I never know which oil to use for what.
Laura, Cheshire
As is so often the case, the answer can be found in Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: “The first step in choosing a fat is to identify the primary role it will play in a dish.” That’s to say, are you using it to add flavour or texture (crisp breadcrumbs, say), or to season your food (sesame oil drizzled over cooked noodles)? If you’re applying heat, the other consideration is, of course, the oil’s “smoke point”. As Nik Sharma writes in The Flavor Equation: “Knowing the temperature at which a fat or oil will start to smoke indicates how much heat you can subject it to without affecting the flavour of the oil, and whether it will work for a high-heat application such as frying.”
