Instead of buying primarily olive oil for the kitchen, buy a vegetable oil in bulk and use that for most of your cooking. The 'extra' bottle of olive oil will last longer and you won't have to spend as much. I used to use olive oil for pretty much everything and then buy butter for baking. This saves me cash!
Source: I read about this tip in one of Suze Ormans' books.
By Natalya from Wodonga, Australia
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I would rather spend a bit more to buy the olive oil and have the added health benefits than to buy cheaper and have more fat.
Olive oil is so much healthier and the extra money might save you medical bills down the road.
I mix olive oil with canola. OO is not meant to be heated as it breaks down quickly and you lose the nutrient value and the taste. When using it with heat, it should be for a quick saute only. I also mix oil with butter sometimes as the oil helps butter not burn and keeps the flavor.
I learned this both in culinary school and a nutrition class.
A good tip and it's great to save money but the difference in oils makes a world of difference in the flavor of your foods and overall health benefits of the foods because of how assorted oils are processed. I do use vegetable oil for some baking items and in the deep fryer though. :-)
DorothyNYC mentions that olive oil is not meant to be heated except in a quick saute but that is not true. What matters is the heat smoke/flash point of the oil. Assorted olive oils actually have a similar smoke/flash point of canola oil and all of the assorted olive oils have a higher smoke/flash point than butter.
Hi all,
Contrary to popular belief, olive oil is not the holy grail of oils in terms of unsaturated fats- these are the 'good' fats for our bodies. Good vegetable oils are usually made of a blend of canola, soya and sunflower oils. The yukky stuff to stay away from is lard (dripping) and overly large amounts of butter and any fats with animal by products in them IE cream, sour cream.
Natalyanatalya, I am so sorry if you might be upset by people's opinions regarding your posted tip :-( But you need to know that olive oil is indeed healthier than vegetable oil because of the process to make it which, in the case of olive oil, is 'naturally pressed' (Hence why it's so expensive). Here is what the Mayo Clinic (Google Mayo clinic if you're not familiar with their credentials) has to say about Olive Oil:
"When choosing fats, olive oil is a healthy choice. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fat, a healthier type of fat that can lower your risk of heart disease by reducing the total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol levels in your blood. In contrast, saturated and trans fats such as butter, animal fats, tropical oils and partially hydrogenated oils increase your risk of heart disease by increasing your total and LDL cholesterol levels." All types of olive oil contain monounsaturated fat, but "extra-virgin" or "virgin" olive oils are the least processed forms, so they're the most heart healthy. Those types contain the highest levels of polyphenols, a powerful antioxidant that also can promote heart health.
And here is some information on the process of making vegetable oil so you will understand why those who posted their concerns about vegetable oil did so:
Vegetable oil is just vegetable oil, isn't it? Well, the answer to this is it's not. Most vegetable oil production involves the use of various chemicals. The starting ingredient will vary depending on which ones happen to be cheapest for the manufacturer at that time. Corn, soya beans, peanuts, cottonseeds, safflower seeds, rape/canola and sunflower seeds are commonly used. The seeds are collected when ripe and then cleaned (possibly using chemicals). Unless the oil is cold-pressed, the seeds are cooked (to free the oil for efficient pressing) and then dried. The mixture is then pressed using a continuous screw press, filtered, and allowed to settle. More oil is extracted from the sediment using solvents such as hexane or heptane. The solvent is then removed by distillation. The oil may be subject to further treatment to reduce the taste and smell of it. It is then sold as vegetable oil or according to ingredients (e.g. sunflower oil).
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