the taste is much stronger with olive oil. It might be just that, but now I realized I never asked my mom why we don't do it!

berjin 4y ago

Ideally you would cook with a saturated fat like tallow, lard, coconut fat etc as they don't have a double bond to break. Monounasturated fat like (real) olive oil at least has fewer double bonds than polyunsaturated fats (seed oils). Cheaper olive oil is extracted with heat and solvents or even blended with seed oil.

tkzed49 4y ago
not sure that tallow and lard are necessary, but here's an interesting article that does suggest frying with saturated fats such as coconut oil or ghee, or alternatively, unrefined mustard seed or canola oil. It also has a table with data for several kinds of fats. The disadvantage to animal-derived fats, according to this, is the long-chain saturated fatty acids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990724/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990724/
- berjin 4y ago
  Interesting table - very easy to see which fats are the worst. It's a pity they don't include animal fat in there but I guess it's all from an Indian context. Coconut seems like a good option but it can still go rancid if you don't refrigerate it. Some the early citations [2 &3] are not the best quality as they are based on questionaries. In the Minnesota Coronary Experiment which involved 9400 institutional participants eating controlled meals they found that cutting saturated fat can reduce blood cholesterol but that doesn't actually make one live longer. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/records-found-in-dusty-basement-undermine-decades-of-dietary-advice/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/records-found-in-...