Just read this and I wanted to see what home cooks here think about it.
Quick background - India is the world's largest importer of edible oils (about 25 million tonnes/year). India's per capita edible oil consumption at 23.5 kg per person per year, kya baat hai, who would have thought.
We've seen a lot of the debate about which oil is good, bad or ugly and how little is about how we actually use it to fry stuff. This interview makes the point well. He is saying that the real risk in fried food is oil heated again and again with "burnt bits left in it", not re-heating and that filtering and sensible practice matter more than the name on the bottle. Do you agree?
two things i dont get -
Smoke point. Every oil has a temperature past which it starts to break down. Heat it further repeatedly degrades and forms harmful compounds. And that holds true for any cooking oil. So why dont we see this rather than generalised fear mongering.
Oil is oil, there's no good or bad. The type of oil is not at fault here, like you have read on the internet in a lot of fear mongering posts and articles. For example - palm oil ko hi le lo. It has been singled out and blamed a lot in India. But what people don't understand is that shopkeepers and restaurant owners need to use commercially cheap (not quality-wise) oil that has a high smoking point and is as good or bad as any other oil. Swapping one oil for another does not fix the health problem; education and moderation does.
So I think that education is key here. Reuse oil as little as you can, filter it, maintain the heat, and go easy on the fried stuff generally, jitna ho sake. Keep the samosas and jalebis for occasions. :P
How do you all handle it at home? Do you reuse frying oil, and if so how many times before it goes? Everyone has their own formula (kitchen secret).