What cooking oil do you cook with the most?

[Yooper]

Good old Crisco oil here, when I need it. We keep a small can of shortening around too, but use it so rarely it needs replacement before it is gone.

I'll render chicken fat myself in a double boiler from time to time. When cleaning chicken, I'll put wing tips, skin, fat into a container and freeze it, then render it on a day off.

I've noticed duck fat, coconut oil, etc. now available at my local Walmart!

 

[TickTockMan]

I have to admit you guys said a lot of oils I have never heard of.

 

[nycguydowntown]

olive oil--its the one I always have.

 

[Rickrock]

We use canola whatever brand is cheaper.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Olive oil or corn oil depending on what I'm preparing. Vegetable oil is deceptive term; it almost always means soybean oil. I never use that.

 

[roadtripboy]

I found a blend that I like and use it for most everything. It's from Spain and 20% extra virgin olive oil and 80% sunflower oil.

Although I think the company that bottles it is mis-leading in it's labeling. If you just glance at it the label appears just to say extra virgin olive oil (in black letters) in green letters almost the same color as the label it says sunflower oil as well.

 

[roadtripboy]

I had never heard of canola oil so I looked it up. We call it what it is, Rapeseed oil

Here's an article on Conala Oil. Canada invented it. It's grapeseed oil with most of the eruic acid removed. Making the taste more netural and removing the green color.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil

 

[bankside]

rape, not grape.

 

[LeicsDom]

rape, not grape.

What he says

 

[roadtripboy]

Yeah, yeah I know. By the time I noticed it was to late to edit it.

 

[ronboy]

For recipes that call for vegetable oil for an ingredient, I use Crisco.



For salads, and seasoning, I like Pietra Antica Extra Virgin Olive Oil



For frying, I like pomace olive oil. It is the last pressing of the olives before they are discarded (Made from olives already pressed for extra virgin oil. They are steamed and pressed again)
Pomace oil has a rich, heavier flavor and darker color than extra virgin olive oil. It is cheaper than EVOO, but it's still a good frying oil.

 

[zoltanspawn]

^I'm pretty suspicious of Olive Pomace Oil. I would never use it. If it has a "heavier flavor and darker color than" some evoos, it's because it's been mixed with real olive oil to give it character.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_pomace_oil

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

We grew up in The Netherlands when people used only butter, baking margarine (Unilever's infamous Croma), corn oil, sunflower oil or beef tallow.

Olive oil, if people had eaten it at all, was considered disgusting and unhealthy, of 'extra virgin olive oil' no one had really heard.

Later, they dearly sold us cheaply bought olive oil from the Mediterranean, because it was 'so healthy for you'.

It's a waste to use extra virgin oil for frying, pomace is much better for that.

On a related note, infamous Dutch politician Geert Wilders called the economically underwhelming southern EU states "Garlic Countries", mobilizing the misapprehension the Dutch general populace mostly still are under in respect to this marvellous ingredient.

 

[Yooper]

The surprisingly extensive assortment at my local Wally World (click to enlarge, no idea why it insists on loading sideways).

 

[seven2go]

Canola oil for deep frying sea food, vegetable for deep frying meats.
I quit using olive oil for frying due to its low smoke point so mostly vegetable oil for that.
For special things like sauteed seafood the hands down winner is clarified butter but that get kinda pricey.
If you clarify butter never throw out the solids.
They're fabulous for popcorn and fried/hash brown potatoes.......

 

[bankside]

Clarified butter is just melted and skimmed off, isn’t it? Does it have to be a special kind of butter?

 

[zoltanspawn]

Clarified butter is just melted and skimmed off, isn’t it? Does it have to be a special kind of butter?

Yes, just melted and skimmed.

No special kind.

It's not shelf stable, though, so store it tightly sealed in your fridge.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

^ If you continue to heat it for long enough, it will become ghee and then you could store it outside of the shelf. You can also make soap out of the ghee if you add sodium hydroxide.

 

[zoltanspawn]

^And heating even further, beurre noisette.

 

[belamyi]

JFC

The question!