Do you notice a big difference when cooking with EVOO compared to standard olive oil or cooking oil?

[Cookerycapers]

I know extra virgin olive oil is supposed to be healthier but it's also quite a lot more expensive than non-EV olive oil and regular cooking oil (supermarket own brand, crisp & dry, flora etc). Filippo Berio EV olive oil is around £9 for a 500ml bottle. Is it ok to use cheaper oils if you're on a budget? What would you use if you didn't use EVOO?

Honesty I think it tastes so much better! But to me it's not a prohibitive expense so I don't really think about the alternatives much, if it was too costly I would have to find an alternative - perhaps I'd get the EVOO but put it in a spray bottle so it was cheaper to use and stretched further?

There is cheaper extra virgin than Berio, for a start. If you're on a budget get the olive oil from Lidl instead.

In this country, refined olive oil isn't any cheaper than the cheapest extra virgin. I imagine in Italy, Greece, Spain etc it's different.

It depends what you're cooking. I'd use refined olive oil for pasta sauce but not sunflower oil. For curries, chilli and stir-fries: sunflower oil (peanut oil is what you're supposed to use for Chinese cooking but I can't tell the difference). For browning meat for a stew: butter, lard or bacon fat.

Rapeseed oil is supposed to be bad but I can't remember why.

I use good quality EVOO for dressings etc, but use cheaper stuff for cooking.

You aren't really supposed to use the extra-virgin stuff for cooking, unless at a low temperature. It has a much lower burning point, and once that is reached it releases hydrocarbons. which are not good for you.

@theboffinsarecoming that's actually not true. There's a lot of misinformation regarding cooking with EVOO. It's completely fine.

www.greatbritishchefs.com/features/cooking-with-extra-virgin-olive-oil#:~:text=The%20smoking%20point%20of%20extra,heat%20for%20a%20long%20time).

I only use extra virgin for pretty much all cooking and other stuff. My family come from a Mediterranean country and that's what we've used forever.

I buy Evoo from either Lidl or Aldi. It's delicious, bright green and not £9. I think it's about £6.

I use it for everything. But I spent years using prolific amounts of rapeseed as we live on a farm estate that grows and sells it locally. As in I walk past the rape flowers and then the oil is sold two miles from the field. Which did seem more sustainable but not as healthy sadly.

I would use cold pressed rapeseed if I couldn't afford evoo. I think it is the chemicals used in processing and the loss of polyphenols which is harmful, plus rapeseed has a pretty good omega 3:6 ratio. Just avoid it in upf as it is pretty always the chemically extracted variety.

I disagree - having read about hydrocarbons I'd prefer to not use it for frying. It is too damn expensive anyway.