Grapeseed Oil

I am in the process of cleaning out my pantry. Occasionally I get a deal, buy something and then can't figure out what to do with it.

What is grapeseed oil used for ?

jlawrence01 wrote:I am in the process of cleaning out my pantry. Occasionally I get a deal, buy something and then can't figure out what to do with it.

What is grapeseed oil used for ?

I see grapeseed oil in some Italian recipes, and it seems like you can use it as you would any other vegetable oil, for salads or frying. I bought some once and as I recall it was not one of the more inexpensive oils.

Have a salad with dressing made from your grapeseed oil, then followed by a light stir-fry or a heavy oil-based fondue and then finish up with a little on wrinkles around the eyes or on stretch marks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapeseed_oil

I did a guest chef stint at Charlie Trotters a few years ago, a big disappointment for what I got out of it and at $400.00 a rip-off, anyway they had grapeseed oil all over the place and were using it straight up as you would use olive or canola oils and in most of their imulsions. BTW, I'd be curious to know about any other readers experience as a guest chef at CT, good or bad.

citywide03 wrote:I did a guest chef stint at Charlie Trotters a few years ago, a big disappointment for what I got out of it and at $400.00 a rip-off, anyway they had grapeseed oil all over the place and were using it straight up as you would use olive or canola oils and in most of their imulsions. BTW, I'd be curious to know about any other readers experience as a guest chef at CT, good or bad.

Funny, but I'm pretty sure we bought a bottle of grapeseed oil some years ago to emulate recipes from Trotter's Vegetables book.

Trotter's has been discussed throughout the years, and I hope people post here (or in a new thread) to discuss their more recent experiences there (actually, your insider perspective would also be very interesting, of course). If you search "Trotter's," you'll get a number of hits on this site.

Hammond

citywide03 wrote:I did a guest chef stint at Charlie Trotters a few years ago, a big disappointment for what I got out of it and at $400.00 a rip-off,

City,

I think it's important to note that Trotter's does not charge directly for "guest chef stint's" in the kitchen. You have to go through a charity, donation, silent auction winner etc. Trotter's does not make money from this, it all goes to the charity.*

It's not the same as paying xxx for a cooking lesson in a professional kitchen.

Enjoy,
Gary

*This is as of a couple of years ago, though I highly doubt Trotter's has changed it's policy

Grapeseed oil is great to saute with since it has a very high smoke point. You can use it any way you would use canola oil. It's neutral in flavor so it's good in applications where you would want subtle flavors to shine.

HI,

Start a new thread on guest in the kitchen, because I would certainly be interested. I got for Christmas this type of arrangment for Gabriel's and Carlos restaurants. Believe me, one of those would have been enough, someone just got a bit enthusiastic around here.

I'd love to here your experiences, so I can have a sense of what to expect.

Regards,

Thanks for the replies. I bought a gallon for about $3 on one of the Costco markdown deals and need to start using it.

jlawrence01 wrote:Thanks for the replies. I bought a gallon for about $3 on one of the Costco markdown deals and need to start using it.

That's an incredible deal! I bought a small tin of grapeed oil recently and I think I paid something like $6.00. Sonce you have so much of it, it might be interesting to use it to make some tempura. It's perfect for that because it will let the flavors of the veggies shine through.

Gary, I found your response to be a bit rude and presumptuous. Firstly, my "guest chef stint" was paid by check directly to Charlie Trotters, not to or through a charity or anything else you mentioned, and what Chuck did with it I have no idea. Secondly, I was not expecting a hands on cooking lesson, though I was told I would be working and assisting in the kitchen. I did however expect to be treated respectfully and to hopefully learn something, or maybe even get to sample some of the famous Trotter food. I got none of the above. Upon my arrival I was handed a set of whites and was handed off to one of the chefs who had me trim cauliflower. I didn't see him or anyone else again for an hour. It was like that the entire evening. It was obvious, and understandable, that the chefs were more concerened with protecting their little kitchen fiefdoms than fullfilling any promises made, implyed or otherwise, by the management upstairs. As far as food, the only thing I had to eat was food from the chefs dinner, nothing from any of the CT menus. I was offered one glass of wine four hours after my arrival and that took two hours reach me. I've heard of and spoken with others who've enjoyed their guest chef experience, mine however was a great disappointment. [/i]

citywide03 wrote:Firstly, my "guest chef stint" was paid by check directly to Charlie Trotters, not to or through a charity or anything else you mentioned, and what Chuck did with it I have no idea.

City,

If you noticed my footnote, it said my info may be slightly out of date. To that effect I called Trotter's restaurant and they said the majority of guest chef stints go through an outside charity, though some are sold directly through the restaurant. They went on to say that proceeds from in-house guest chef sales are used for the Charlie Trotter's Culinary Education Foundation, which is how the checks are made out.

The main point of my previous post, and this post as well, is not whether you enjoyed your experience, which obviously you did not, my point was, and still is, all monies collected by the guest chef for a day program at Trotters go to charity.

Enjoy,
Gary

I recently picked up a couple of bottles of grapeseed oil at a TJ Max. Occassionally you can find decent bottlesof olive oil at a great price there. This particualr grapeseed oil was very intensely green in color. It was almost blue-green! All of the grapeseed oils that I've used in the past were very light in color. Has anyone else come across this super-green-colored grapeseed oil?

I use grapeseed oil all the time. It's a neutral-tasting oil with a high smoke point. It's pretty inexpensive at Trader Joe's. And it's also good for your skin!

Last weekend, spotted grapeseed oil in Costco Mount Prospect -- I don't remember the price, but it was significantly cheaper than their organic olive oil.

I used to buy the house brand (!) at the late lamented Wild Oats, but it's no longer available, for obvious reasons. I just bought a huge new bottle at Marketplace on Oakton; it's a full liter, and cost about eight bucks, if memory serves. As I'm sure most of you already know, this is also THE place to buy olive oil of every imaginable quality and country of origin.

Now, if they only carried sherry vinegar...why the heck is this stuff so hard to find any more??? Even TI doesn't carry it.

sundevilpeg wrote:
Now, if they only carried sherry vinegar...why the heck is this stuff so hard to find any more??? Even TI doesn't carry it.

Got my sherry V. at Williams-Sonoma

Thanks! The next time I'm in either HP or LF, I'll stop by. Much obliged!

I got mine at Caputo's on Harlem.