Palm Oil

Let me tell you about palm oil, and why it behaves so differently from the oil you keep by the stove.

At room temperature it is not liquid; it is soft, almost like butter. That is simply how its fat sets at everyday temperatures. Warm it up and it turns clear and pourable; cool it down and it firms up again. No mystery, no trick — just fat doing what fat does at a given temperature.

Choose it by colour and smell. Good palm oil smells clean, mild, sometimes faintly earthy, never sharp, never rancid. The colour ranges from pale straw to deep orange-red, depending on how it was processed — the deeper the colour, the less refined the oil and the more of its natural pigment survives. Pick the shade that suits your dish, not the palest one out of habit.

Some people say palm oil is "fake," made in a factory like margarine. No! It is pressed from the flesh of the palm fruit — a real fruit oil, though most of what you buy has also been refined and cleaned up for the kitchen. That misconception leads cooks to throw it out in favour of oils they think are "more natural," when really they're just unfamiliar with it.

In the kitchen, 100 grams gives you 884 kilocalories — remember that when you're frying, not drizzling.