Ah, that big, scary word: FAT. We’ve been told all our lives
that we should stay away from it because it’ll make us fat. I’ll save that
fiction for another post, but what I would like to cover today is what are the
best fats & oils to cook with, how to select them, and how to store them.
I think I need to give you a bit of a disclaimer here: I’m
admittedly biased against seed & vegetable oils thanks to my Paleo/Primal
choices, but I’d probably avoid them on principle alone even if I wasn’t
Primal. Most seed & vegetable oils are made with GMO crops, especially
soybean oil. Not only that, but the extreme processing that these oils have to
go through just to be “consumable” (which does NOT mean they SHOULD be
consumed, it just means they CAN be consumed without killing you, at least not
immediately) should be a giant red flag on your ‘do not eat this’ radar. Add to
that the extreme instability of most seed & vegetable oils combined with
their high omega-6 content and you’ve got a recipe for both health and culinary
disaster. I recommend avoiding these
oils like the plague, and anything made with them. But just so you know,
adopting a Paleo/Primal way of eating knocks these oils out of your diet by
default, so… Just sayin’. =)
Disclaimer over. On to the topic at hand!
Fortunately, I can’t get into a discussion about fats &
oils without disclosing a little bit of chemistry (and I say fortunately
because you know how much I love food science!). As you probably know, there
are three types of fats & oils: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and
saturated. There are different levels of each of these as well, which I won’t
get into, but you can do more digging here
if you want to (fair warning; it’s all science-y!), or here
and here
for layman’s terms on the chemical composition of fats. What you need to be
concerned with for the purposes of this post is how each of these are affected
by air, light, and heat; in other words, how quickly and to what degree they burn
and oxidize, breaking down in nutritional profile and giving your food a bitter
taste.
Oh, almost as an aside: The basic difference between fats
& oils is that fats are solid at room temperature, whereas oils are liquid
at room temperature. All oils are fats, but not all fats are oils. Get it? This
only really matters on a chemical level, but since we’re getting into a bit of
chemistry here, it’s kind of important to know. =)
Two things you need to know before you dive into cooking
with fats: smoke point and stability. Smoke point is the temperature at which a
fat or oil starts to smoke when heated. I know what you’re thinking: well, duh, Megan. Could you spare me the
obvious explanation? And spare you I
shall! Fats smoke at a certain temperature point because of
their chemical composition, and if you’re unaware of the chemical composition
of the fat you’ve chosen to cook with, you could end up with a charred, bitter
mess of greens or a soggy, limp piece of meat. Certain dishes require a certain
type of fat purely because of the smoke point. For example, you want a fat with
a high smoke point for frying so as not to burn the fat before the food is
cooked properly. Choosing your fats wisely also matters for texture: Animal
fats usually lend a lighter, drier, crispier texture to fried foods than
vegetable oils, which usually leave some sogginess behind.
The stability of fats & oils refers to the speed and
degree to which they become oxidized. This can happen both when heated and when
being stored, which I’ll address a little later. Oxidation happens only in
unsaturated fats (so most animal fats and tropical oils don’t count), but it’s
important to know how and how long to store your fats to prevent oxidization
and rancidity. More on that in a bit…
When selecting a fat to cook with, consider not just the
method and temperature at which you’re cooking; think also about the end product,
namely taste and texture.
Below, you’ll find the best fats & oils for culinary
purposes, and the methods and temperatures for cooking with them. You can use
multiple fats in a single dish, too. For example, if you’re cooking an Asian
dish, you could stir-fry the meat & veggies in coconut oil due to its high
heat tolerance, and finish with toasted sesame oil for that distinctive
stir-fry flavor.
High-heat cooking
(based on stability):
Coconut oil: best for stir-frys, sautés, frying, and
high-heat roasting; smoke point: 350 degrees unrefined, 450 degrees refined
Butter: best for sautés and roasting; smoke point: 300
degrees
Tallow/suet (beef fat): best for frying, roasting, and
broiling; smoke point: 400 degrees
Palm kernel oil: best for frying, high-heat roasting,
broiling, and stir-frys; smoke point: 455 degrees
Lard/bacon fat: best for pan frying, sautéing, and roasting;
smoke point: 375 degrees
Duck fat: best for pan frying, sautés, and roasting; smoke
point: 375 degrees
Avocado oil: best as finishing oil for flavor or as base for
salad dressing; smoke point: 520 degrees
Macadamia oil: best as finishing oil for flavor or as base
for salad dressing; smoke point: 410 degrees
Olive oil: best for low-heat sautés, light roasting, and as
base for salad dressing; smoke point: 375 degrees
Cold-use only:
Sesame oil: best as finishing oil for flavor
Walnut oil: best as base for salad dressing
Source: Practical
Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo; www.balancedbites.com
Tropical Traditions
- Considered the best as far as coconut oil goes. They also carry olive oil,
palm oil, and sesame oil.
US Wellness Meats
- This Internet gem of all things animal carries tallow, suet, lard, and duck
fat, and they sell Kerrygold Butter through the site if you don’t have a store
nearby that does. As you can imagine, they also sell just about every type of
meat, poultry, and fish- all sustainably sourced, all
pastured/grass-fed/wild-caught- that you can imagine, so keep this source handy
for all your animal food needs!
Amazon.com also has a great selection of other fats and
fat-related products (such as creamed coconut
and almond butter).
You can also get olive oils, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, ghee, and a big
selection of animal fats. Just be sure to source everything you see on Amazon;
you may not be getting what you’re paying for. Always go to the source and read
reviews before ordering through Amazon.
~Megan