Rapeseed oil - how can anyone cook with it - fish smell

[ScottishScouser]

Please tell me it’s not just me. Every time I accidentally buy rapeseed oil (or rather DH does) the house ends up stinking of fish. The last time he picked up veg oil and didn’t check to see if it was taper not.

crisp and dry
tescos own
sainsburys own

I can’t believe people actually don’t mind the smell.

Here is a serving of fried onions with an added aroma of fish!

I loathe rapeseed oil and never ever use it!

Funny, it’s when olive oil is being heated at high temperatures (fried, bacon for example) that I gag. I can tell the smell a mile away and hate it - happy for olive oil to be for lower heat cooking in the oven. As for EVOO, surely it’s not that it can’t be used for cooking, it’s that you’re wasting your money on a product that you won’t tell the difference in when using it for cooking, but will tell the difference when using as-is; like bread, oil and vinegar.

I thought this sounded a bit random but I remembered that I made a chocolate cake the other day that required oil, I usually use sunflower oil or vegetable oil both work great, all I had was crisp and dry which I assumed was one or other of those and weirdly I noticed, although delicious, the cake had a slightly fishy or savory smell, so I think I know where you are coming from here

DH uses Flaxseed oil and it stinks of fish - its the Omega 3 apparently.
I am a "super smeller" though

I've used it religiously for about 2 years and it's never, ever smelled of fish.

I do however find sweeteners bitter

Only ever use rapeseed and have never had this issue.

I don't use it as it definitely has a certain aroma. Don't think it's fishy but a bit 'animal' is the only way I can think to describe it.
I have a very strong sense of smell.

Sweeteners do have an after taste for me and rapeseed oil does smell weird.

No problems with rapeseed oil but I absolutely hate groundnut oil and can taste it in anything. Also truffle
oil which tastes of petrol to me and ruins a dish.

You can use light olive oil for cooking. That is the only oil I use.

I had this once with rapeseed oil.. never used it again.

It definitely has a smell/taste...not fishy to me...but more earthy/soil

Briefly...

You're saying that cold pressed oil can't be mass produced.

And that's not so.

This is all over Google for “rapeseed fishy smell,” (looks like @InterIgnis found it too); you come up with numerous sources and that all explain it the same way.

Rapeseed contains omega 3 and when you heat it to frying temperatures it can have “off-coloured odors.” Or plain-speaking, it can smell like a fish.

There’s the regular government studies on it:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejlt.201500088
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0315546378731858
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.8b05723

No idea whether organic or non organic or cold pressed or what have you will make a difference. But the rapeseed itself is the problem, apparently. They claim it’s been “fixed” on some American forums, ie that the smell component has been removed, but obviously, I don’t know.

I was given a bottle of cold pressed rapeseed oil, from a local producer, it tasted awful to me,I thought it was off. Tried again different batch, nope I just can’t take the taste of it, bitter and sort of fusty,it was very strong to me.

I must eat it when I’m out as commercial kitchens must use it….but I don’t eat a lot of fried food …

we use olive oil mostly, and extra virgin olive oil for when the taste is the thing, like dressings. Also use butter to fry fish.

I think seed oils are one of those things that are sold at us because the profit margins are good…

Then you’ve got the fake olive oil mafia scandal

It's really bad for you anyway. I use groundnut (peanut) oil.

I also can’t believe people haven’t read about the harms of these oils. They are so bad for you and I’m sure it will be a scandal at some point when the connection is admitted to cancer, obesity and even neurological issues like dementia

A decent discussion of the issues here https://www.zeroacre.com/blog/are-seed-oils-toxic

It’s called canola in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

I don’t find it fishy smelling, but it does smell foul to me. I can’t bear the smell or taste.

I mostly use olive oil, but when a more neutral oil is required, I use peanut (groundnut) oil.

Math - look at the process to make mass produced refined rapeseed oil and the process for cold pressed rapeseed oil. Refined Rapeseed oil is on a massive scale that just can’t be replicated for cold pressed, as they still use the traditional method. Hence cold pressed costs 3 times as much.

oh my god are you still going on?

I don’t find d it ‘fishy’ but for a supposedly flavourless oil, I find it really strong and sickly. I can detect it in food and it’s unpleasant. Sort of ‘oily’, almost meaty taste. I don’t like it at all.

I was given a bottle of cold pressed rapeseed oil, from a local producer, it tasted awful to me,I thought it was off. Tried again different batch, nope I just can’t take the taste of it, bitter and sort of fusty,it was very strong to me

That’s odd. I was also given a bottle by a friend who produces it. I ended up buying a dozen off him. I like it because it has such a smooth buttery taste. Not at all bitter like some olive oils. It makes an excellent combination with fresh crusty bread. Definitely my favourite dunking oil.

I tend to use olive, sunflower or sesame for cooking.

I also got given a bottle of linseed oil and that smells so much like gloss paint, overpoweringly so, that I couldn’t bring myself to try it. It is best reserved for making paint and lino with, in my opinion.

Interesting about rapeseed. I changed from sunflower as read that's not good when heated and the olive oil isn't good when heated. What is the best to use for cooking?