Introduction: Edible oils have a tainted, distorted and misinformed image in our life. It probably stems from their wide-spread association with heart disease, obesity and diabetes and vaguely accepted association with illness in general. A detailed case has already been made about their necessity in our life. This creates a dire need for an exhaustive series of posts, spot-lighting how we use oils, how we should be using them, what happens to oils when they are used in a particular way, what they do to the cooked/processed food, how much oils we should be consuming, what types of oils we should be consuming for each usage, how to track how much we are actually consuming, what are vanaspati (popularly known as Dalda) and Desi Ghee and whether they are good or bad for us and so on.

The idea is to answer all your questions about oils and help you locate specific info in the series of blogs. The basis is the Indian practices but most narratives are universally applicable. So here’s an account of what the next series of posts are all about:

1. Post 32 : Cooking with edible oils : Part I

                       Oils as cooking ingredients and dish accompaniments

Without noticing it, we (at home and in the industry) use oils in many varied ways. We have classified these ‘ways’ into those that use heat and those that don’t. In this post, we have described how we use oils almost directly i.e. how oils enhance our eating experiences as such. Obviously, these applications make room for oils that are vulnerable to damage at higher temperatures and those that contribute flavor. It doesn’t take much to see that there will be a lot of unrefined expeller groundnut oil, olive oil, coconut oil, sesame (til) oil and mustard oil.

2. Post 33 : Cooking with edible oils : Part II

                     Cooking thru oil-mediated heat transfer

There is no one who is not familiar with frying as a domestic unit process and the dishes that it offers. Not surprisingly, the industry uses it extensively as well and potato wafers/chips, samose, namkeens, fried chicken, Japanese tempura, patties, French fries etc are evidence of that. Interestingly, we have ‘treated’ flat home dishes like chille, dosa and uttappam also as products of a specific version of frying by unifying the underlying processes.

You will be fascinated by the various versions of frying, the mechanisms of frying, what determines the quality of the fried dish and care to be taken while frying. It may interest you to know that entire books have been written on frying as a Unit Process. We are delighted to bring you a captivating ‘flavor’ of fascinating frying.

3. Post 34: Par frying: An interesting industrial mode

                       And some interesting industrial oil products

Understandably, few people are familiar with how the Industry uses edible oils for food processing and for churning out ‘intermediate’ food products that go into further processing. Biscuits, cookies, cakes, salad dressings, margarines and spreads, butter etc. are examples of the first kind. Shortenings of various types and vanaspati are an example of oil products that go into dishes at home and products in the factories.

An interesting version of frying needs a special mention because you rarely get to hear about it but it sends sought after, frozen ‘half fried’ samose and paratha to your cousin in the US, Canada and Europe. Listen to an account on this interesting version of frying called Par Frying.    

4. Post 35 : Ideal oils for each cooking mode

                       General considerations

By the time you arrive at this stage, you will be convinced that every mode of cooking with oils is unique and makes specific demands on the nature of the oil used that will make the product/dish safe and tasty. Obviously, the, ‘any oil is okay for any mode of cooking’ cannot work; in fact, mismatched oil usage can be hazardous. Since health and happiness thru food is a robust strategy, some nitty gritty or some hair splitting about meticulous matching of oils with cooking modes is perfectly in order. 

5. Post 36 : Selecting specific oils for specific cooking

                      And how best to do it practically

The focus on the need and the modalities of matching oils with cooking modes, raises the question: how to do it practically with insights in why it works. Here, you will understand, step-by-step, how to work out your own favorite way of stocking just two oils in the kitchen that will enable you to do all your cooking smartly. Note that ‘more than one oil’ is in the same vein as multiple protein sources, grains, fruits and vegetables. Presently, we Trivedi’s have unrefined expeller groundnut oil (Gujarat’s favorite) and refined soybean oil in our kitchen and we are not complaining. We always have almost all the daals and kathols (lentils and beans/legumes) and wheat, rice (two types), jowar and bajra in stock. It helps.

6. Post 37 : Ensuring healthy edible oil consumption : Part I

                      What each family member needs and actually consumes

You will be surprised on reading an account of how difficult it is to track edible oil consumption (in various ways) by all the members of a family. If that cannot be done, how can we steer such actual consumption in the direction of ‘desired consumption’ – both in quality and quantity terms? A real problem.

A distinguished American Professor of Economics was fond of asking a weird question of his students: How many piano repairers do you think are there in Chicago? Flummoxed by this ‘out-of-thin-air’ question students, would shake their head in disbelief at the absurdity of the question from an otherwise respected teacher. And then the professor would proceed to extract the answer from the students themselves by making them ask common sense questions and by impressing upon them the power of rigorous logic. Modern management science calls it ‘working in an environment of uncertainties and limited data’.

How we worked out a work-around to the aforesaid tough problem of tracking individual actual oil consumption in today’s complicated life will fascinate you.

7. Post 38 : Ensuring healthy edible oil consumption : Part II

                      Tracking actual oil consumption to steer it right

It seems impossible to steer actual oil consumption by individual family members towards ‘ideal consumption’ on a long period basis. You will find the solution practical and effective and rooted in sound science and mathematics. You will be convinced that consuming oils smartly is very much within your reach without much fuss.

8. Post 39 : Hydrogenation of edible oils & vanaspati as its product

                      The product is dying but must the process also?

To the highly respected Anglo-Dutch FMCG giant’s immense credit (they seem to be adept at garnering credit in most things they do!), ‘Dalda’ – the brand name of their vanaspati (the first in India after the independence) – became synonymous with ‘vanaspati ghee’ or simply ‘vanaspati’. It was meant to be differentiated from the desi or real ghee which has animal origin. Its popularity (and the number of producers in India) peaked during early eighties before a sharp decline thereafter till it became a pale shadow of its original form today when it is almost extinct.

Most people are not aware that the impending death of the product stems mainly from the Trans Fatty Acids (TFA) that are inevitably produced during the making of vanaspati thru a process called ‘hydrogenation of edible oils’. As a Chemical Technologist, my fascination with the process and the product will never diminish. I have operated thousands of batches of hydrogenation of various oils virtually with my hands. Ironically, that the reactors were rudimentary (or ‘basic’) added immensely to the learning and a few years back I extensively researched the product and the process coming up with many new insights.

This post is about telling you what vanaspati is and how the process can still be leveraged for a lot of good. Without the daunting details of ‘multiphase reactions’, you will find the post interesting.

 

9. Post 40 : Desi ghee – the eternal Indian delight

                      All you need to know about it

Is there any Indian who doesn’t know desi ghee? As a child I grew up hearing about its health virtues – ‘he would be strong; he has eaten desi ghee’ was a common refrain.

Ironically, few people have a clear idea about what it really is and whether it is good for health or bad. No Indian should have to put up with such a situation. This post is the answer.

 

10. Post 41 : Soy – the wonder bean

                        And its versatile oil

India is increasingly becoming familiar with this oilseed which resembles the familiar ‘tur’ and ‘bold chauli’ in looks. It is one of the largest oilseed crops worldwide and the bean has been a source of so many food products that most people have lost count.

It is a magnificent oil whose refined form is popular as a modestly priced cooking oil. Few people are aware that the oil packs a punch as a nutrient. Most people find its frying performance ‘fishy’ and its shelf life limited. Be that as it may, your health depends, inter alia,  on how much soybean oil you can include in your diet.

An ‘introduction’ to the bean and the oil.

11. Post 42 : Alarm : Your edible oils contain synthetic preservatives

                        Reducing them safely is possible, as in most cases

As science and technology progress in tandem with population, products and process become more and more the tools in the hands of the marketer to cope with the expanding demand. 

So, you see, everything you ever wanted to know and what we thought you should know (‘let food lift life’, remember?) is laid out. Happy reading, understanding, adopting and upgrading life.  Feel free to ask for any specific additional thing that you want to know about.

Next Post:

Cooking with edible oils: Part I

Oils as cooking ingredients and dish accompaniments

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