I would venture to guess that everyone has had fried food at some point in their lives. It might have been just a simple french fry and onion rings or something exotic like deep fat fried Twinkies at the fair!!
Did you know that there are differences in the type of oils you use for frying?! But before you pick your oil you need to know most foods are fried between 350-400 degrees. That means that you need to choose oils with a smoke point above 400 degrees. Smoke point is the temperature at which the oil will start to smoke, catch fire, and start breaking down chemically and produce harmful free radicals.
Anyway, of the oils, there are some that are considered more “healthy” for frying. Each variety has a taste and smoke point and some say they can even lower your cholesterol! (If you can believe that!)
Furthermore, the type of foods cooked in a deep fryer, as well as its frequency of use, will determine how often you will need to change the oil. When the oil starts to smell or the quality of the food cooked in that oil starts to degrade—changes color or tastes funny—it is time to change it out. If the oil foams or smokes when you use your deep fryer, it is well past its expiration.
In this 2 part series I will share the correlation between cooking oil and your engine oil. Please come back next week to learn more and I hope you learn something about your cooking oil this week.
Mary Ellen with J&M Auto Service.
