Cooking oil help please

[mquitko]

I completed my first Whole30 in August and have stuck with it for the most part.  I plan to do another full W30 in February! I use mainly Ghee as an oil in pans but I was wondering what oils other people use and what your thoughts are.  I'm VERY allergic to coconut which is a huge bummer in the Paleo world.  I was replacing coconut oils with Avocado oil which I like very much but I've read about Avocado Oil being used only in cold recipes not hot. I must admit I cooked my eggs in avocado a few times before learning this.  So now I'm just unsure what else is a good choice.  I've been sticking with straight Ghee because I think it's "safe."  

Thoughts?  

[GFChris]

I primarily use homemade clarified butter and coconut oil.

 

Have you explored Fatworks? http://fatworks.wazala.com/ They are a great source for lard, tallow and duck fat.

[Jinkse21]

Lard and tallow are great cooking fats!  You can buy them or make your own.  If you go the route of making your own, it's pretty simple, just time consuming, especially tallow. 

 

For lard, buy sugar-free bacon, preferably pastured piggies, and cook it it down to get all of the fat.  I strain it with a paper towl over a sieve to get all of the little bits out.  You don't really have to cut up the bacon but you can if you want.

 

Tallow can be a little more time consuming if you can find suet (cow fat) from grass-fed cows.  If you have any local farms that sell suet, contact them to see if you can buy it from them...in some cases, they won't charge since most people who order half cows don't want it.  Cut the suet into small pieces, removing any signs of meat.  You can also cut the suet in large pieces then put it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes and run it through the food processor to get small pieces.  Render the fat in a heavy pan until all of the fat is released and strain.

 

Lard definitely has a bacon flavor but tallow only has a mild beed flavor which makes it great for cooking foods where you don't want a lot of the fat flavor.

[LauraLish]

I just discovered duck fat recently.. mmm.  Also I've seen organic lard in my grocer's butter case if you didn't want to make your own.

[mquitko]

Thank you all! I will do a little research into your suggestion! Love the idea of duck fat for cooking.  Do you think I could use lard or duck/bacon fat for recipes that call for coconut oil? Or stick with Ghee for that? 

[LauraLish]

You could, but there's probably a reason why the recipe was written with coconut oil.  The coconut flavor could enhance the dish. But it's up to you if you want to swap it out.

[doreau]

I personally can't stand the taste of coconut, so my coconut oil is flavorless and I sub all the time in the recipes for other fats, never had a problem with it

[justmary]

I'm not sure why avocado oil would only be used with low temp foods - I was just reading the back of the bottle, and it said it had one of the highest smoke points of any oil, at 500 degrees F. I think it would be fine to cook with. 

[LauraLish]

Justmary -- it's not about the smoke point.  Unsaturated fats (like avocado oil) do wonky things when heated at high temps.  It's best to cook with saturated fat.