The olive oil issue returns! but this time, somebody else wants to talk about it. This post is authored by Paid Twice who writes over at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already. If you are looking for bloggers in debt, who are fighting it out and inspiring others to do the same, you should stop by her blog sometime. And yeah… forget nasty comments or be ready to get a taste of some serious kicking skills.
I have to admit, when I read the post here a few months ago about buying canola oil and a couple acting superior because they use olive oil, I was taken completely aback. Not that I would ever have some kind of attitude with someone because I use(d) olive oil, but honestly, I never knew that canola oil was as good or even better to use for cooking as olive oil . The whole post, and the ensuing comments, completely surprised me. Basically I had been buying olive oil, extra virgin olive oil no less, for years and years, thinking I was doing something good for my family (and spending a huge premium to do it) when in fact, I could have spent way less than half as much, bought canola oil, and been just as healthy.
Apparently I have been brainwashed by the likes of Rachael Ray and the majority of the Food Network into believing that extra virgin olive oil is *the* thing to use for cooking. I do not generally subscribe to the idea that expensive = better, but sometimes, it actually does equate , and I thought for some reason this was one of those instances. Now yes, I could have researched it, I could have done my own reading, I could have done many oil comparisons and figured this conclusion out for myself this. If I’d even known what to compare. I’d never really given much thought to anything other than “vegetable” oil (which in my experience generally means soybean oil) and olive oil as possible options in my oil usage.
Olive oil is just one example of a growing problem I have when trying to be frugal vs being cheap. Sometimes I feel like the world is designed to throw barriers in the way of being truly frugal at every corner. I always hear the idea of spending money for quality espoused as a frugal concept, but it is so hard for me to figure out what quality is or when quality is worth it.
I want to live a frugal lifestyle. Frugal. Not cheap. I don’t want to sacrifice the health of my family or their safety to save a buck, and I don’t want to buy the same thing ten times for a dollar each I could have bought once for five dollars. It is easy to say save money when it doesn’t matter, but spend money when it does - but for me, so hard to put into practice. I’ve overspent on things I thought were cost-justified but actually were not (see my years of olive oil usage), and I’ve underspent on other things just to be disgusted with the quality and end up with a broken something that had to be replaced (a shelving unit and a laundry hamper both immediately come to mind).
So does every single purchase, no matter how mundane, need hours of thorough research? Whose research do I trust? Where do I look for that kind of information and when do I know that the frugal thing to do is spend more money vs buying cheaply? I don’t know if there is a simple answer to that. So much of life is full of propaganda and supposed experts telling me what to spend money on and where. How do I filter out the propaganda and figure out where the real information is? More and more I’m running into this problem, with food and also beyond.
And to finish with another question about food, those of you who are in the know about oil…. what kind of oil should I be using for baking? 
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ditto!
I don’t think it has to be an either or thing. For some cooking I use olive oil and for other stuff I use canola. I like the taste of olive oil better for salad dressing and some other stuff, but extra virgin should NOT be used when cooking at high temps as it breaks down too fast. Regular olive oil is better at higher temps. Canola is better in baking to me.
My family in Greece had olive trees before the fires this summer.
Oh course I had to respond, I’m a Greek-American and biased.
Yep, it definitely isn’t an either-or proposition, because different oils just have different uses. When you want an oil that won’t impart a flavor into what you’re cooking, a nice vegetable or canola oil is best, and this is certainly true for baking.
But when you are cooking a dish where the flavor of the oil will actually come through, olive oil can add great flavor and depth to a dish.
I keep a number of different oils stocked in the kitchen. I of course have plenty of plain vegetable or canola oil for baking and everyday uses. Then I have some decent extra virgin olive oil to help with salad dressings and other lightly cooked dishes. I keep peanut oil on hand for heavy frying, and finally I have some safflower and sesame oil that I use with cooking asian cuisine.
It may seem expensive to keep so many different oils on hand, but it really isn’t since they last a long time as they are only used for specific uses.
I’m with everyone else on this list. My wife and I use olive oil for pan cooking and salad dressing, and we usually use canola oil for baking. I think the flavor of the dish being prepared, and the type of cooking is the most important thing to consider. I would never use olive oil for baking brownies!
I use vegetable oil for baking. I was wondering if I should be using something different
Thanks for all the oil information
For some reason I thought oil would go rancid after a while and I don’t use it up very fast.
yes, I am totally guilty of using extra virgin olive oil for pan frying :hangs head in shame:
no more though…. I bought some canola. lol
Just wanting to echo everyone else. Olive oil is about taste (or so my Mom’s led me to believe).
For a lot of dishes, we don’t really “cook” much with Olive oil. Rather we use it raw or at very low temps, like on salads and stuff.
Can I sue Rachael Ray? lol
I’m glad everyone has the right information in the comments. EV Olive Oil is not meant for high-heat cooking, and Olive Oil is one of the oils that contain and impart their own flavor into the dishes they’re used in.
Canola and Safflower Oils are good for medium heat frying, while high heat requires a more stable oil such as Peanut Oil.
Save the High Quality EV Olive Oil for fresh dishes or lightly cooked.
Here’s a free recipe to show off Olive Oil’s qualities:
Cut a few oranges into round slices (cut perpendicular to the core) about 1/4 inch thick or less.
Lay out on a plate and smear with a light coat of minced garlic. there should be lots of little chunks of garlic on each orange slice, but it shouldn’t be too thick.
Sprinkle a little sea salt over everything and drizzle some EV Olive oil over the top.
Let everything sit for 15 minutes while the flavors settle, then dig in. Break the peel, open the orange, and savor every little wedge. it’s amazing.
Don’t you know? The correct terminology is EVOO. You really should watch Rachel Ray a little more…
So what you’re telling me is that I can use Canola Oil and be just as healthy?
Add me to the list of misinformed. (add me to the lawsuit, too…I could use the money :))
Baking should always be done with butter. If a recipe call for oil, throw it out and hunt down the original, I guarantee it was butter.
Wow…I had no idea this was a topic was actual serious debate.
I personally use grapeseed oil and olive oil for cooking because it’s what my mom used when I was younger. I do it out of habit I guess. If someone accused me of being cheap for using canola oil I’d probably laugh out loud at how ridiculous they are.
Being Mediterrenean (Turkish to be exact), olive oil is all I use. Since frying is not good for health, I never fry anything anymore. I use the Extra Virgin for cold dishes and salads and cook with the refined kind. AND, I am not a snob:)
You need a little getting used to for baking with it. I agree baking is better with butter but, the docs say we should not consume butter:(
No, no, no… (sighs)
First of all, there is no one single Best Oil for everything, just like there is no one single cooking pan that would handle everything perfectly.
Olive oil is great for salad dressings and certain types of sauteing but it’s really not that good for most baked goods nor for, say, seasoning your antique cast iron, nor for an oriental high-temp stir-fry. Try making a cake with it (ewhhh, no — don’t). I use it about 5-6 nights a week but not for everything.
As for canola, most canola has enough erucic acid in it that neither my wife nor I can stand it in anything. There are certainly some higher-priced canolas out there that don’t have that nasty aftertaste…but why bother? We get grapeseed or safflower or sunflower for what Wendy’s uses canola for.
On a similar note (I don’t really want to get off subject here), my wife recently bought me some pricey face cream and lotion called Biotherm.
She thinks buying higher priced face wash
and cream equates to healthier skin for me in the future.
And yes, I am getting older (no wrinkles yet) so maybe buying this stuff will have some benefit. If Biotherm ends up making my skin a lot more smoother and cleaner, the extra cost will be worth it. However, if my face starts getting craters the size of the Grand Canyon, I might as well stick to the cheaper stuff at Walmart or buy cream from a late night infomercial.
In relation to Canola and Olive oil, it all comes down to what works for you.
My business professor once told me, “Quality is not defined by price. It’s defined by what the consumer thinks as quality”.
(I also heard that certain types of olive oil can be good for your face?)
We use it for cooking no doubt, But my son use it as hair oil as well and once a person advised me that it is very good for brain if we use it on kids head.
Know how some restaurants give you olive oil instead of butter for the fancy rolls? Imagine dipping those rolls into canola oil instead. Yuck! If health benefits were the only issue it would be one thing, but taste is important too.
Why not sunflower instead of canola? At least the sunflower is a real plant, not a genetic hybridation/un-natural plant invented by Canada
Stephan-Canola is just rapeseed oil that has been bred to be low in that eruric (sp?) acid–I always assumed they named it Canola because it sounds better than having “rape” in the name of a food.
Here is the wikipedia info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed
Personally I echo many others here-canola for basic stuff, olive oil for a bit of sautee’ing, and the ever yummy sesame oil for asian cooking (yum).
As most people above have mentioned, it depends on what you’re cooking what type of oil you should be using. Most of the time I use canola or olive oil. Canola for light flavoured things I don’t want to be overpowered by the (admittedly delicious) flavour of olive oil - so baking, fries, etc. Olive oil I use more often when making pastas or salads.
This pdf (http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/pdfs/cookingoil.pdf) seems to give a decent outline of the nutritional benefits and heat limitations of a lot of types of oils.
Oops, and Jenn@Frugal Upstate, they did wish to disassociate with the rape aspect of rapeseed, but the word is actually derived from CANadian Oil Low Acid. It’s also called LEAR oil for Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed.
I wash my face with olive oil, then rinse with cold water….the best!
All gawbage. Olive earl is da best dere is, but I use butta for bakin’
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