Grapeseed oil seems to be gaining popularity lately. It has been showing up a lot in recipes that call for a neutral oil, especially those that come from chefs and restaurants. What is grapeseed oil? Why and when should you use it?
Grapeseed oil is the oil extracted from, well, grape seeds, a byproduct of the wine making and jam/juice industries. It is a polyunsaturated oil, which normally would mean that it isn't suitable for cooking. But grapeseed has less impurities, and therefore less volatility, than other polyunsaturated oils. In fact, it is often used because of its high smoking point, making it well suited for high temperature cooking.
But not all grapeseed oils are alike. Because grape seeds contain very little oil, grapeseed oils are rarely expeller extracted, the preferred, non-chemical method for extracting oils when cold-pressing isn't an option. Instead, a method called hexane extraction is often used. (Hexane is a solvent that many people would prefer not to be used in their food production.) Look for for expeller extracted grapeseed oils if you wish to avoid hexane. Spectrum, Loriva and La Tourangelle are three brands that use the expeller press method for their grapeseed oil.
Grapeseed oil has a neutral taste and makes an excellent all-purpose oil for sautéing and stir-frying. It also works well in dressings and marinades, and for making mayonnaise and infusions.
Do you use grapeseed oil? Why do you use it instead of other neutral oils, such as canola?
Related: What's In Vegetable Oils?
(Image: La Tourangelle)
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I use grapesed oil all the time and usually get mine from Trader Joes. I'm a little curious now on the type of extraction that is used for my oil. Anyone know how I can find that out easily? Thanks.
I get that exact oil as in the picture. They have it at Home Goods sometimes at a good discount. I use it in salad dressings when the balsamic vinegar I'm using is very expensive and tasty and I don't want to overpower it with olive oil.We also use it on the griddle for pancakes.
@rosebud : wouldn't it be something they have to state on the label? Like the extraction process on olive oils?
I use grapeseed oil all the time when cooking, my fiancee's family got me hooked. I still use olive oil when making salad dressings but when I want the flavor of what I'm making to shine or I'm cooking something to semi fry it we use grapeseed.
good to know about the extraction process, I'll have to keep an eye out.
The label on the can of Tourangelle indicates it's expeller-pressed. It's in fine print toward the very bottom of it.
Didn't know about hexane until reading this. Because of its high smoking point, thin viscosity, and neutral color and odor, it is my go-to oil for high-temperature frying that barely leaves a fingerprint behind (for instance, for Japanese food such as tempura). For similar purposes with cold food I just use canola. The brand you show has often been available at TJ Maxx for a reasonable price, but my Costco has started selling deep-frying-friendly quantities of it, too.
I used to always buy canola as my neutral-tasting/non-olive oil. But then in the last year or so I started buying grapeseed because Trader Joe's sells it in a much smaller bottle than their canola (I don't use it that often so the big bottle often wouldn't keep). The funny thing is, I think subconsciously I just decided they were somehow related or comparable--because canola = rapeseed. But now thinking about it consciously, I guess there's really no connection...
I bought this exact bottle of grapeseed oil only because I had money left on a Bloomingdale's gift card and wanted to kill it then and there. Have never used it, but it looks sexy with the other bottles of oil. I'll heed lenzai and Shelf8's advice and use it for salad dressing - we'll see what we've got!
I mostly use this for popping popcorn in a popcorn kettle; it doesn't leave an aftertaste on the popcorn and therefore is perfect for that.
I was at an event and a chef lectured me for a hot minute about how I should only cook with grapeseed oil, period - and to this day, I always have a bottle on hand.
I just saw Charlie Trotter at a food and wine event and recommend grapeseed oil!
We've been using grapeseed oil for a few years on fondue nights. Perfect!
yeah im curious about trader joes too
hooray google. Trader Joe's does not use Hexane in the extraction of their grapeseed oil. source: http://www.baumancollege.org/forum/index.php?topic=10300.0
Using it for popcorn great idea because it does not impart any unwanted taste.
I use it occasionally for stir frying vegetables because its a Omega 6 oil.
Flax seed and olive oil are Omega 3 which are far more important and much needed, the imbalance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 is a big issue in this country.
Most Canola oil is GMO unless it states otherwise and I find it too heavy stopped using it completely so I have replaced Canola with Grapeseed oil.
I find using it on the ends of my hair once a week keeps my hair luxurious.
Yes, it has cosmetic uses as well. I have super-sensitive skin and make my own facial moisturizer; grapeseed was recommended to me as a non-irritating oil to use in it (it actually turned out that the grapeseed oil moisturizer made me itch; now I use olive oil and have had good results with that).
BTW, I have seen large bottles of grapeseed oil at Cash and Carry, a restaurant supply chain of stores (probably much cheaper than Trader Joe's).
Method of oil extraction does not need to be declared on a label so unless your label says that it is expeller produced you can be sure it is solvent based.
Hexane is also used to extract some types of omega 3s for use in baby formula and "industrial" organic milk like Horizon.
Grapeseed oil is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids and Omega-6, which will end up giving you cancer and heart disease problems later in life and should really be eliminated in our diets. If you need an oil for baking, use coconut or use a nutty oil like walnut instead.
I'm glad people are changing from Canola oil. It is deadly. The entire push to deem it healthy is propaganda from Big Ag.
All the hydrogenated oils, i.e. the normal vegetable oils like sunflower, safflower, soybean, and generic "vegetable" as well as crisco are extreme health hazards. Why? Because that extra hydrogen atom creates a molecule that our bodies actually cannot metabolize. So not only are the cells not bing given the fats they need as nutrients; but since the body still TRIES to metabolize them, that means they are clogging up the cell membrane receptors that should be allowing other things to pass in and out of the cells.
Why is this happening? Because these are cheap crops and Big Ag cares 100% more about their profits than your health. All these oils go rancid almost immediately (and rancid oils are what cause the inflammation that leads to heart attack and stroke). So, in order to give them a shelf life, they added the extra hydrogen atom. As you know, these types of oils now last virtually forever. That should be a big warning signal. In fact, hydrogenated oils were actually created only to be used as degreasers, not as food.
They are regularly fed to livestock specifically in order to "fatten them up."
In fact, not only is Canola a hydrogenated oil and therefore extremely harmful, it is also, by nature a GMO crop. There is no such thing as a Canola plant. Canola simply means "Canadian Oil Company." It is actually made from rapeseed. But since rapeseed is toxic, the grain has to be genetically modified to remove that toxin, before it's even further ruined by hydrogenating it.
We've been massively lied to, told that animal fats will kill us. Think about it, humanity has been eating animals for how many thousands of years? And yet all these metabolic disorders - the so-called chronic diseases like coronary, stroke, and diabetes - have only become real epidemics in the last couple of generations. Please take into consideration that metabolic disorders are for the most part EASILY reversed, through diet. Why are they called chronic? Because then Big Pharma can sell us drugs that don't cure them, but only minimize the symptoms (while exposing us to much-worse side effects). And since they don't cure the problem, you have to take (i.e, BUY$$$) them for the rest of your life. Hence, "chronic."
BTW, the whole scare about saturated fat? Only ONE study was used to propagate that lie. And it was a flawed study - it used HYDROGENATED saturated fat. No one would ever even consider needing to hydrogenate a saturated fat - they have naturally LONG shelf lives.
Just say NO to Canola. And use your power of intention to get its murderous manufacturers put in jail and widely discredited. And when a doctor recommends hydrogenated oils? Let that be a lesson in how thoroughly doctors buy into the propaganda of the 1%'s awful corporate megalopoly.