I have lazily used vegetable oil in my counter deep fryers for years. I think I tried peanut once.
Anyways I finally got online and did some research for cooking fish and canola oil kept popping all all over as the oil of choice. Also grape seed oil. I filled up with canola this weekend and it sure made the fish look and taste excellent. I’m done with vegetable oil for fish. I still want to try lard on venison.
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I’ve tried an assortment of oils…whatever was on hand with the exception of olive oil (been warned not to use that).
Using the same Sturdiwheat Cajun fish breading something always changed. Didn’t brown right. Greasy, but it wasn’t until of late I figured out it was the vegetable oil.
No more vegetable oil in my kitchen.
Why not the olive oil?
Why not the olive oil?
Smoke point is too low, at least if you use EVOO. Light olive oil would probably be fine.
Why not the olive oil?
Olive oil tends to have a lower smoking point than other oils so it would require more attention. I think one could use it but it would be quite an expensive option for deep frying.
No more vegetable oil in my kitchen.
So is Canola oil the right answer? I have only used vegetable oil, but surely willing to change that. I think it was always my choice, based on cost, and never knowing anything else.
I think the Canola oil is a more healthy choice.
I’ve tried an assortment of oils…whatever was on hand with the exception of olive oil (been warned not to use that).
Using the same Sturdiwheat Cajun fish breading something always changed. Didn’t brown right. Greasy, but it wasn’t until of late I figured out it was the vegetable oil.
No more vegetable oil in my kitchen.
Exactly! Results varied terribly and I was getting sick of it.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Brian Klawitter wrote:</div>
No more vegetable oil in my kitchen.So is Canola oil the right answer? I have only used vegetable oil, but surely willing to change that. I think it was always my choice, based on cost, and never knowing anything else.
After only one use I cant say with authority but it sure seems to be. The gills I cooked yesterday came out better than I can ever remember. The taste was all there and they were not greasy. I cant stop eating leftover cold filets this morning and I cant remember the last time I did that.
All I use is canola anymore.
I used to use shortening and loved the flavor. But the smoke point was a little low so you had to cook at a slightly lower temp.
I’ve been using sunflower oil due to the extremely high smoke point. Safflower oil is even higher.
Why is a high smoke point better? You can reuse the oil many more times than an oil with a lower smoke point. Safflower and sunflower are some of the highest and taste just fine.
Ive used the Cajun injector cottonseed oil and so far been very impressed. Ive used it for fish, hand-breaded chicken strips and our turkey at thanksgiving. Multiple uses with the same oil, no flavor transfer from one to the other which I have had issues with in the past. I have had better luck filtering and reusing it than canola as well. Canola is much better than vegetable oil though, but both appear to be single use IMO.
We have several oils in the kitchen but the fish sees only canola. We can get three, maybe four, cookings using it but its just Ma and I and when we do fish its like maybe 6 fillets so the oil isn’t heated for long periods. Live oil is used for sautéing. We have vegetable oil on hand to add to recipes where oil is called for. Olive, canola, sunflower and safflower can have distinctive tastes and if you go tossing one of those in a recipe calling for vegetable oil you can really raise heck with how the recipe turns out.
All of our olive oil has come directly from Spain. Some of the stuff bought state-side really is low end oil even though its referred to as extra virgin.
This old dog learned a new trick! I still cant wait to try lard on venison. It will either be heaven or bleckkkk. Anyone use lard to deep fry anything?
I’ve used peanut oil forever because of it’s high flash point. Last summer when Sams Club did not have any. I then switched to cottonseed oil. It is just as good. I cook at 350 to 375 watching the temp rather close.
Nice and golden, moist and flaky on the inside.
Evoo is for occasional use on the stove top. (hardly ever)
Yes! I switched over to lard after trying all the others, and for my personal taste I will take the lard over any of the others. The lard itself has no flavor to it, not like your fish is going to taste like bacon.
Cooking at the wrong temperature is what causes any oil to make food be greasy, and I have found the other oils to impart their flavors to food much more easily than lard.
Cooking at the wrong temperature is what causes any oil to make food be greasy, and I have found the other oils to impart their flavors to food much more easily than lard.
This is the correct answer…cooking in oil too long or too cool and you will have greasy, mushy fish. 2-3 minutes in a deep fryer at 375 will properly cook all but the thicker fillets. I like peanut oil, but canola works as well. Both have a smoke point above 375 and that is the highest temp my fryer gets to. Olive oil is below 375, so it would not be good for frying fish.
Olive mixed with other oil does well for pan frying. I use a little canola and a little olive oil for my stove top frying of fish cakes/patties.
Every once in a while I pan fry them in butter. I just get the butter as hot as possible without burning. They dont get very crispy but man are they good. They arent greasy either. They are buttery!! 
Every once in a while I pan fry them in butter. I just get the butter as hot as possible without burning. They dont get very crispy but man are they good. They arent greasy either. They are buttery!!
Suzuki, the same principle that I mentioned with the olive oil works for butter too. Adding a small amount of oil to your melted butter significantly raises the burn point of the butter. When I do chicken fried steak I mix Crisco with butter which gives me a crispy batter and a buttery flavor.
Give me a little bowl of tartar sauce and that plate would be clean!
Cottonseed for sure !!
Peanut oil for frying or saute’ed in the pan with Olive oil, lemon, minced garlic, and ground pepper 
I bought a 3 gallon jug of Shore Lunch Peanut oil and use it for all my fish frying both deep and shallow. Higher smoking point is great over a campfire and in the deep fryer it never disappoints me.
Yep, it’s all about the smoke point. As you guys said, peanut, canola, and cottonseed. I use peanut for thanksgiving turkey, and usually I clean it and save for one year and use it for next thanksgiving, just because it is not cheap. Cottonseed is a cheaper alternative, haven’t used it a whole lot, but has a high smoke point and is a good choice. When I fry foods I usually use canola, except on thanksgiving, smoke one bird, fry another in peanut
As for saving the oil, (irregardless what flavor) filter it through a heavy paper filter to get the batter, sediments and dry rubs
spices out!
That is the biggest thing to saving any oil!
Well of course other than allowing it to flash. Then just throw it out and start over.
Once oil flashes it will never fry well again!
I’ve always used Canola oil for deep frying, olive oil for pan frying because it not only tastes good its good for you, pancakes etc. Lard is a must for pie crusts. I’ve wanted to try sunflower oil but just haven’t yet. The flash point is whats important because I’ve always got the oil just about to the smoke point, as hot as I could get it because it cooks fish fast an it tastes better the quicker you cook it. When cleaning my oil I heat it up and pour it through a kitchen cloth like a hand towel, be careful pouring hot oil and a two person system works the best with one person pouring and the other holding the cloth over a big metal bowl or pan. A simple tarter sauce is made from miracle whip or mayo, coarsely diced onions, sweet pickle relish and put in a couple spoonfulls of chives.
Well of course other than allowing it to flash. Then just throw it out and start over.
Once oil flashes it will never fry well again!
Explain what you mean by the oil “flashing” please? I always took it to mean boiling over, fire, etc. I see I may have missed something…
Christmas I let my burner get way too hot. Vegetable oil turned black, and even after cooling to 370, it was junk. Immediately blacked a filet. The smell, smoke and such. Guessing I got pretty close to a fire situation. I assume this was flashing the oil?
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