sandi wrote:
> Hello
>
> Are corn oil and canola oil interchangable in cooking?
>
> If not, with what or when should one use one over the other?
> Is one better for you than the other?
>
Well, they're not identical. Which is better may depend on what you're
doing with them. Some factors to consider include smoke point, fat
composition, and flavor. Google will find you lots more authoritative
stuff than what follows.

Smoke point is the temperature at which the oil will smoke and break
down. It's generally considered to produce unhealthful results if it
breaks down. Corn oil has a higher smoke point than canola oil, but
both are high enough for normal purposes.

By composition, I mean saturated fat vs. unsaturated vs.
polyunsaturated vs. monounsaturated. The last category is thought to
help increase "good" cholesterol; the first is thought is increase
"bad" cholesterol. If this matters to you, there's lots of material
available about it. Corn oil has more monounsaturated fat than canola
oil. Olive oil and peanut oil have more than corn oil.

Corn oil tastes a little bit like corn. You may or may not find it
flavors food you cook in it. And you may or may not like the flavor.
Canola oil, originally called rapeseed oil because that's what it is,
has less taste, or else tastes like the rapeseed plant, a type of
mustard green, I think. Many people choose canola as "neutral" in
taste. Personally, I think it tastes musty and I don't like it.

I use safflower oil (for neutral) or olive oil (for flavor) for
sauteeing, peanut oil for stirfrying, peanut or peanut and safflower
for deepfrying. If I happen to have corn oil I'll use it for frying
tortilla chips and for making popcorn and for deepfrying. -aem