No Sunflower /Vegetable oil / tomatoes in shops...!!

[earsup]

We have bought 4 bottles a few weeks ago...yesterday and today went to 5 different supermarkets to get bits....and no oils at all...just some expensive Olive oil left on shelves....also no tomatoes for a few days now....!

@MrsAmaretto

Buy rapeseed oil instead? Grown in this country

Or.... stop buying seed oils full stop?

@Krustykrabpizza

I don't know about you but I don't fry the onions or garlic when cooking those things. Fried onions are what you put on burgers and hot dogs. If your onions look like that in a bolognese you're doing it wrong.

I don't use sunflower oil for anything but I don't fry food at home. Use olive oil for cooking.

Frying onions for bolognese, curries etc are integral to the final flavour. I can't imagine just putting chopped raw onion and garlic in with some mince and tinned tomatoes to make a Bolognese sauce. No self respecting Italian would do that.

Fried onions aren't just for burgers.

@frasersmummy

This thread is so middle class..its made me laugh.. Tomatoes, fee range eggs, vegetable oils and flour.. not to mention the waitrose squash

Yeah ..lifes staples right there..we are all gonna starve

What are you on about? Tomatoes, vegetable oil and flour aren't middle class?! Free range eggs don't have to be either but depends on income. Working class doesn't mean "don't care about free range or tomatoes". And vegetable oil is just oil. Its not like ultra expensive hand picked avacodo oil or anything like that.

Plenty of Sunflower oil in Lidl or M and S if you are upmarket.
Been in both this week and plenty there, I don't use it so only bought 3 bottles.

Loads of loose peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, strawberries, chillis, on sale at the market yesterday.

All fine in Tesco yesterday I was expecting shortages after reading a number of threads but nothing missing

@MrsLargeEmbodied

sounds like we need to plant our own produce!

Where? Farmland has been bought up by so many developers..

Sunflower oil shortage is I think due to war in Ukraine because they produce something like 60% of it. I half heard it on the news the other day. Not sure why the tomatoes though? Unless issues with freight getting in to Dover

Only very large bottles of sunflower oil in Tesco this morning, but plenty of other oils, and certainly no shortage of tomatoes.

Maybe frying and sweating are a class thing as well!

In Lidl today there were no oils apart from rapeseed on the shelves. Fresh tomatoes and other veg seemed to be in stock but the tinned tomato and pasta sauce section was pretty bare. Same story in B and M today. Tesco yesterday afternoon had very low stocks of fresh tomatoes.

@VeganVampire

I'm surprised that the whole food supply thing isn't worrying more people to be honest. In the agricultural industry we've known about the problems for weeks - the Ukraine isn't called the bread basket of Europe for nothing - we're basically shitting ourselves and waiting for it to really happen.

We produce most of our own wheat in the UK, so bread shouldn't be a problem. Sunflower oil, of course, is a different matter.

@toomuchlaundry

Why did you buy 4 bottles the other day, are you part of the problem?

To fry all the pasta and rice they bought in the first lockdown

Just back from
2 supermarkets and they both had vegetable oil and olive oil. Vegetable oil was really rapeseed o. It perfectly fine for cooking

Many recipes use fry instead of sweat. Are they wrong?

Nope. They are two different techniques. Some recipes require frying onions (e.g. lots of Indian dishes used fried, not sweated, onions) and some used sweated onions (e.g. lots of Italian dishes sweat vs fry).

@GeoffLynton

This thread is bonkers.

I can't work out if I'm out-of-touch middle class for buying vegetable oil, or terribly declasse for frying things

😀👍

@Thinkingblonde

Loads of loose peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, strawberries, chillis, on sale at the market yesterday.

Courgettes are non-U, though.

I'm confused about the whole smoke point thing. I'd be most grateful if someone who does understand that, and what's bad and good, and why could explain, because I read conflicting things. TIA.

Smoke point is just the temperature that a fat starts to smoke & break down, it will affect the taste of food.

Butter, for example has a lower smoke point than sunflower oil, so the latter is better for deep frying or using in a wok to stir fry.

Extra virgin olive oil has one of the lowest smoke temperatures, hence why it is not usually used in cooking but for making dressings etc.

@knittingaddict

I use vegetable oil for frying eggs. I think that's all I use it for. I tried rape seed oli, but didn't like the taste

So what is your vegetable oil made from then? It's usually made from rapeseed!

And as for the people saying they don't fry anything, sweating just means frying gently, and can be done using sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or olive oil (among others). It's still a form of frying, which just means cooking in oil!

The idea of vegetable oil, tomatoes and flour being middle class 🤣

@mocktail

The idea of vegetable oil, tomatoes and flour being middle class 🤣

Just don't mention cycling to work. There will be scenes.

How do you make an onion sweat? Chase it round the block.

[quote mocktail]@knittingaddict

I use vegetable oil for frying eggs. I think that's all I use it for. I tried rape seed oli, but didn't like the taste

So what is your vegetable oil made from then? It's usually made from rapeseed!

And as for the people saying they don't fry anything, sweating just means frying gently, and can be done using sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or olive oil (among others). It's still a form of frying, which just means cooking in oil![/quote]
Absolutely no idea, but probably a mixture as it tastes nothing like the rather expensive rapeseed oil I bought to try. It just says M and S vegetable oil and it's very old because I rarely use it. A literal handful of times a year. I bought it before I read that vegetable oils are bad for you, but I'm not just going to throw it away.

The only fats I regularly use are:

Refined olive oil for frying.
Extra virgin olive oil for dips etc.
Beef dripping for roast potatoes.
Butter.

M&S vegetable oil is just rapeseed - though I appreciate it might taste different to you than others that are marketed as rapeseed

@OutingHobby

How do you make an onion sweat? Chase it round the block.

Jokes are middle class.