Buying Ghee for the first time please help !

Edwardia

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Why not? It's tasteless and healthy, in moderation. I prefer to use a drop of it rather than my expensive olive oil if I'm cooking a soup or a curry, as the flavour would be wasted.

I buy Extra Virgin olive oil whenever I find it on special offer, so don't spend more than £3/LTR. I buy olive oil but I'm not buying instant coffee, takeaways, oven chips, ready meals, crisps, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, Pot Noodles etc so I think I can afford to cook with olive oil, butter and ghee. Besides which, sunflower oil changes structure when heated.

geordie_joe

Edwardia wrote: »

Noo idea but recently scientists discovered evidence that the Ancient Egyptians had atherosclerosis.

I would take that statement with a large pinch of salt, as only 2 of the 52 mummies had it.

yazzine

Told my next door that some one was looking for ghee, and what they would recommend - well turns out they use olive oil for cooking and just add a small spoon of the East End (tined one) ghee.

Apparaently doctors have told them to cut down on the amount of ghee they use in cooking and go healthy.

And the olive oil I pick up for them when its on offer at costco - just did not know they used it in their curry.

So maybe the ghee may not be the best for everyday use - clogged arteries and all that. BUT the fact that you do not do junk foods and takeaways leaves alot of empty space in your arteries then me or my neighbours have !

unhappy_shopper

Edwardia wrote: »

Decided to try a small 250ml coconut oil to see if I like it and ordered ghee without ethyl butyrate. Waiting for it all now

I use coconut oil for shallow and deep frying. It has a delicious aroma compared to other vegetable oils. However, be careful to buy 'edible' coconut oil for cooking. Also use it up quickly as otherwise it turns rancid. Edible coconut oil can be found in ethnic stores and world/ethnic food sections of major supermarkets on shelves stocking cooking oils.

Other main use of coconut oil is as a hair oil - these contain added ingredients to prevent rancidification. These are usually sold in 100-200ml bottles. HTH.

Edwardia

The food turned up this afternoon. I've tried the Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea (had to try out my new kettle) and it's better than Co op 99 tea but not as good as Earl Grey.

unhappy_shopper the coconut oil was in the food section and has been micro-filtered to last longer so I'll try it at the weekend.

yazzine, there have been several studies out of the US now whereby people on low fat calorie restricted and low carb unrestricted diets lost roughly same amount of weight. However despite eating more fat, the low carbers improved their cholesterol, lipids and triglycerides - same happened to me. I have no idea why that happens but it does.

unhappy_shopper

Edwardia wrote: »

unhappy_shopper the coconut oil was in the food section and has been micro-filtered to last longer so I'll try it at the weekend.

If I buy in mainstream supermarkets, I buy the KTC coconut oil in the link below. HTH.

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/asda-compare-prices/oils_and_vinegar/ktc_coconut_oil_500ml.html

Haffiana

Coconut oil has one of the longest shelf-lives of any vegetable oil. It is a saturated fat (please don't think clogged arteries, it just isn't as simplistic as that), and they are the least prone to degradation, oxidation or rancidity. If yours turned rancid that means it is very old indeed - maybe better to avoid whichever supplier it came from!

Haffiana

The one to avoid for frying is extra virgin olive oil. It shouldn't really be heated at all, but used cold only, or at most at the sort of temperature that you would use to gently fry an egg without causing any any crispy bits. Virgin olive oil is full of substances that will degrade and burn at quite low temperatures (it has a very low smoke point), and some of these substances when burned are not healthy at all.

If you want to fry in olive oil, then the stuff to look for is refined olive oil - usually a good bright, golden colour. Refined olive is a good, relatively flavourless frying oil. Britain is the only country where you see so many varieties of virgin olive oils on the supermarket shelf, with perhaps only one or two refined olive oils. The refined (cheaper) oils are often more expensive than the unrefined virgin oils in the UK because they are relatively unpopular due to this misunderstanding about the function of the different oil grades.

Edwardia

I bought the Parachute premium quality 100% pure edible coconut oil made by pressing sun-dried coconut kernels in an oil mill before micro-filtering, as sold by Spices of India and The Asian Cookshop.

No crispy bits on my eggs but as OH does have a tendency to burn the olive oil and the butter I decided ghee with higher smoke point would be a better idea Also trying coconut oil above and mustard oil. I use sesame oil along with tahina when I make houmous and sometimes use it in vinaigrettes.

Edwardia

Tried the ghee this morning. heavenly, tastes like melted clotted cream lol