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| I learned a lot about desserts - and oil - at Melo Cream. |
One reader asked about oil and cooking, so I was ready with a few comments.
I do not like the make-up of hardened, heavily processed factory oil - but what genius. They try hard to replace natural oils with factory processed oil and make their product look like it was distilled from Mother Nature.
Crisco stands for crystallized cottonseed oil. Ominous things can be found on the Net. The hardening makes me wonder what it does inside us. Winter shortening is softer for the cold weather, so it is soup in the summer. Summer shortening stands up well in storage in the heat, but turns into a block of soap or marble in the winter. In fact, one of the early possible uses was for making soap.
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| Now with butter flavor from Dupont and Company. |
One feature of manufactured oil is stability - not smoking up the house when cooking.
Coconut oil is the only one I use. It is stable in the heat, does not smoke, and has a wonderful flavor in cooking. The vegetable oil barons scared everyone away from using coconut oil in the movie theaters, so that unique delicious smell is gone - except at home. One cashier said, "Do you want butter on your popcorn?" I said, "That is not butter. That is 10W-30 from Shell." He laughed at the truth of my comment. Look at a package of it, if you a chance. I watched an audience observe it pouring into the reservoir. They said, "Ewwww."
Coconut oil is the only fat we can digest easily, apart from mother's milk. I do not buy the theory that cholesterol causes heart problems. Nevertheless, my cholesterol levels were perfect at the last doctor's visit. He did not say, "From now on pay cash in advance."
Not much coconut oil is needed for what we eat. For eggs I add some to the non-stick pan, and we love the flavor, enhanced by butter, salt, and pepper. Sassy adores scrambled eggs, especially when improved by slices of Johnsonville brats (New Orleans).
Coconut oil is also good for itchy scalps from using detergent shampoos and having dried, cracked skin from winter heat or old age. When I was the skin care expert at the Neighborhood Market*, I suggested that elderly people try a long-lasting, small, $4 container of coconut oil. Most skin creams are stearic acid plus glycerin, plus fragrance and alcohol. Any natural oil is far better than that stuff.
I had several people thank me over and over for the coconut oil skin cure, including my father-in-law in his 90s. It was only thing that worked, and he tried a lot of them.
*When I was working in the cleaning aisle, I told customers they were in luck, because I was the cleaning expert. I did the same in the cooking aisle. The fact is, a lot of people, especially the young couples, have no practical experience. I taught lots of people how to unclog toilets for almost nothing - a dollop of Dawn or generic Dawn, wait an hour or so, jiggle the bowl a bit, flush. They wanted to use $5 declogger, which was often sold out because of local demand from the nearby apartments.Another fiendish result of marketing fad foods is lowering the fat content and replacing it with corn syrup. Fat is a normal part of our diets, so substituting with corn syrup is not wise. Many sugars in the same product are hidden with various names used in a row, each one a form of sugar.
The highly regarded "natural" food from Paul Newman, such as their orange drink, starts with corn syrup. So, if you want to feed your children or yourself orange-flavored syrup with water added, reach for his brand. Mmm-mmm.
Most juices should be replaced with the fruit itself, far more enjoyable and naturally a combination of fiber and fruit sugar. Fiber offsets carbohydrate values, so fiber is a good idea on its own. However, I did overcome my Coca-cola addiction in Phoenix with orange juice first and then with oranges squeezed into water, then water itself.
Our waiter told us, years ago, that he could use the cola fountain at the restaurant whenever he wanted. When he stopped doing that, he lost 40 pounds.
