When you pay a few extra dollars for a quality virgin oil, what can you expect? What can you get from choosing a good oil? First of all, you should know that oil is more than just a fat. The type of oil to use also depends, in large part, on what you want to cook with it. In addition, each type of oil has different health benefits.
FUNCTIONS-FLAVOURS
Each product Maison Orphée offers has a function on its label to assist you in making your choice.
There are 3 main uses/functions:
- Seasonning
- Baking
- Stir-frying
When using a virgin oil, you must be keep in mind the smoke point, which is the maximum temperature that an oil can withstand when cooking. The heating of an oil beyond that smoke point will denature its properties, including its taste.
You can also pay attention to the different flavours of oils to make the right choice for your recipe. Virgin oils retain the aroma and taste of the raw material from which they come. So it makes sense that some flavours are better suited to certain recipes. Pair your oil to your dish just like you would a wine to your meal.
HEALTH BENEFITS
So virgin oils are definitely not just fat, they are full-fledged ingredients that participate in the nourishment of our bodies. When they are well extracted, not refined, they retain their vitamins, antioxidants, micro-elements which all contribute to the benefit of our health.
Good fats ensure the flexibility of arteries, proper cell exchanges, and overall heart health. Some fatty acids even have anti-inflammatory effects.
Antioxidants make it possible to preserve the freshness of the oils. Indeed, they delay oxidation. And, when they are ingested, they continue their work inside our bodies.
Finally, they also provide valuable energy to the body.
We need essential fatty acids to live. These are nutrients that our bodies cannot create by themselves. We have to make sure to ingest them. Fish is a recognized great sources of essential fatty acids. So is algae. Some virgin oils can be a great source too because, although they require greater body effort to be converted to EPA-DHA fatty acids, they are natural, biological and a renewable resource. It should be mentioned that the more we consume omega-3 from plants (oils), the better our organism learns to synthesize them effectively.