Want to know what to do with coconut oil? How to substitute one kind of fat for another? Wish you always knew what to do with your fats and how to adapt recipes to avoid the industrial fats that you’re just not into anymore?
Download my easy-to-print baseline guide to fat usage FREE or read it below.
Use the Fat: What Fat for What Common Uses?
Solid fats
Use for pastries, biscuits, tortillas, and recipes that call for butter or shortening. You should be able to substitute anything on this list at a ratio of 1:1.
- Butter
- Coconut oil (solid below 76 degrees)
- Lard
- Tallow
- Palm shortening – non-hydrogenated (although I haven’t used this myself)
- Substitute 3x as much ground flax meal for about 1/3 of the fat in a quick bread recipe.
- Do NOT use: Crisco or shortening, margarine (Why?)
Liquid Oils for Baking
Use in any recipe that says “oil” or “vegetable oil”. Most baking recipes can handle any of these choices.
- Melted coconut oil (not sure how to melt it easily? See here.)
- Melted butter
- Refined sesame oil
- Substitute 3x as much ground flax meal for about 1/3 of the fat in a quick bread recipe.
- Grapeseed? More research needed. Some say to use it seldomly because of health concerns.
- Do NOT use: corn, soybean, “vegetable” oils (Why?)
- Use SELDOMLY: canola, sunflower or safflower oils (Why?)
Liquid Oils for Sautéing and Cold Uses
- Use in low-heat sautéing and cold applications like salad dressing, on veggies (not for baking): Extra Virgin Olive Oil, unrefined sesame oil (Can you Saute in EVOO?)
- Use in higher heat sautéing and when you don’t want the flavor of EVOO (eggs?): Virgin Olive Oil, Lard
High Heat Cooking/Frying
When the smoke point might be too high for EVOO or even butter, try:
- Ghee
- Tallow
- Refined coconut oil
- Peanut oil (although I haven’t actually done this)
Wiki actually has a nice breakdown (based on the medical community’s current recommendations and long-entrenched ideas). It includes the smoke points of all the fats, if you’re interested in that.
Simply eat more salmon, walnuts, whole eggs, real butter and full-fat dairy to get those healthy fats into your system.
And if you’re wondering how to get MORE fat into your diet, read Cheeseslave’s 100 Ways to Eat More Fat.
I’ve learned so much studying a Fat Full Fall with you all this season. This is the last post in the series! If you missed any, do go back to the beginning.
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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.
This post is part of Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy’s Recipes and 5 Minutes for Mom’s Tackle It Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam and Real Food Wednesday at Cheeseslave.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I printed it out and put it in my Kitchen Binder.
Barb@My Daily Round´s last blog ..Baking Day
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Thanks for this wrap up! I’ve learned a lot about fats from your posts this fall.
Greta @ Mom Living Healthy´s last blog ..Homemade Pizza Night
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Don’t forget lard for high smoke point. It takes a lot to burn this, ask me how I know LOL.
What do you think about safflower oil that says “expeller pressed”? I’ve been using that in place of vegetable oil when baking. I don’t use it often, but I have been using it.
Paula´s last blog ..Old Glory
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Katie Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Paula,
Katie
Added the lard to the frying list, thank you! Safflower oil is just high in omega-6s, see this post and some of the comments for more: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/10/19/food-for-thought-are-polyunsaturated-oils-healthy/. Expeller pressed would at least be better than high-heat pressed. But. For baking I’ve like the coconut oil and melted butter, although it is nice to have a liquid oil on hand, I understand!
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Good reference post, Katie! I’m going to RT this for my reader’s reference!
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home´s last blog ..Nourishing Crockpot Carnival: My Crockpot, My Friend
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Amy Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Paula, I would recommend not using safflower oil. Weston A. Price foundation recommends not using safflower oil. The reason is that safflower oil is high in omega 6’s.
Amy´s last blog ..More Information
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I used non-hydro shortening for biscuits this weekend—-we could not tell the difference. (there wasn’t a side by side comparison ’cause I’m not making two versions of breakfast) I’ll let you know how my Christmas cut-out cookies turn out.
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That is a great tackle! Thanks for breaking it down:-)
Susie’s Homemade´s last blog ..Tackling Extreme Chocolate Cupcakes
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This was a great post. I forwarded it on to some friends. Thanks for all the work you put in to your blogsite!
Amy´s last blog ..More Information
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THANK YOU for this post! I am trying to cut out as many processed foods as I can from our house and this is some helpful information.
Angela´s last blog ..Sewing Skills.
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