Can You Use Extra Light Olive Oil For Frying

Light olive oil usually has a smoke point between 375 400 f so it is the best for high heat frying e g stir frying.

Can you use extra light olive oil for frying.

For deep frying though you should use peanut or canola oil. The resulting oil has a high smoking point and a very light flavor provided by adding a dash of olive oil. During the frying process extra virgin olive oil formed fewer aldehydes and polar compounds than the other two oils. Heating olive oil will neutralize much of the flavor.

In a study featuring 20 participants eating a breakfast fried with extra virgin olive oil led to lower levels of postprandial oxidative stress compared to either canola or sunflower oil 25. But when you are using olive oil to stir fry or in other heated applications the flavor won t be as pronounced so there s no reason to spend the money on extra virgin grade oils. The taste of extra virgin olive oil is best for cold applications like salad dressings dips and finishing drizzles over hummus pizza or pasta. Regular olive oil and extra light tasting olive oil are the most cost efficient for frying.

Other producers make olive oil extra light by adding virgin olive oil to other oils such as vegetable or canola. Don t worry that your food will taste like olives. It is often claimed that the health benefits start to break down as soon as it is heated but this is simply not true. A recent study revealed that fry ing veg eta bles in extra vir gin olive oil was actu ally health ier than boil ing them.

Despite its health benefits extra light olive oil doesn t work well in fried dishes. Extra light virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil and canola oil are more in the middle you can stir fry or bake with them but don t deep fry. Bottom line if you cook at high heat stick with refined olive oil berkowitz explained.

High quality extra virgin olive oil is pricey and dumping six cups of it in a dutch oven to fry some chicken instead of something more affordable like vegetable oil seems like a waste. However evoo can be used for lower temperature frying. There is a lot of culinary myths surrounding olive oil and one of the most common is that it cannot be used for frying. If cost is not a factor consider using extra virgin olive oil.