Thete is nothing wrong with schnitzel!
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Peanut oil is about 30% omega 6. Canola is almost zero. That’s going by memory.
There are only 2 main polyunsaturated fats, omega 6 (linoleic) and omega 3. Linoleic is worse because not only does it cause oxidative damage but it is also pro inflammatory which means that it raises blood sugar and cortisol and insulin resistance in the long term.
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Please STOP using canola oil! All of you!
@mertdawg seems to know more than the rest of us when it comes to nutrition, but as far as cooking (which is my profession) I can tell you what I know.
So health concerns aside, soybean, corn, canola, and peanut oil are all pretty much similar in quality for frying and don’t give and weird taste. There are different types of coconut oil, the one you see people promoting for it’s supposed health benefits is the virgin/extra virgin type which is unrefined, however it will give a funny taste to your food and would be an acquired taste when it comes to deep frying. It is also more expensive. There is also refined coconut oil, usually just labelled as “coconut oil” and significantly cheaper than the unrefined type. It doesn’t have that coconut smell and will work well for frying. Yes, it’s refined, but so are all the other oils previously mentioned.
Olive oil has a weird bitter smell when you heat it past a certain point, for that reason alone I wouldn’t use it but I have also heard that certain toxins form when it is overheated. It also burns at a lower temperature than most oils, that means that either everything will have a burnt taste or you will fry at low temperature that will make your food soak up a lot more oil. I have never tried avocado, macadamia, or any other fancy oils for frying, if you have never heard of anyone using them for frying there is probably a good reason for it and they are expensive too.
Another oil to avoid for frying is sunflower. Over here they sell it in most grocery stores and it’s about the same price as canola, however it is no good for frying. I used it one or twice and the oil got all thick and things didn’t fry like they are supposed to. I don’t know why, but that is one oil not to fry with.
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Why?
The bottle I have will last me for another year probably!
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I would call the fat around the kidneys etc “suet”. It was not from around the organs. It had a mild taste if anything. You can buy lard that is not hydrogenated, but if it is from pigs it will still be relatively high in omega 6 (15-30%) versus only 2-4% for fat from cows.
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Soybean and corn work for frying because they add vitamin E to avoid burning. The main problem is that they are very high in omega 6 which is basically a major cause of health problems in the U.S. I mentioned that olive oil has residues that burn. Canola has erucic acid which causes heart lesions. I would never use corn, soy or canola, or peanut, and have not bought hem for 10 years.
You are correct about regular sunflower, but high oleic sunflower oil stands up much better to heat, like high oleic safflower. Most sunflower is high “linoleic” which is what burns and smokes most readily.
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It is actually synthetic. That is why it has no taste.
Canola, or rapeseed, is an industrial oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap, a synthetic rubber base, and as an illuminant for the slick color pages you see in magazines. As an industrial oil, it does not belong in the human body!
Vegatable oil is produced using a the same process as soap. Then they render the soap the get the oil.
Okay I had to look it up and now I’m wondering why I’m not already frying more foods and doing it in duck fat since you can just buy it by the bucket online. Don’t listen to any of these hucksters telling you about their omega fried zapadoo counts. Fry your chicken in the fat of ducks. It’s a gluten-free, vitality-enhancing and lifespan-extending miracle food.
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That sounds worse than omega 6.
What do you think about refined coconut oil? I have heard people like Stan Efferding saying that refined oils are bad for you because they use hexane, is that true? I don’t really deep fry anything these days but I fry eggs and steak, I have been using canola oil for a while (I used to use peanut but I heard bad things plus it’s much more expensive these days) but the heart lesions make me think twice.
Is there a safe amount of erucic acid intake?
You can fry chicken in chicken fat if you really want to, I don’t see ho it would be any better or worse than duck fat. I used to make fried chicken regularly and often you end up with more oil than you started. There are also chunks of fat inside the thighs that you usually cut off when you clean up a chicken, if you buy a few chickens and melt down that fat plus a few other chunks from here and there you can fry something.
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The claims are that the erucic acid content has been reduced to below the level that is likely to cause heart lesions. I personally feel sick when I eat canola though, so I decided to avoid it. i don’t use liquid coconut oil, only solid. I don’t know how they make coconut oil liquid at room temperature.
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I was looking online a few minutes ago and I see some pages saying that as well. Canola oil never made me feel sick though, the only reason I would consider avoiding it is the erucic acid.
All coconut oil will liquify if it’s warm enough, in the summer my coconut oil is always liquid and it’s the virgin/unrefined sort.
What about hexane?
Just so there’s no confusion as to what sort of coconut oil I’m talking about, I have actually made coconut oil myself and it is liquid when it’s warm enough as well.
To make coconut oil: remove the meat from a dry coconut and either grate or blend with warm water. Then put it in a strainer and squeeze all the liquid out of it, one handful at a time. This is coconut milk. Then you boil it down and it will start to look thick and lumpy, eventually oil will form on the top. Depending on the coconut (they are not all equal) you can get maybe half a cup from one. The stuff left in the pot can be used for a Jamaican recipe called “run down” (which is why I was boiling down coconut milk in the first place).
I saw Stan’s discussion about hexane, but haven’t had a chance to look into them. I believe I use unrefined only, but I don’t use a lot of coconut oil anyway. There is shelf liquid coconut oil. I "won’ a few bottles free. I realize it will melt at a fairly low temp, outside or close to the stove, but it re-solidifies. To get room temp liquid coconut oil has me asking questions. IT could be that the have removed the solid fatty acids and only used the liquid fractions.
OK, yea there are 3 things. There is solid at room temp coconut oil (that you can cook with) there is coconut butter, which I like, but you can’t heat it too much because it has small amounts of sugar and protein that burn, and there is a liquid at room temp coconut oil.
The health food crowd claim that refined coconut oil lacks whatever beneficial qualities are in unrefined oil, but the nutritional content should be the same so I’m not sure about that. The only thing I can see possibly wrong with it is the hexane.
What do you mean by coconut butter? I have never seen or heard of it, I looked it up and there is something like peanut butter but it’s made from coconut. It doesn’t look like you can cook with it though.
Apparently the liquid at room temp. coconut oil has the lauric acid removed. I have never seen that before.
Interesting since Lauric acid is the main anti-viral component in coconut oil.
The solid coconut oil I use says cold pressed, so I assume it doesn’t involve any solvents.
Nutritionally speaking, Red Palm is pretty good too. Low in omega-6, and also contains alpha-carotene. The industry is considered to be an ecological disaster though. Something about killing orangutans.
Here are oils that I use:
Butter
Ghee (this one can be used for frying)
Avocado
Macadamia
Extra Virgin Olive
Beef tallow
High oleic safflower
High oleic sunflower
The last two I use more rarely, but they make good mayonnaise and high oleic safflower is good for high heat.
Also red palm which I haven’t bought for several years and sometimes cocoa butter such as in baking chocolate.
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