robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (11/09/84)
When choosing an oil for stir-frying, a primary consideration is the burning temperature of the oil. Oils polyunsaturated tend to have a low burning point, and therefore not to achieve a high frying temperature. Peanut oil is one the best tasting, inexpensive oils (relatively speaking) with a reasonably high burn point. Cottonseed does almost as well for temperature, but does not have as good a taste. It is widely used in generic "cooking oils", check the ingredients list. For American cooking, I always look for opportunities to use corn oil. It has a distinctive corn taste which many people will find pleasing. Consumers' Union, reviewing Margarines, down-graded Mazola Margine (which is butter-free and made from corn oil) for its slight corn flavor. If you like that taste, you may prefer the Margarine. A tricky use of oil in baking is to make Scotch Shortbread with oil instead of butter. This is an entirely different dessert, but delicious. You can use peanut oil, or peanut oil with perhaps 10% sesame oil, or corn oil (but corn oil produced an offtaste for me once, I'm not sure why), etc. Follow any good recipe for Scotch Shortbread*, substituting the oil. You may need slightly less oil in bulk than the corresponding amount of butter, work it in slowly. You will never manage to form a dough, but the formless mixture will bake nicely anyway. The cooking time should be approximately the same. -------- * Opinions violently vary, but to me a good recipe for Scotch Shortbread contains almost no ingredients except flour, butter and sugar. There may be some enhancements such as cornstarch to try to adjust for the difference between American and Scots flour. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison or: decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison or (emergency): princeton!eosp1!robison
gary@rochester.UUCP (Gary Cottrell) (11/12/84)
> > Cottonseed does almost as well for temperature, but does not have as > good a taste. It is widely used in generic "cooking oils", check > the ingredients list. > A friend of mine with a Botany PhD told me to avoid cottonseed oil at all costs because cotton is not considered a food crop, and so the farmer can use stronger pesticides on it (which ends up in the seeds). Anyone else heard anything to confirm or deny this? gary cottrell (allegra or seismo)!rochester!gary (UUCP) gary@rochester (ARPA)