In a pinch, can one substitute vegetable oil for olive oil? Or would this be an atrocity of some sort?
Will my uneducated palate be able to tell the difference?
-FrL-
In a pinch, can one substitute vegetable oil for olive oil? Or would this be an atrocity of some sort?
Will my uneducated palate be able to tell the difference?
-FrL-
Depends what the use is. If it’s simply an ingredient in baked goods you likely wouldn’t notice. If you’re sauteing with it, the difference is pretty minor as well. If it’s a dressing or last minute addition to enhance flavor, then yeah you’d notice the difference.
Olive oil has a subtle “grape leaf” flavor. If you’re using a dab to lubricate an omelet pan, there’s no detectable difference. If you use dipping oil instead of butter for baguettes, it makes a big one. All other uses, it depends on the amount, but it’s a sliding scale.
Try the vegetable oil against the pnly palate that matters: Yours. How do you like it?
I agree with the above. It all depends on the use.
For frying, baking, and most hot uses, most people could not tell the difference.
For vinagrettes and dressing and cold uses, I can tell the difference between extra virgin olive oil and regular vegetable oil. Between regular olive oil and canola/sunflower? Only because I have educated my palate and so rarely use vegetable oil that the lack of taste would stand out.
When cost becomes an issue, I will reserve the extra virgin for cold use only and substitute whatever pure oil the wallet can afford (I get snobby and refuse to use blended oils).
AP
Thanks guys.
I was using it to fry up some sliced precooked polenta.
It turned out I had enough of the olive oil after all, so it became a non-issue.
If it ever comes up again, though, I’ll know that I’m safe using the veggie oil.
-FrL-
Most cooks do not reccommend using olive oil for frying. It has a very low smoke point and typically isn’t very well refined. The high heat in frying can make olive oil break down causing off flavors and a smokey kitchen. Super oils like peanut, safflower and canola are better for frying. Vegtable shortening like Crisco is one of the most neutral in flavor, peanut and safflower oil the most durable.
Interesting…
I was following the instructions on the packaging, but they may be more concerned there with maintaining an image in keeping with certain pretenses they may presume much of their demographic shares, rather than concerned to give the actual best way to cook the stuff.
I’ll just use veggie oil next time, I think!
-FrL-
That’d be my guess. Keep in mind that there’s a variety of olive oils, extra virgin olive oil being the most expensive, most flavored and worst for high heat cooking. Plain ole olive oil might be adequate for frying, but if you’re frying properly the oil shouldn’t add much flavor at all anyways. Might as well go with the most neutral, cheapest and most durable. In most kitchens that’s Canola, in restaraunt it’s usually peanut or safflower.
Olive oil is fine for lower temps. I use it for polenta and the flavor of the oil is a very important part of that choice. There’s smoke point, and there’s flavor–among other variables–and on balance, olive oil is still better than a flavorless veg. oil for polenta.
That is, if you’re ascared of bacon fat, which is my first choice for polenta.
My friend uses a mix of butter and olive oil.
Huh? Is there something called “vegetable oil”? I thought there were multiple kinds of vegetable oils, named for their specific plant of origin - including olive oil - and they all have their own flavor.
Upon cursory research, it looks like soybean oil is consistently sold as “vegetable oil”.
“Vegetable oil” is the label they stick on whatever happens to be cheapest at the moment. It’s like hot dogs made from “meat”: It could be pork, it could be turkey, it might even be beef (though probably not much).
When you say vegetable oil I think the generic thin, light, blandly flavored or nearly flavorless oil that you’d use when you don’t want the flavor of the oil to be a very big presence in your dish. I use canola oil, but if you read the ingredients on all those pale yellow oils that are grouped together in the grocery store you’ll find safflower and corn oil in abundance as well. I always have, in my kitchen: canola oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, hazelnut oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, and at least 3 or 4 types of olive oil.
Olive oil pretty much lasts forever (if kept out of direct sunlight), so the idea of running out of olive oil should be impossible. Buy a couple of more expoensive olive oils (from two different countries, say Greek and Italian) for salad dressing, and drizzeling over pizas and bread dipping, and at least one big container of cheaper olive oil (Californian or Italian often has the best value for money here) for general use.
For cooking in olive oil, I prefer the mixing of butter and olive oil together, it gives a better taste and since neither butter nor olive oil is good at very high heat you aren’t losing any heat resistance when used together.