Oils ain't oils-cooking question

Merkavar

i don't use oil in cooking often, noticed I have used it more recently and got me thinking.

When I use oil to cook how much do I actually eat.

Say I'm frying up some blue grenadier and add 1 tablespoon of vegtable oil to the frying pan. How much of that 1 tablespoon of oil do I actually end up eating?

Some I'm sure is on the fish when I eat it but some would be cooked off wouldn't it and then a lot seems to remain in the pan.

Just seems like a difficult thing to measure.

skinnyD2308

If you want to be exact, you could always weigh the tablespoon of oil before adding it to that pan and then pour out any remaining oil in the pan, weigh it and subtract the number of grams from what you started with. Or you could add the whole tablespoon of oil to your calories for the meal, if you're not eating all of it, at least you wouldn't be underestimating what you're eating. I'd always rather overestimate than underestimate, especially when it comes to calorie dense foods like oils, butters, cheese, and nuts.

mccindy72

Just in the name of accuracy in counting, I count the whole amount i put in the pan to cook with. Even if you don't eat all of it, you're only counting a few calories you didn't eat, so you're counting on the safe side.

HeidiCooksSupper

If you had a very accurate scale and a way to capture and weigh any steam your food releases in cooking, etc., you could measure the amount of oil you actually consume versus what you leave in the pan. It would take a laboratory. Almost all of our calorie counts are "best estimates." One needs to use common sense in measuring these things. If you really are only using 1 tablespoon of oil, just count it as being in your food. If you are deep fat frying, it's a different matter altogether but it still would be extremely difficult to exactly measure what calories go into your food and what stays in the pan.

Merkavar

I think I will have to take a closer look at the oil next time.

The thing is one table spoon is like 600kj maybe 550. That's getting close to a piece of pizza.

That's why I was asking whether it's likely I am eating the whole amount of oil.

Which is going to be better/tastier. Cooking fish with a bit of oil or cooking fish with out oil and having a slice I pizza on the side?

Liftng4Lis

I use the total I put in the pan. Of course, I'm of the belief, always overestimate.

Merkavar

amyrebeccah wrote: »

Merkavar wrote: »

I think I will have to take a closer look at the oil next time.

The thing is one table spoon is like 600kj maybe 550. That's getting close to a piece of pizza.

That's why I was asking whether it's likely I am eating the whole amount of oil.

Which is going to be better/tastier. Cooking fish with a bit of oil or cooking fish with out oil and having a slice I pizza on the side?

Not sure where you're getting that number. A teaspoon of canola oil is 40 calories, making a tablespoon 120 calories. I am unaware of any pizza worth eating that is that low in calories. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/HHFS_OIL_VEGETABLE_100440Oct2012.pdf

What is 120 cal in kj? About 500 right, close to what I said.

Also the pizza I prefer is from dominoes, fire breather. Around the 620kj range per slice. So oil is about 500 per table spoon and pizza around 600 per slice.

So it's not like we're talking about a large difference here.

TimothyFish

I think it is silly for people to obsess over stuff like this, but if you really want to know, collect all the drippings, wash the pan with water and collect the water, also collect the steam that comes off the pan. Separate the oil from the water and weigh the oil. Subtract that weight from the original weight to give you the total that is left on the meat. Oh, and be sure to separate the animal fat from the vegetable oil, or you'll underestimate the oil left on the meat.

Merkavar

amyrebeccah wrote: »

Merkavar wrote: »

amyrebeccah wrote: »

Merkavar wrote: »

I think I will have to take a closer look at the oil next time.

The thing is one table spoon is like 600kj maybe 550. That's getting close to a piece of pizza.

That's why I was asking whether it's likely I am eating the whole amount of oil.

Which is going to be better/tastier. Cooking fish with a bit of oil or cooking fish with out oil and having a slice I pizza on the side?

Not sure where you're getting that number. A teaspoon of canola oil is 40 calories, making a tablespoon 120 calories. I am unaware of any pizza worth eating that is that low in calories. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/HHFS_OIL_VEGETABLE_100440Oct2012.pdf

What is 120 cal in kj? About 500 right, close to what I said.

Also the pizza I prefer is from dominoes, fire breather. Around the 620kj range per slice. So oil is about 500 per table spoon and pizza around 600 per slice.

So it's not like we're talking about a large difference here.

Well, no, you said 600 maybe 550, if we're nitpicking. And I just looked up that slice of pizza and it looks tiny. It's topped with ground beef, pepperoni, and Italian sausage, so my guess is that a slice that fits that nutrition content can't be larger than 1/8th of an 8 inch pizza.
edit: I actually just tried to build the pizza on the USA Dominoes site with the same ingredients. No combination of those ingredients with any kind of crust (even the thinnest crust at the smallest size, which is ten inches) could get stats as low as those on the Australian site, which reinforces in my mind that it's an eighth of an eight-inch pizza).

If you don't want to cook your fish with oil, don't do it (although I don't find that I need as much as a tablespoon anyway, I usually use a teaspoon). But don't pretend that oil cooks away so you can justify counting less than what you ate.

Thanks for the help. Thanks for correcting my 20 cal over estimation of a table spoon of oil.

Thanks for your comparison and review of Australian vs us pizza.

Also I wasn't pretending the oil cooks off entirely but I thought some does, I was asking if it does.

Sued0nim

As it's all swings and roundabouts if I added a tbsp of oil I would log a tbsp

But, invest in a good non-stick pan, use spray oil or a teaspoon rather than a tbsp and count that instead

Merkavar

TimothyFish wrote: »

I think it is silly for people to obsess over stuff like this, but if you really want to know, collect all the drippings, wash the pan with water and collect the water, also collect the steam that comes off the pan. Separate the oil from the water and weigh the oil. Subtract that weight from the original weight to give you the total that is left on the meat. Oh, and be sure to separate the animal fat from the vegetable oil, or you'll underestimate the oil left on the meat.

Not obsessing. But it is a very energy dense product so it isn't unreasonable to question it a little.

Just curious about how people treat oil used in cooking.

I thought it was a simple enough question but some of the answers received seem to be silly, or irrelevant, going on about pizza slices.

Thanks to the people who actually answered, I think I will count all the oil and try to limit its use more or remove it entirely.