What's in Your Pan?

Choosing the Best Cooking Oil For Your Meal

ou’ve got all the ingredients for the perfect meal; fresh vegetables, grass-fed beef, impeccable herbs and spices. The next stop is the cooking oil section of the grocery store. With so many choices, how do you decide which oil to cook with? Here’s a quick and easy guide to some of the most popular cooking oils!

Olive Oil

Extra Virgin: Easily the most well-known and frequently used of cooking oils, extra-virgin olive oil, or EVOO, has earned its reputation as a healthy, versatile fat. But its low smoke point (the temperature at which it begins to degrade and release damaging free radicals) means it’s not always the best oil to use for cooking — at least not cooking at temperatures above 375ºF. For this reason, EVOO is often recommended for colder dishes like dips, salads, and dressings. Light: A far higher smoke point (about 470ºF) makes light olive oil a better choice for high heat cooking like sautéing, roasting and grilling. All olive oils have a strong flavor, making it less ideal for cooks who want an oil that won’t affect the flavor of their dish.

Coconut Oil

Refined coconut (made with dried coconut meat) oil has a smoke point of 450ºF. It works well for sautéing or roasting and has a neutral, light-coconut taste. Virgin coconut oil (made with fresh coconut meat that is pressed to extract the oil) on the other hand, offers more signature coconut flavor and can be used at temperatures up to 350ºF. Both are also suitable for baking with a 1:1 ratio for butter or other oils.

Avocado oil

YAvocados are chock-full of healthy monounsaturated fats, so you won’t be surprised to learn that their oil is, too. In addition to a high content of these good fats, avocado oil has the highest known smoke point of any plant oil — 520ºF for refined and up to 480ºF for unrefined. It’s perfect for frying, searing, roasting, and grilling. Though avocado oil is considered a carrier oil that lets other flavors shine, choose the refined version if you prefer a milder taste.

Canola/Vegetable Oil

While other vegetable oils come from a blend of vegetables (which, depending on labeling, may remain a mystery), canola oil is always derived from rapeseed plants. The refining process of both canola and other vegetable oils leaves them with a neutral taste and medium-high smoke point of 400ºF. This makes them useful for stir-frying, sautéing, grilling, frying, and baking.

Peanut Oil

Peanut oil makes things taste and smell like peanuts. This is great if you’re making peanut butter cookies or stir-frying Asian style. Try using it the next time you fry chicken or turkey. Plus, it’s one of the least expensive oils on the list, which makes it great for filling up a fryer. Avoid peanut oil if you don’t want your food to taste like peanuts. Like when you’re grilling a steak or baking a cake. Unrefined oil has a smoke point of about 350ºF, while refined has a smoke point of about 450ºF.

Walnut Oil

Walnut oil channels the earthy, buttery flavor of walnuts. With a smoke point of 320ºF , it’s not a good oil for high-heat cooking, but it’s a fantastic addition to salad dressing. Bonus; this oil is rich with Omega-3 fatty acids. It's available in roasted and unroasted varieties. The roasted version has a much stronger flavor, but both are delicious!

Almond Oil

Full of monounsaturated fatty acids, almond oil can elevate the levels of “good” cholesterol, or high-density lipoproteins (HDL). It can also lower levels of “bad” cholesterol, or low-density lipoproteins (LDL), when it replaces saturated and trans fats. Almond oil is best used for salad dressing, low-heat baking, or as finishing oil on top of a dish to add extra flavor and nutrition. However, refined almond oil can be used for roasting or sautéing because it has been processed to tolerate a much higher heat, up to 420°F.

Sesame Oil

Sesame oil has a strong, nutty flavor and a little goes a long way. It’s a darker oil with a medium-high smoking point (420°F), so it does work in sauteed dishes. But you wouldn’t want to use it as frying oil. It makes a great addition to a salad. Almost any Asian dish will taste great with a dash of sesame oil in it.

Pumpkin Seed Oil

Pumpkin seed oil has a light, fresh taste that’s totally different than the nut oils we’ve mentioned already, because it smells like pumpkins! It’s great for drizzling over roasted veggies. And it works well with fall-inspired dishes. It’s even a good addition to sweet dishes like fried ice cream or french toast. It has a low smoking point, so don’t do any high-temp cooking with this oil.

Terms to Know:

Expeller pressing is a mechanical, chemical-free extraction process. No external heat is used during expeller pressing, but the temperature of this process will vary depending on the hardness of the seed or nut. The pressure that is needed for harder seeds or nuts causes more friction and heat.

Cold pressed oil has gone through the expeller pressing process while the temperature was controlled and kept below 120 F. The cold press process will often be used on delicate oils, to maintain flavor, and to maintain nutrients.

Refined vs. unrefined: Refined oil goes through much more processing than unrefined oil. It often produces a product with a longer shelf life, lower smoke point and fewer particles. Refined oils are often better for deep-frying at high temperatures because of their higher smoke point.

Animal Fats & Butter:

Beef Tallow is fat that's cooked down from rump roasts, ribs, steaks, or any other cut. Cook with tallow in lieu of olive oil or butter. Tallow has a high smoke point, about 450ºF, so it's great for deep frying and any cooking that requires high heat.

Lard is derived from rendered pork fat and can be used for baking and deep-frying. In fact, it's preferred by some bakers over butter or shortening. The smoke point is about 375°F, so it's great for frying chicken.

Duck Fat is a byproduct of duck meat production and it has culinary uses similar to other cooking fats, such as vegetable oils and butter. With a smoke point of around 375°F, it's another option for sauteing or frying.

Schmaltz is rendered poultry fat, usually chicken. A common ingredient in Jewish and Eastern European cooking, it's used as a dairy-free alternative to butter. The 375°F smoke point makes it ideal for pan frying.

Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It's low smoke point of just over 300°F makes it a bad choice for highheat cooking, but a great option for lower-temp baking and sauteing.

Medium High: 375º - 449ºF

Searing meat, roasting vegetables

High: 450º - 650ºF

Stir-frying, grilling over direct heat

Ghee is clarified butter, a.k.a. butter that has been simmered and strained to remove all water. Ghee has played a key role in Ayurveda for centuries, where it's prized for its anti-inflammatory, digestive, and therapeutic properties. Clarifying butter creates a higher smoke point - about 465°F, and also removes casein and lactose, making it suitable for the dairy-sensitive. Ghee can be used like any other cooking fat, but using it as a finishing oil really allows its rich, grassy flavor to come through.