Which cooking oil should I use?

Two properties matter: smoke point, which determines what temperature the oil tolerates, and flavour, which determines whether you want to taste it. Most oil mistakes come from optimising one and ignoring the other.

What you'll need

• A neutral oil (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Step by step

1. Use a neutral high-smoke-point oil for high heat.Sunflower, rapeseed, groundnut, or generic vegetable oil. They tolerate frying and searing temperatures without breaking down.
2. Use extra virgin olive oil where you will taste it.Dressings, drizzling, finishing, low-temperature cooking. Its flavour is the point, and hard heat destroys it.
3. Use butter where you want its flavour, at moderate heat.Butter burns at a low temperature because of its milk solids. Adding a little oil alongside raises the point at which it burns.
4. Do not exceed the smoke point.Oil that is smoking has begun to break down. It tastes acrid and produces unpleasant compounds — change it rather than pressing on.
5. Keep a small number of oils rather than many.One neutral oil for cooking and one good olive oil for finishing covers almost everything. Speciality oils go rancid before they are used up.
6. Use flavoured oils as seasonings, not cooking media.Sesame, walnut and truffle oils are for finishing. Their flavour compounds are destroyed by heat and they are expensive.
7. Store oil away from heat and light.A cupboard, not next to the hob. Light and heat make oil go rancid, and rancid oil tastes stale and slightly metallic.
8. Smell it before using an old bottle.Rancid oil smells like old crayons or putty. It does not improve with cooking and it taints whatever you make.

Tips

• Extra virgin olive oil is fine for normal pan cooking at moderate temperatures. It is only hard frying and searing where it is the wrong choice.
• Buy olive oil in dark glass or tins, and in a size you will use within a few months. Large clear bottles go rancid.
• Solid fats — butter, lard, beef dripping, goose fat — bring their own flavour and are excellent for roasting.

Common mistakes

• Deep frying in extra virgin olive oil — It breaks down at frying temperatures, tastes acrid and costs several times what a suitable oil does.
• Continuing to cook in smoking oil — It has begun to degrade and it will taste harsh. Discard it, wipe the pan and start again.
• Storing oil next to the hob — Heat and light accelerate rancidity. The convenient spot is the one that spoils it fastest.

Questions people ask