Monday Mission: Finalize your Fat Vocabulary

November 16th, 2009 · No Comments · Fat Full Fall, Monday Missions

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Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to increase your oil vocabulary.

This is the final Fat Full Fall mission! I’ll share a baseline fats post this week breaking down what to use in what situation, and then we’re finished. Done. We’ve chewed the Fat. Now the Fat Lady is going to sing.

Reading the side of a bottle of EVOO can make one quickly feel like they need a college degree to decipher the code found there. Descriptions of how the oil is picked and pressed and processed and stored can swim around in front of your eyes like so many marbles.

Here’s a short vocabulary list to help you navigate the sea of oil labels:

Cold pressed
Expeller pressed
Refined
Virgin
Extra Virgin
Pure
Light

Rick, a chemist from Soaper’s Choice/Columbus Foods (my fav bulk oil source), explains the difference between “cold-pressed” and “expeller-pressed”:

To get the oil from the seed, bean, or fruit there are different techniques that can be used. Typically these are broken down into two sections: Physical or mechanical extraction and Chemical or solvent extraction.

With the physical extraction (also called expeller-pressed) the oil source is generally ground up and milled and in some cases the material is heated or steamed to help to release the oil from the feed. Then the material is physically squeezed or pressed and the crude oil is removed and if required refined and further processed. Usually a considerable amount of oil remains in the feed.

With the Solvent extracted oil, the feed undergoes a physical extraction followed by “washing” the feed with a solvent such as Hexane or Heptane, which removes almost all of the oil from the feed source. Then this solvent is completely removed from the oil and the crude oil is refined and further processed. This is the typical process for most commodity oils such as Soybean and Corn Oil.
[emphasis mine]

What you need to know:

“Cold-pressed” oil means it must be physically removed from its source without vitamin-damaging heat. All extra virgin olive oil, for example, is cold-pressed by default, because the heat would cause the oil to miss the mark for the “extra-virgin” status.
“Expeller-pressed” or “expeller-expressed” is a way of saying “without chemicals” in the oil world. The oil may be processed using heat, which may or may not affect the quality and nutrients of the oil. If you see this term on a package, at least the manufacturer is trying!
Soybean and corn oils, unless otherwise noted, are generally extracted from the seed using a chemical, which is then removed from the oil. Whaaaaa? That sounds very scientific, but not very much like something I want to eat. (Read up on polyunsaturated oils for more reasons I’m avoiding them.)

I dare you: start reading labels and see how often you notice soybean oil or corn oil. Imagine those lovely chemicals used to get the oil from the seed!

Refined oil could mean many things, but it is always more processed than “virgin” oil and may include some chemicals (unless it’s organic oil. No chemicals allowed there.). The refining process often removes the smell and flavor of the oil (as in coconut oil). Read more about how Soaper’s Choice coconut oil is refined here.

To finish learning about the other terms on our list, see this post about olive oil.

What have I missed? Are there any terms or phrases on a bottle of oil in your house that you’d like deciphered? Turn it over to the KS community and we’ll see what we can do for you!

What else is coming this week?

My husband got his “report card” in the mail Friday, i.e. bloodwork from his annual physical. He has had high triglycerides and low HDL, but we’ve made SO many changes in the past year! I’ll share the results with you…
More on the Ultimate Real Food Wednesday: How do You Receive the Eucharist?
Homemade Food Gifts I’m making this year. (Cents to Get Debt Free and The Nourishing Gourmet are both hosting carnival round-ups!)
Some of you have been waiting for months for this – I finally tested homemade and commercial produce washes, and I am just bursting to share the results with you!!! 8 Ways to Wash an Apple: How Well does Produce Wash Work?
An answer to a reader question: Overwhelmed? Where to Start? (My top 10 Kitchen Stewardship habits)

Cool news: I’m speaking at our church’s Advent by Candlelight on November 29th. If you’re in the GR area, email me for details! Please pray for the Holy Spirit to speak through me to the women of my parish. *nerves*

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If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.