Cooking with olive oil

[Spy Car]

I have a cast iron pan and I'm having a dickens of a time seasoning it right. Should I use flax oil?

 

Nothing better IMO for making a hard seasoned coating. This is when polymerization works positively. But ai would heat it outdoors if at all possible. I do not like the fumes put off by polymerizing oils and flax seed oil is especially bad to me.

 

But once seasoned it is the best.

 

Bill

[Renthead Mommy]

I thought you weren't supposed to cook extra virgin olive oil? That EVOO was for salads and marinades. If you were cooking you wanted just plain extra or pure?

[Spy Car]

I thought you weren't supposed to cook extra virgin olive oil? That EVOO was for salads and marinades. If you were cooking you wanted just plain extra or pure?

 

Nah. "Pure" olive oil is processed with solvents.

 

Now I would not use an ultra-premium (read ultra-expensive) Tuscan oil for reasons of economy. They have qualities that are lost with cooking. But a mid-grade Spanish or Greek oil is fine for sautee. So long as you don't over-heat it.

 

Bill

[Luanne]

I couldn't answer your poll question. I don't cook with olive oil, but there really is no reason why I don't. I just happen to use Canola Oil instead. My mother uses olive oil and I'm not afraid to eat her cooking.

[Catherine]

So what would you use for french fries? Is sunflower oil O.K. for it?

 

I am also a bit puzzled about what high temperature means. If I sautée onions in olive oil and then toss it into a boiling soup, is it a no no?

 

Boiling soup won't get much over 212*F, but oil heated alone in a pan will be much, much hotter.

[butterflymommy]

You know, people have been cooking with olive oil for centuries. It seems weird to me that all of a sudden, we should avoid it because it's carcinogenic. ::scratches head::

 

 

That's my thinking on it too. Olive oil is such an ancient food, with a long reputation for healing qualities, that I have trouble believing it could be lethal. Of course those same ancient cuisines were very high in plant foods-- fruit, greens, legumes, and whole grains, and all of those are virtually absent from the standard american diet.

 

It seems like every food goes through a "bad for you" fad. Lately it's sugar being bad for you (i.e., the soda ban). But sweeteners like honey are more ancient than olive oil. And human breastmilk is basically sugar water (50% more sugar than cow's milk). Not long ago eggs were bad for you. Now they're good for you.

 

So I just try to avoid any heavily processed foods, try to mimic cuisines with a long history and reputation for healthfulness, and take everything else in moderation.

 

I've mentioned this on the board before but my paternal grandmother had two siblings close in age. By adulthood they were scattered over the globe, one in the US, one in South America, one in Italy. The sibling in Italy outlived her siblings by decades. She was no health nut but I've often wondered if the local cuisine is what prolonged her life.

[kitten18]

The only negative thing I've ever heard about olive oil is there is a high level of "counterfeit" olive oils on the supermarket shelves. Some being that they don't meet the qualifications to be labeled "Extra Virgin" all the way to being a totally different oil colored and flavored to appear as olive oil.

 

Here's one blog post that I've read.

Well that is infuriating. :thumbdown:

 

You know my dad says this to me about eating gluten. If I make an offhand comment about missing eating something like say a Thin Mint he'll say, "Just eat them. What's a little stomach ache? Don't you know everything is going to kill you anyway?" Great. Thanks for the understanding of what it's like to have celiac. :glare:

 

Wendy, I know this is not what you meant. :)

 

 

 

 

I have a cast iron pan and I'm having a dickens of a time seasoning it right. Should I use flax oil?

 

 

 

 

We love using coconut oil as it gives a lovely flavor to the popcorn. I'll have to try ghee.

Nothing better IMO for making a hard seasoned coating. This is when polymerization works positively. But ai would heat it outdoors if at all possible. I do not like the fumes put off by polymerizing oils and flax seed oil is especially bad to me.

 

But once seasoned it is the best.

 

Bill

I finally got my cast iron properly seasoned with flax oil. I learned about it in Cook's Illustrated, shhhhh, I know how Bill feels about CI. ;)

[momtokea]

 

That's my thinking on it too. Olive oil is such an ancient food, with a long reputation for healing qualities, that I have trouble believing it could be lethal. Of course those same ancient cuisines were very high in plant foods-- fruit, greens, legumes, and whole grains, and all of those are virtually absent from the standard american diet.

 

It seems like every food goes through a "bad for you" fad. Lately it's sugar being bad for you (i.e., the soda ban). But sweeteners like honey are more ancient than olive oil. And human breastmilk is basically sugar water (50% more sugar than cow's milk). Not long ago eggs were bad for you. Now they're good for you.

 

So I just try to avoid any heavily processed foods, try to mimic cuisines with a long history and reputation for healthfulness, and take everything else in moderation.

 

I've mentioned this on the board before but my paternal grandmother had two siblings close in age. By adulthood they were scattered over the globe, one in the US, one in South America, one in Italy. The sibling in Italy outlived her siblings by decades. She was no health nut but I've often wondered if the local cuisine is what prolonged her life.

 

 

 

This is the best nutritional advice on the internet that I have ever read.

 

All four of my grandparents lived all their lives in mountain villages in Greece. My maternal grandparents owned acres and acres of olive trees. Olives and olive oil was their livelihood. It is the only oil they ever used. They used it for everything. All four of my grandparents lived well into their 80's and 90's with no health problems until the very end. They all died of old age.

They also drank raw goat's milk, ate eggs and french fries everyday (fried in olive oil), dipped their homemade bread into their fried olive oil, were skinny and never exercised a day in their lives. In fact, the last 20 years of their life they mostly just sat around. Basically, according to American standards, they did everything wrong.

 

North Americans have a reputation of being fat and unhealthy. If I was to tell my relatives in Greece that Americans are "discovering" that olive oil is bad for you, they would laugh in my face.

 

This thread is a perfect example to ignore all the fads and garbage you read about on the internet.

[Sun]

Is there no love for avocado oil? I still use olive oil for lower-temperature cooking, but I've started using avocado oil for high-heat roasting. It's yummy and has the highest smoke point. It makes delicious kale chips!

[kewb]

Olive oil is one of the oils I cook with. I use coconut oil and olive oil with the most frequency. Sometimes I use sunflower seed oil. Coconut oil makes the best popcorn.