l Lust After Corn Oil

[prasantrin]

Corn oil is hot! It has a high smoke point! It's supposedly cheaper than many other vegetable oils! It's the recommended oil for Thai cooking!

So why isn't it more popular? For a brief time, it was difficult to find corn oil on supermarket shelves, unless you happened to be shopping at an Asian supermarket. Plus there's that nasty Omega-6 controversy, but I have yet to see proof that the amount of Omega-6 found in corn oil directly causes any kind of mental or physical illness.

I think it's time to give corn oil more love. Don't you?

[Jenni]

^^

Hmm, is it that hard to get hold of? Seems to be a pretty common vegetable oil around here.

Incidentally, I am intrigued that you say it is the recommended oil for Thai cooking. I thought peanut oil was more highly touted for that. Well, you learn something new every day.

[SylviaLovegren]

^^

Hmm, is it that hard to get hold of? Seems to be a pretty common vegetable oil around here.

Incidentally, I am intrigued that you say it is the recommended oil for Thai cooking. I thought peanut oil was more highly touted for that. Well, you learn something new every day.

What she said.

[Darienne]

We use it a lot, but then we eat Chinese a lot. However, we buy it in an Asian market only because we are there buying other ingredients. Haven't looked in a regular market so I don't know its state in Peterpatch.

[prasantrin]

I did write

For a brief time, it was difficult to find corn oil on supermarket shelves

About 10 years ago, an rfc friend was cooking a full Thai meal and looked for corn oil. She lived in LA, but she could not find it at any of her local (large or small) supermarkets. She asked, and none of them carried it, not even Mazola. Instead, she had to go out to the Thai stores to find it. Even in Winnipeg, it was hard to find until recently (and at our local Superstore, it's in the Asian section, not with the regular oils).

[weinoo]

In David Thompson's seminal "Thai Food," he states that the traditional Thai frying medium is rendered pork fat or coconut oil.

[Jenni]

^^

I'd say that's probably pretty accurate. However, I beleive that many Thai cookbooks these days recommed peanut oil because it's easily available and people are less freaked out by it then they are by pork fat and coconut oil! Mind you coconut oil is becoming quite the fashionable darling these days. I suppose it's a good thing because it's more commonly available now which is good news for me!

[Chris Hennes]

Does corn oil have any flavor, or is it completely neutral?

[pep.]

I don't know if it's completely neutral, but over here it was the standard neutral vegetable oil for long time (in recent years, it has been superceeded in this role by rapeseed oil).

[Darienne]

We use it a lot, but then we eat Chinese a lot. However, we buy it in an Asian market only because we are there buying other ingredients. Haven't looked in a regular market so I don't know its state in Peterpatch.

Major OOPS. We use corn oil for very few things.

What we use for Chinese cooking is, of course, peanut oil. Which we buy at the Asian market and I don't know if I could get it anywhere else.

[rancho_gordo]

I love the flavor. I remember once when my son went to our Mexican babysitter and when I picked him up in the evening, his hair smelled like corn oil. I wondered if he would be as delicious as one of Maria's enchiladas! I'll just assume the answer is yes, or even more.

But I do know my health conscious friends hate it because it's all GMO now. I don't know this to be true, although is seems likely, but I was told there wasn't an organic version on the market now.

[Jenni]

Does corn oil have any flavor, or is it completely neutral?

Unrefined corn oil has a lovely aroma and flavour. Refined is pretty bland. Same with peanut oil, which incidentally is another commonly available oil in supermarkets where I live.

[GlorifiedRice]

I use Corn Oil for cake mix cakes

[Chris Hennes]

Unrefined, then? Or what is the logic behind that? I've always just used whatever oil was at the front of the cabinet...

[janeer]

Funny to see this because I was in a new market yesterday and noticed that corn oil was scarce; I finally found a tiny bottle. I have used corn oil all my life and it is my preference except for Chinese food (peanut) and certain Mexican, when I want to use lard. I have kind of assumed that oils like canola, etc, are being heavily marketed and pressed for shelf space because it is cheaper to manufacture. But honestly, that's just an assumption. Anyway, it seems in my limited experience that corn oil is not as prevalent as it used to be.