Which works out cheaper to fry with?

Toomuchdebt

Oil,butter or lard?

LondonDreamer

It will depend if the quantities vary, e.g. if you use more butter than oil (or vice versa) when frying. But all things being equal, I think oil is the cheapest option unless you happen to use an expensive oil - which I wouldn't recommend for frying anyway.

As an example, here is the approximate cost per tablespoon (15ml/half ounce) using the cheapest available of all three, which appears to be the same price across most supermarkets.

Oil - 1.5p (£10 for 10L sunflower oil)
Lard - 2.45p (49p for 250g block)
Butter - 5.95p (£1.19 for 250g block)

Dunroamin

Much better to use a decent oil to fry with but not use too much. I fry everything in olive oil but I wouldn't dream of using as much as a tablespoonful.

Toomuchdebt

Thanks, that surprised me as I was expecting lard to be cheapest.

triticale

Lard would have been the cheapest, however supermarkets have recently put the price up - a 250g block used to be more like 15-20p not very long ago.

50p for lard is absolutely outrageous! :eek:

Toomuchdebt

I can get lard in the Polish shop for 39p...would that make it better value than oil?

LondonDreamer

39p for lard would bring its cost down to 1.95 per tablespoon so oil is still cheaper if you can get it for 13p/100ml or less. My cost above was 10p/100ml, which is the current offer price in both A and T.

Dunroamin wrote: »

Much better to use a decent oil to fry with but not use too much. I fry everything in olive oil but I wouldn't dream of using as much as a tablespoonful.

I actually agree, and usually dry fry whenever I can. If it needs oil, I use a small drop (I'd say less than a teaspoon) and brush it around the pan with a pastry brush, just so things don't stick. Only used a tablespoon for costing as it was a convenient comparison amount.