Cooking Oil

Fatfurie

When you use a tablespoon of olive oil to start sauteeing vegetables, do you count the full tablespoon in my fitness pal? Also, what are other things I can use - coconut oil?

OldHobo

Fatfurie wrote: »

When you use a tablespoon of olive oil to start sauteeing vegetables, do you count the full tablespoon in my fitness pal?

Yes.

Fatfurie wrote: »

... Also, what are other things I can use ...

Any edible fat that's liquid at sauteing temperatures; like 300 to 400F or so.

Fatfurie wrote: »

... coconut oil?

Yes.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

All oil is the same amount of calories.

Why do you use so much oil? Add a touch of water to the pan and five sprays of fry light to stop it burning.

OldHobo

You can cook in water. It's called boil, poach, or braise. Without pressure, liquid water doesn't get over 212°F at sea level; not hot enough for browning or developing flavors with a Maillard reaction.

Sauté by definition is quickly cooking with a little fat in a hot pan. Generally, you deglaze the pan, that is you add water or some other liquid after the food is removed in order to make a pan sauce.
Not trying to be contentious or argumentative. Mentioned only for the benefit of someone reading this who might be unfamiliar with cooking techniques.

amgreenwell

Yes, you log that tbsp. You can use canola oil which has less saturated fat...or as others say you can cook in water but it doesn't give it any taste at all nor does it give it that browned, deliciousness that oil does. There is nothing wrong with eating oil as long as it fits into your plan. I just use canola b/c I'm trying to lessen my cholesterol

kimny72

OldHobo wrote: »

You can cook in water. It's called boil, poach, or braise. Without pressure, liquid water doesn't get over 212°F at sea level; not hot enough for browning or developing flavors with a Maillard reaction.

Sauté by definition is quickly cooking with a little fat in a hot pan. Generally, you deglaze the pan, that is you add water or some other liquid after the food is removed in order to make a pan sauce.
Not trying to be contentious or argumentative. Mentioned only for the benefit of someone reading this who might be unfamiliar with cooking techniques.

Interestingly, I've seen a lot of "diet" type blogs and websites talk about "water sauteing" veggies, essentially using water in a non-stick pan instead of fat to saute. I doubt the results are the same lol, and am definitely in the category of "unfamiliar with cooking techniques" but have seen it mentioned. I would suspect they are using poetic license to call it "saute"

toxikon

Yup, I log the full oil/butter amount in the pan.

I like to look at smoking points when it comes to deciding what oil to use, as well as choosing one with a complimentary flavour.

Multi-purpose low-heat: butter, olive oil, bacon fat
Chinese/Japanese dish low-heat: sesame oil
Thai/Indian dish low-heat: coconut oil

High-temp/frying: peanut oil, safflower oil

aeloine

I use spray cooking oil. Really cuts down on the cals.

janejellyroll

kimny72 wrote: »

OldHobo wrote: »

You can cook in water. It's called boil, poach, or braise. Without pressure, liquid water doesn't get over 212°F at sea level; not hot enough for browning or developing flavors with a Maillard reaction.

Sauté by definition is quickly cooking with a little fat in a hot pan. Generally, you deglaze the pan, that is you add water or some other liquid after the food is removed in order to make a pan sauce.
Not trying to be contentious or argumentative. Mentioned only for the benefit of someone reading this who might be unfamiliar with cooking techniques.

Interestingly, I've seen a lot of "diet" type blogs and websites talk about "water sauteing" veggies, essentially using water in a non-stick pan instead of fat to saute. I doubt the results are the same lol, and am definitely in the category of "unfamiliar with cooking techniques" but have seen it mentioned. I would suspect they are using poetic license to call it "saute"

I've done both. The results are not anywhere close to being the same. It matters a lot more in some dishes than others.

cwolfman13

Fatfurie wrote: »

When you use a tablespoon of olive oil to start sauteeing vegetables, do you count the full tablespoon in my fitness pal? Also, what are other things I can use - coconut oil?

If you're finding yourself with a lot of leftover oil after cooking, you should consider cooking with less oil...if there really isn't much if any leftover cooking oil, you would log all of the oil you used.

I use a variety of different oils for different applications, flavor, etc...I use avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and butter mostly...depending on the application.

ritzvin

aeloine wrote: »

I use spray cooking oil. Really cuts down on the cals.

ditto- if you are watching calories, those aerosol cans of spray oil are great - you can get away with only 2 grams of oil truly coating the pan.

ritzvin

(although, I usually eat lunch and dinner at the office..so it's more typically frozen veggies nuked in the microwave then topped with a quick spray of butter-flavored spray oil).

OldHobo

I buy peanut oil for deep and shallow frying and extra virgin olive oil for sautéing, salad dressing and most everything else.
I also reserve chicken fat, called schmaltz; pork fat, and of course bacon grease on those very rare occasions I have bacon.

sympha01

I log it all. Weigh the bottle before and after I pour. But I use as little as I can. A whole tablespoon would be for 4-6 servings of something for me. More oil = more delicious, and more calories. Some days I can spare it.

I don't log spray oil, though of course it does have some calories too. I just don't use so much spray oil that I'm afraid the very small amount of unlogged calories is going to mess up my plan