The Smoking Point

When buying oil for cooking and baking it's important to consider the smoking point of an oil and what oil will contribute the best flavor at the temperature you will be cooking or baking at. The media and health experts are always promoting olive oil for good health, but my husband can't stand the flavor. I never noticed the bitter flavor until I tried to fry pancakes in olive oil (aw, don't snicker at my naivety) and they were just aweful! As a newly wed wife it is important for a woman to feel like her husband can appreciate her efforts in the kitchen. (At least a woman like ME feels that way.) So I threw out the olive oil altogether and looked up cooking oils on the internet to educate myself after crying on the phone to my mother about my failure. Soon after reading about "smoking points" I went out and bought a gallon of Peanut oil. I'd heard it makes everything taste like peanuts, but that doesn't bother me and hasn't bothered my husband. However, when deep fat frying foods I found that Peanut oil does not flatter all foods, especially doughnuts so I will have to try Almond oil sometime because it seems to me that it wouldn't taste so bitter. I'm looking forward to trying several different oils for different things. Walnut oil is supposed to be highly healthful (with omega 3 and 6 that olive oil is revered for) and is recommended drizzled on salad. So I may be able to avoid Olive oil altogether and still get the benifits desired! I found on line, "The cost of walnut oil is higher than that of most other oils, but the payoff is worth it. In addition to providing a delicate flavor that enhances many foods, walnut oil also has therapeutic properties when applied to the skin, and may even act to ward off both cancer and heart disease." Excellent! I'll take a double serving for MY family!
I added a link with a chart of Smoking Points but here's another from Wikipedia that shows more of them.