Make your own potato chips - what oil do you use?

[kdms]

I was so pleased to discover last night that I could make my own potato chips using my xmas gift (food processor with multiple blades) that I'm really glad my DH's phone battery was too low to use the video camera function, because I probably looked pretty silly dancing around the kitchen with glee.  (Potato chips were the first item to go off our grocery shopping list when we revamped our shopping lists to only include stuff we needed as opposed to wanted, but out of everything we've cut, chips are one of the items we miss the most.)

We tried deep-frying in both coconut and olive oil, and while the coconut oil got them crispy-ish (olive oil was a fail) the flavour wasn't all that great.  We really don't like using canola oil for anything, so that's out.  I was thinking of trying peanut oil the next time.

Anybody else do this?  What's worked for you?

[c]

I don't like using canola oil for a variety of reasons (probably similar to yours) but my husband swears by it for any kind of frying (which we do very rarely). He actually bought a bottle the other week. I have to say it does the job much better than other oils we've tried.

My colleague makes chips in the microwave, but you can only do a few at a time. They taste amazing. I tried it, but it didn't work for me.

I've read that you shouldn't deep fry things in olive oil, I've never really researched it. I hate deep frying as it wastes so much oil. We do it rarely and I never know what to do with the left over oil. I know you're not supposed to put it down the drain, but ...

[StarswirlTheMustached]

Sorry, I use canola. It works amazingly well, just so you know.
Maybe try sunflower oil?

[kdms]

After a little bit of googling, it looks like the secret to successful fries/chips is to use a oil with a high smoke point, which explains why the canola works well, and the peanut oil and the sunflower oil should do well as well.  Safflower has one of the higher smoke points, but it's rather expensive.

It'll be an interesting experiment.  Do you add flavours to your chips when they're done?

c:  I understand your dilemna; I never know what to do with the leftovers either, so I usually end up reusing the oil (depending on what was done in it) for a couple of uses, and then letting it cool down and harden before scraping it into the garbage or putting it down the toilet.... /shrug

[James]

I use peanut oil, works well for me, I think it's the best common oil for deep frying anything.  I also use Canola oil for bread and other cooking, not aware of any reason to avoid it.

[kdms]

I used to use a canola oil spray (PAM) when I was making bread - to coat the inside of the bowl during rising so that it'd be easier to dump out for shaping - and without fail, the loaves would go moldy within a week of baking.  I stopped using the canola oil spray, and just use plain flour now, and the bread is fine for up to three weeks.  Almost without fail, anything we use corn oil with either tastes a little bit like fish or goes rancid very quickly....

My problem with canola oil is that the corn it's made from is almost guaranteed to be GMO, which is a problem in my household....we try to keep to heritage/non-GMO modified foodstuffs.  :)

[kythuen]

Canola oil is also pretty high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, too, so it's not really great for your health.  Same with most seed oils (including sunflower and safflower). Coconut oil and olive oil are better health-wise because they're mostly saturated and monounsaturated fats.  But if they're unsuited to the job, they're unsuited - it's definitely a dilemma.

One thing you might try is paper-thin chips spritzed with olive oil, salted and baked.  I've had some success with that.  :)

[James]

My problem with canola oil is that the corn it's made from is almost guaranteed to be GMO, which is a problem in my household....we try to keep to heritage/non-GMO modified foodstuffs.  :)

Canola oil is made from Rapeseed, not corn, which is also Genetically modified  (which I'm fine with).

[StarswirlTheMustached]

I think about 90% of the canola grown has been modified for herbicide resistance. I think I've seen organic/non-GMO canola, but like James I don't much worry about it. I have bought it unrefined and local (possibly organic?), and MAN the flavour was intense. Wonderful stuff. (there's not really any such thing as "heritage" canola, fyi; rapeseed was only bred to be edible a few decades ago)

I'd only worry about the fat palette of canola oil if it were the primary source of fats in your diet. (It really should not be; no one thing should. Whatever you pick, it's going to be unhealthy in exclusivity.)

[BlueBeard]

Do they stay crisp like store chips or do you have to eat them in one sitting?
Ive baked potatoe slices with a little oil but they get soggy by the next day.

[c]

They stay crisp if you keep them in airtight containers. To be honest they never really last that long. I should start doing this again.

[kdms]

My problem with canola oil is that the corn it's made from is almost guaranteed to be GMO, which is a problem in my household....we try to keep to heritage/non-GMO modified foodstuffs.  :)

Canola oil is made from Rapeseed, not corn, which is also Genetically modified  (which I'm fine with).

My bad....I should have checked the bottle I keep to make my son's bubble blowing mixture first.  ;)

[Gerard]

I made chips using a couple of cups of lard that rendered out of my very large batch of (pork) chappli kebab a few weeks back, and they were amazing (as are french fries cooked in animal fat, of course). Maybe you could save your fat for a few weeks and give it a try?

[Kenoryn]

I slice really thinly, toss to coat with olive oil and bake them instead of deep frying. Then you don't have to worry about smoke point. Much less expensive to do this way too! When I deep fry anything (only thing I do is tempura, actually) I use safflower or sunflower.

[okta614]

As an aside,

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use olive oil for frying. It has a lower smoke point than many other oils. What that means is the oil turns rancid once it hits a certain temperature. At that point, you lose all the nutritional benefits of the oil and it becomes unhealthy (not because it lost it's nutritional benefits, but because rancid oil is bad for your health).

[Sylly]

I used to use a canola oil spray (PAM) when I was making bread - to coat the inside of the bowl during rising so that it'd be easier to dump out for shaping - and without fail, the loaves would go moldy within a week of baking.  I stopped using the canola oil spray, and just use plain flour now, and the bread is fine for up to three weeks.

That's an interesting point. My bread (from bread machine) doesn't usually last much longer than a week, and I think this is true even on breads where I don't use canola oil. I will have to double check that, though. Is that a short lifetime in general? I typically let it breathe and cool down for a few hours, then store it in a gallon ziploc.

[NumberCruncher]

+1 to baking the chips. When we make them, we just sprinkle a little salt and bake for...however long it takes to get crispy. Might be interesting to pan fry just out of curiosity next time...

[Jack]

I never know what to do with the leftovers either, so I usually end up reusing the oil (depending on what was done in it) for a couple of uses, and then letting it cool down and harden before scraping it into the garbage or putting it down the toilet.... /shrug

Pouring grease down your drain (and the toilet counts) is bad because you'll eventually clog up your drain pipe (or the city sewer).

What you should do with your used grease is give it to a recycler. Recycling it into biodiesel is popular enough now that you can probably find someone willing to come pick it up for free, if you live in a reasonably-populated area.

[Kenoryn]

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use olive oil for frying. It has a lower smoke point than many other oils. What that means is the oil turns rancid once it hits a certain temperature. At that point, you lose all the nutritional benefits of the oil and it becomes unhealthy (not because it lost it's nutritional benefits, but because rancid oil is bad for your health).

Olive oil is okay for low and medium temp frying - it's above about 180 degrees (Celsius) that it starts to lose its nutritional benefits and produce unwanted by-products.

[jba302]

Canola oil is also pretty high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, too, so it's not really great for your health.  Same with most seed oils (including sunflower and safflower). Coconut oil and olive oil are better health-wise because they're mostly saturated and monounsaturated fats.  But if they're unsuited to the job, they're unsuited - it's definitely a dilemma.

One thing you might try is paper-thin chips spritzed with olive oil, salted and baked.  I've had some success with that.  :)

Canola also has a high amount of Omega 3's, the ratio is 2:1 which is actually on the good side of the scale. Peanut oil is a hell of a lot worse if you just take omega 6 numbers.