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20-10-2015, 04:40 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
Me too. Never heard of this before. Have come across discussions on cooking oils in this forum and learnt a little from them, but algae oil? This was the first time I came across this and thought I'd paste it here. Reading it, it sounds good. From a health point of view, and from its "taste" too! Have never seen it on the supermarket shelves before, and may be quite sometime before we get to see it, but if we do, at least we'd have some idea of it. FYI.
Cheers!
http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/1...ith-algae-oil/ (http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/173019/thrive-with-algae-oil/)
The Hottest Cooking Oil You’ve Never Heard of: Algae Oil
By Marisa Churchill, published on Friday, October 16, 2015
I was recently at a Chef’s Feed event, when I started chatting with Keith Belling. The conversation soon turned to algae. I will admit it, up until this point, I associated algae with swamp-like ponds. It certainly wasn’t something I thought about cooking with! But the more I heard about algae oil, the more I became intrigued. Where had it been all my life?
So how exactly does algae become oil? This was the first question I wanted answered. In order for algae to eventually be turned into oil, fermentation is used. Inside the fermentation tanks, the algae consumes renewable plant sugars to make oil in just a few days. Once harvested, algae is expeller pressed like coconut and seed oils. It then gets refined and bottled. Any algae leftover during this process is used for renewable energy. The oil that results is one of the best oils for your heart—it contains the highest level of monounsaturated fats (the good fats) along with the lowest percentage of saturated fats. Finally, this small single-celled plant is finally getting the recognition it deserves.
As a Greek girl who loves her olive oil, I had to see how the two different oils compared from both a health benefits and flavor angle. I also wanted to compare it to some of the other popular oils, like canola, vegetable, and coconut oil. When coconut oil came on the scene a few years ago, we already knew how it was going to taste. If you’ve ever tasted an olive or a coconut in your life, you have an idea of what the oils will taste like. But who’s eating algae? I had assumed it would have an earthy flavor with notes of umami. Instead it had a bright, light almost lemony taste. This might not be the flavor you’d expect from oil made of algae, but we all agreed it was delicious.
The oil also boasts an unusually high smoke point (485°F). All of this makes the oil surprisingly suitable for every type of cooking: sautéing, frying, baking, making sauces and dressings. So I set about the kitchen, making everything I could think of: popcorn, fried chicken, sautéed greens, even carrot cake! What’s making algae oil such a superstar isn’t just its versatility in the kitchen, but its health benefits. Algae oil contains unprecedented levels of monounsaturated fats. One tablespoon has the equivalent of eating an entire avocado. The average person typically only gets 50% of the monounsaturated fats that they need in their daily diet. So unless you’re on the avocado and nut diet, trust me, you aren’t getting as much monounsaturated fats in your diet as you might think. Algae oil also has zero trans fats, and levels of saturated fats that are even lower than olive oil (olive oil has about 2 grams of saturated fat per serving, and algae oil only has 0.5 grams of saturated fat). It’s sustainable. It’s healthy. Algae oil might not have the fame of goji berries and acai, just yet, but this is a superfood that’s clearly headed for stardom.
If you haven’t tried cooking with the latest oil to hit the culinary scene, here are a few recipes I like to use when I’m cooking with algae oil. The measurements when using algae oil are no different than any other kind of oil. So you can easily swap it with the oil in any of your favorite recipes.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?218589-Algae-Oil&goto=newpost).
Me too. Never heard of this before. Have come across discussions on cooking oils in this forum and learnt a little from them, but algae oil? This was the first time I came across this and thought I'd paste it here. Reading it, it sounds good. From a health point of view, and from its "taste" too! Have never seen it on the supermarket shelves before, and may be quite sometime before we get to see it, but if we do, at least we'd have some idea of it. FYI.
Cheers!
http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/1...ith-algae-oil/ (http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/173019/thrive-with-algae-oil/)
The Hottest Cooking Oil You’ve Never Heard of: Algae Oil
By Marisa Churchill, published on Friday, October 16, 2015
I was recently at a Chef’s Feed event, when I started chatting with Keith Belling. The conversation soon turned to algae. I will admit it, up until this point, I associated algae with swamp-like ponds. It certainly wasn’t something I thought about cooking with! But the more I heard about algae oil, the more I became intrigued. Where had it been all my life?
So how exactly does algae become oil? This was the first question I wanted answered. In order for algae to eventually be turned into oil, fermentation is used. Inside the fermentation tanks, the algae consumes renewable plant sugars to make oil in just a few days. Once harvested, algae is expeller pressed like coconut and seed oils. It then gets refined and bottled. Any algae leftover during this process is used for renewable energy. The oil that results is one of the best oils for your heart—it contains the highest level of monounsaturated fats (the good fats) along with the lowest percentage of saturated fats. Finally, this small single-celled plant is finally getting the recognition it deserves.
As a Greek girl who loves her olive oil, I had to see how the two different oils compared from both a health benefits and flavor angle. I also wanted to compare it to some of the other popular oils, like canola, vegetable, and coconut oil. When coconut oil came on the scene a few years ago, we already knew how it was going to taste. If you’ve ever tasted an olive or a coconut in your life, you have an idea of what the oils will taste like. But who’s eating algae? I had assumed it would have an earthy flavor with notes of umami. Instead it had a bright, light almost lemony taste. This might not be the flavor you’d expect from oil made of algae, but we all agreed it was delicious.
The oil also boasts an unusually high smoke point (485°F). All of this makes the oil surprisingly suitable for every type of cooking: sautéing, frying, baking, making sauces and dressings. So I set about the kitchen, making everything I could think of: popcorn, fried chicken, sautéed greens, even carrot cake! What’s making algae oil such a superstar isn’t just its versatility in the kitchen, but its health benefits. Algae oil contains unprecedented levels of monounsaturated fats. One tablespoon has the equivalent of eating an entire avocado. The average person typically only gets 50% of the monounsaturated fats that they need in their daily diet. So unless you’re on the avocado and nut diet, trust me, you aren’t getting as much monounsaturated fats in your diet as you might think. Algae oil also has zero trans fats, and levels of saturated fats that are even lower than olive oil (olive oil has about 2 grams of saturated fat per serving, and algae oil only has 0.5 grams of saturated fat). It’s sustainable. It’s healthy. Algae oil might not have the fame of goji berries and acai, just yet, but this is a superfood that’s clearly headed for stardom.
If you haven’t tried cooking with the latest oil to hit the culinary scene, here are a few recipes I like to use when I’m cooking with algae oil. The measurements when using algae oil are no different than any other kind of oil. So you can easily swap it with the oil in any of your favorite recipes.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?218589-Algae-Oil&goto=newpost).