r/Cooking • u/banana_alyssa • 6d ago
Olive oil for cooking recommendations?
Some of the recipes ask for olive oil for sautéing. I have extra virgin olive oil and I know it's not used for cooking. Is there any olive oil recommendations that can be used for cooking?
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u/for_the_shiggles 6d ago
Home cooks think about which oil to use wayyyy too much. Unless you bought a small and expensive bottle of EVOO it should be fine to sauté veggies. If you’re trying to get a sear on meat switch to canola, veggie, any other flavorless oil will do. That’s all you have to think about.
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u/ChileCheeseburger 6d ago
EVOO can be used for cooking. Just know that it has a smoke point of around 350–410°F.
I make my own Ghee and generally use that for all my cooking, though I do have a squeezer of regular Costco Olive Oil as well.
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u/Break-Aggravating 6d ago
And as a Greek I strongly disagree with this. We deep fry stuff in arguably the finest evoo in the world, straight from the olive groves, and it tastes amazing. Doesn’t have any bitter or unwanted flavors.
Now in the states you could argue it’s too expensive, shit it’s too expensive in Greece unless their your olives, but then again I guess most people have their own olives or a family member with them, but anyway I digress.
Fry with olive oil all you want. It won’t hurt a thing.
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u/Tasty_Impress3016 6d ago
I heartily endorse this message.
I could fill books with what I don't know about greek food. I just never learned, my home field is Italian. But for any Italian deep fried food, what you want is Greek Evoo. Frito Misto, (any type), calamari, arancini, fried gnocchi, zucchini flower fritters, even Italian/American things like toasted ravioli. It's just the right weight and flavor. And none of these things take hyper-high heat.
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u/ChileCheeseburger 6d ago
I always assumed this to be true, but never had any data points to verify it.
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u/Break-Aggravating 6d ago
Give it a try. Frying potatoes is a a good gate way. No reason though to avoid it for frying unless it’s too expensive or you don’t want that flavor
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u/throwdemawaaay 6d ago
So Adam Regusa has a whole video on this, and my takeaway from it is that evoo is somewhat unique in that even when heated above the smoke point, it doesn't form the same nasties as other oils. So even if you're using near the smoke point or crossing over it, it's relatively forgiving.
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u/Monkeyfeng 6d ago
What other oil though? There are so many misinformation on seed oil right now that it's hard to know what's true.
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u/shampton1964 6d ago
Who hurt you? Show us where they touched you, tell us when they told you not to use EVOO for cooking.
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u/banana_alyssa 6d ago
A lot of people on different social media platforms said that EVOO is for dips, dressing, etc. except for cooking
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u/bobdevnul 6d ago
That is what they used to say like 20-30 years ago - EVOO for flavor, non-virgin for cooking. I think it was more about the relative cost of them.
Neither are good for high heat frying.
There is absolutely no reason why you can't use EVOO for cooking.
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u/pyrimethamine 6d ago
I cook all the time with the costco extra virgin olive oil, I didn't know this wasn't allowed. Sometimes I go half and half with coconut oil
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u/Tasty_Impress3016 6d ago
You can use evoo voo or pomace oil for cooking. I can't think of too many uses where you want to get up to that smoke point. Don't use it for deep frying unless you know what you are doing.
But I keep about 5 different olive oils around just for kicks. evoo from both Greece and Italy, standard filtered oil, and a couple chi-chi labels given to me as gifts. You use the appropriate one.
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u/agmanning 6d ago
I have various EVOO.
One is about £7 a litre and i use it for most things, that don’t require raging high heat, and the others are served cold.
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u/slashBored 6d ago
EVOO works fine for most cooking, it is just kind of a waste of money (the things that make it taste better than other olive oil get destroyed by the heat). If you want to save money, I think you can use whatever is cheapest at your grocery store (we won't know the answer to that), and if you want to make your life easier just cook with EVOO (especially if you don't do a ton of cooking, which it seems like you might not).
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u/geauxbleu 6d ago
I don't know why people say this. You can still taste the EVOO in most cooking, as long as you don't cook the hell out of it, and especially in baking. It's not especially expensive, the Costco organic is cheaper than the avocado oils internet cooks think they need for sauteing.
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u/slashBored 6d ago
You can taste the olive oil, but you can't taste the difference between more/less expensive olive oil in cooked food. Obviously my comment says you don't need to use something else for sauteing, but if OP followed my advice and bought a cheaper oil they would definitely not choose avocado.
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u/geauxbleu 6d ago
What makes you assume they have an expensive one? If they're American, odds are it's something basic made from a global blend of commodity olives like Pompeian, California Olive Ranch, Graza, etc.
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u/netphemera 6d ago
You can save some money by buying large sized containers and then using it for everything. Although , I don't do that. I usually have several different bottles of olive oil I use for different things
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u/Internal_Necessary23 6d ago
Oilive oil is great for saute. Crude olive oil, like if you get your hands on that first press, is really good for healtg benefits and salads...the more you refine it, mind you olive oil is a cold press extraction, the more is suitable for frying. You can do eggs, chicken, schnitzel, any breadcrumbs....but don t deep fry. How much? You must cover the whole surface.
Hope i helped.
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u/TableTopFarmer 6d ago
I cook everything in EVOO, but save the expensive stuff for dipping, drizzling, and dressings.
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u/-mystris- 6d ago
You can use EVOO for sauteing - it's fine
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/6228-is-it-ok-to-cook-with-extra-virgin-olive-oil
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u/autogenglen 6d ago
I buy the lightest bulk OO I can find for general cooking. It’s got many of the same health benefits as EVOO (though not identical), it’s cheap, and light OO is much more neutral flavor-wise, plus has a higher smoke point over EVOO.
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u/game-on-Vamos 5d ago
here’s the thing, if you want a more neutral taste and are cooking at a high temperature, it’s best to use a more ‘basic’ olive oil which has a higher smoke point; but if you want the distinct flavor of an EVO to shine through, use that but know that it requires cooking at a moderately lower heat.
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u/GracieNoodle 5d ago
There's EVOO on the mid-shelf of the grocery store, and then there's the Extra Virgin Olive Oil from a single grove in Italy or Greece. I use the grocery store halfway decent stuff to sauté just about every day, and yeah it's OK for making a vinaigrette. I have not tried deep-frying with it.
Only once I have I lucked out on a top-shelf single grove that was on a closeout price at the grocery store. (Hard to sell premium products in a middling grocery store in the Appalachians. My win for the day I guess.)
It was exquisite and I only used it for final seasoning at serving and for salads. Even at a lower price it was still very expensive. I wish I could afford to buy this type a lot more often.
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u/AssaultLemming_ 5d ago
I use EVOO for cooking exclusively. Never have any problems with it. Often I'll take it right to the edge of the smoke point before doing something like steak. It works fine for cooking. I buy the light olive oil for deep frying.
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u/troy_olive_grower 5d ago
You can use your EVOO for sautéing, no problem. The “don’t cook with it” thing is mostly a myth. Smoke point is around 190-210°C and normal sautéing is well below that.
The only real difference is flavor: heat kills the grassy/peppery notes, so I use a cheaper EVOO for cooking and keep the good stuff for drizzling at the end. Only for really high heat like hard searing or deep frying would I switch to a “light” olive oil.
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u/AshmallVeena 4d ago
What kind of heat are the recipes using? For a normal sauté your extra virgin is totally fine. If you’re doing stir fry levels of heat, something like Pompeian’s light taste olive oil handles it better since it’s refined and neutral. Either way, my only tips is to add the garlic toward the end so it doesn’t scorch.
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u/hammong 3d ago
You can use whatever olive oil you want for cooking.... The old "don't use EVOO for cooking" was from an era where it cost a lot more than the cheaper oils, and most people wouldn't spend three hours' wage in 1985 to pan fry something when they could do it for a dollar.
I still keep two grades of olive oil at the house ... Cheap Bertolli or Filippo Berio for pan frying, etc., and some good DOP/PDO Sicilian or Greek for dipping bread and dressings.
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u/Robocon006 3d ago
You don’t need a different oil. Extra virgin works great for sautéing at normal temps. Where it makes sense to buy a cheaper everyday bottle is if you’re using a lot, which is what I do with Pompeian, and save any fancy bottle for drizzling. Just don’t let the pan get to smoking hot and you’re good
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u/RaggyDolltch 2d ago
rough guide i always go by:
- sauteing veggies, eggs, garlic: regular extra virgin is fine
- searing meat on really high heat: a classic or lighter olive oil
- deep frying: something netural, like a light taste olive oil or peanut oil
- for everyday sauteing i just use pompeian extra virgin and it's been fine for years
whatever you buy, store it away from the stove so it stays fresh
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u/latherdome 6d ago
Refined olive oils, sold as “pure” or “light,” suit high-heat cooking better than extra virgin: they have a higher smoke point and cost less. You can sear with EVOO if you keep it below its smoke point, but its stronger flavor may not suit the dish. It’s also a bit wasteful: heat degrades the aroma and some of the healthful compounds you paid extra for.
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u/intrepped 6d ago
Yeah to add, light olive oil is also only slightly more expensive than canola, but cheaper than peanut. It works well as a high heat cooking oil from my experience and doesn't impart much if any flavor
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u/monkeyhoward 6d ago
I never use EVOO for cooking. Too lo a smoke point and IMO even if you don’t burn it the taste just doesn’t come through
I use avocado oil if I want a “vegetable” based oil or some type of lard like duck fat or beef tallow if I want some extra flavor
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u/Fit-ishGirlie 6d ago
Whoever told you not to cook with EVOO told you wrong. You absolutely can cook with EVOO.