Oils

Appears in

Published 1989

About

Edible oils are most commonly made from nuts, grains and fruits. Oils vary considerably, each one having its own distinctive color, flavor, odor and cooking properties. The best quality pure oils are made from a single variety of nut, grain or fruit while inferior oils are a blend of several.

Oils are often labeled “salad” or “vegetable” oil and typically these contain mixtures of soy, safflower, sunflower, corn, or peanut oil. A blend labeled “for frying” may be less expensive and is likely to be based on cottonseed oil or some other highly refined oil. These have little or no taste, but they have a high smoking point. For details on smoking points, see Deep-frying.

In this section

Olive Oil

Part of

Fats & Oils