# Which is the best cooking oil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [February 3, 2023, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274 "2023-02-03T19:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/21 "2023-02-04T15:14:11Z")
Olive oil for low temperature cooking and ghee for higher temperatures. Personally, I felt much better once I stopped using grain and seed based oils. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/22 "2023-02-04T21:57:16Z")
Costco’s Carrington Ghee comes in a 56 oz. container, keeps very well, and is pretty affordable. It used to be in the teen $s but I think it’s gone up. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/23 "2023-02-04T23:39:02Z")
Ghee is what seafood restaurants call drawn butter - butter melted, and with the “scum” drawn off, so it’s basically a butter-flavored oil. Removing the milk solids also makes it keep better, which is why an unopened jar can be kept on an unrefrigerated shelf. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/24 "2023-02-04T23:52:45Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > The avocado oil was originally for a recipe for a particular style of fried fish, but I’ve found it to be a versatile and tasty general cooking oil. Usually I have three oils: an olive oil, a higher end stronger flavored olive oil to use more as a flavor element, and avocado. Okay also a small bottle of toasted sesame as a flavor element. Last shop though the avocado oil was priced crazy high. Like 50% more than the decent cooking olive oil I buy. (Costco) So it’s all olive oil for now. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/25 "2023-02-05T12:45:42Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Okay also a small bottle of toasted sesame as a flavor element. I have a pretty good sized bottle of this, but yeah, that’s more a condiment than an oil, in terms of how we use it. We probably go through the sesame oil faster than the ghee, fwiw. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2023, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/26 "2023-02-06T06:46:14Z")
I was quite surprised at how strong the flavor is for sesame oil. A few drops will adequately season a big dish. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/27 "2023-02-11T15:51:06Z")
Lard is all. Lard is divine. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/28 "2023-02-12T19:30:03Z")
There are various cooking sites that will have a list or chart of cooking oils and their smoke-points. I have mentioned this in some of my responses in Wok cooking threads and I would encourage you to find one of those sites. I found one and distilled the chart down to name & smoke-point and sorted it from hottest to coolest and stuck it in the narrow window on the binding-edge of my 3-ring binder where I keep all my recipes. Canola oil gives my skin and sinus allergies a lot of problems. Unfortunately, Canola is one of the options when “Vegetable Oil” is mentioned in a lot of pre-made foods. For instance, Kettle brand potato chips and other super-crispy foods are often fried in Canola oil because it can sustain such high temperatures. Since Canola oil is so inexpensive now (compared to a lot of other oils) you can be pretty sure it’s in there if it’s one of the possible oils mentioned. Corn oil gives me problems, too, but the problems are less severe. Since Canola oil has become so ubiquitous, corn oil is less commonly used. “Best” by the way is going to depend on what (and who) you’re using it for. You might not want robust olive oil in your brownies; you might not want to fry chicken in peanut oil if you’re serving it to someone with severe peanut allergies. –G! ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274/29 "2023-02-13T15:40:57Z")
> [@nicky](#): > > Lard is all. > Lard is divine. This. I use Hungarian [mangalica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalica) lard for deep-frying schnitzel, or for browning tough cuts of meat before I put them in the slow-cooker. It’s available in big tubs from the Hungarian stall in the local market, and from pretty much every other eastern European foodseller (Hungarian or otherwise) around here. For cooking other stuff we always used to use safflower oil (called [Distelöl](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distel%C3%B6l) or “thistle oil” here), but lately we’ve been using peanut oil or sunflower oil. We avoid rapeseed oil, maybe because of the taste. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-best-cooking-oil/979274.md?page=1)