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Is olive oil safe at high heat? Does it taste bad?

Adam Ragusea

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  • Recommended by 4 people, in Hacker News, across 5 different months.
  • Presented by Adam Ragusea, as the video describes them
  • The description links 2 papers.
  • Debated among experts. Its central claim is contested, so look for the other side.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

1.8M views6 years ago4 recommendations

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Adam Ragusea investigates the science of cooking with olive oil at high heat, debunking myths about smoke points.

Thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring this video! Get Surfshark VPN at Surfshark.deals/adamragusea — enter promo code ADAMRAGUSEA for 83% off and one extra month for free. ***SOURCES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE*** 2018 Australian study showing olive oil is the most stable cooking oil: actascientific.com/ASNH/pdf/ASNH-02-0083.pdf 2010 Portuguese study finding olive oil is stable in deep-frying conditions (not free): sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691510004941?via%… Dr. Selina Wang, research director, UC Davis Olive Center: foodscience.ucdavis.edu/people/selina-wang#/ 2015 Serious Eats article about smoke points: seriouseats.com/2014/05/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point… Video of the UC Davis olive orchards: youtu.be/TCzGy7Xqwik 2019 Spanish study showing that cooking food in olive oil makes the food itself healthier: mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/8/1555/htm 2002 Molto Mario episode in which Mario Batali deep fries in olive oil: youtu.be/5ZSPDYAUn7E

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended for debunking the myth that olive oil is unsafe or unstable for high-heat cooking.

KozmoNau7in Hacker News • Recommends

On “How a carnivorous mushroom poisons its prey”

That's a very common misconception and a stubborn myth: link to this video I fry mushrooms (and many other things) in olive oil all the time. It works great, tastes great and as long as you use extra virgin oil, doesn't create any more harmful substances than using rapeseed or sunflower seed oil, probably a lot fewer actually. You can even deep fry in it, which some celebrated chefs do.
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KozmoNau7in Hacker News • Recommends

On “What I know about cleaning and seasoning cast-iron skillets”

…se the olive oil is much milder in flavor than butter, and the process of frying dulls the flavor of the olive oil, as mentioned. I - along with millions of people in countries bordering the Mediterranean - enjoy the flavor of food cooked in olive oil. Adam Ragusea did a great video on the topic, with cited sources. I highly recommend watching it: link to this video Sources: link link link Including this famous chef using it for deep frying: link Additional sources: link link link link The bottom line is that extra virgin olive oil is more heat stable than other cooking oils with higher smoke points. Just don't use it to sear steaks or something. So much of the conventional wisdom aroun…
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donatjin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Soybean oil affects hypothalamus, causes genetic changes in mice: study (2020)”

The olive oil bit is a myth - see: link to this video Olive oil is actually one of the chemically safest oils to heat.
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cthalupain Hacker News • Recommends

On “Prenatal cannabis exposure associated with mental disorders in children”

Adam Ragusea does a lot of well researched videos around food science, and did one around using olive oil, even past the smoke point, fairly recently - link to this video Some good interviews with food scientists, etc. Interesting for anyone wanting to learn a bit more on this subject. I've swapped to using EVOO for most anything where it won't be too overpowering of a taste.
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funklutein Hacker News • Recommends

On “Combating olive oil fraud with nuclear innovations”

That's not the whole story though. Often, what is more important is how stable the oil is below the smoke point. There's a pretty decent video on this by Adam Ragusea: link to this video
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KozmoNau7in Hacker News • Mentions

On “What I know about cleaning and seasoning cast-iron skillets”

The wisps you see from olive oil on a frying pan is steam, unless of course the pan is crazy 10/10 hot, at which point any cooking oil will burn. I fry most things in either extra virgin olive oil or butter. The olive oil stands up to the heat better than butter (the milk solids will burn). link to this video
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Pyramusin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Soybean oil affects hypothalamus, causes genetic changes in mice: study (2020)”

Yes, what I'm saying is I haven't seen evidence that change in the oil at smoke point is correlated with safety/toxicity. Found the video: link to this video
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gilbetronin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Only virgin type of olive oil consumption reduces the risk of mortality: study”

"Smoke point" concerns are usually overblown, it's really just the flavor that goes away making it pointless (and more expensive) too cook with EVO. link to this video
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sambeauin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Death by Vegetable Oil”

"Monitoring of Quality and Stability Characteristics and Fatty Acid Compositions of Refined Olive and Seed Oils during Repeated Pan- and Deep-Frying Using GC, FT-NIRS, and Chemometrics" link See also this video: link to this video
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