I am out of vegetable oil and need to make cornbread. I think you can substitute peanut oil but want to make sure (only need 1/4 cup). I think you can also use olive oil but I only have extra virgin and I'm afraid the flavor would be weird. Any suggestions? Thank you.
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3In baking, you can substitute any of the neutral-flavored oils with each other. related : cooking.stackexchange.com/q/701/67– JoeJan 31, 2016 at 17:41
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And before I get criticized for posting in comments ... I'm fairly certain this is a duplicate, but have a class to get to, so can't look for it.– JoeJan 31, 2016 at 17:45
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I wouldn't recommend olive oil, it has a low smoke point and would impart and oil flavor to your corn bread. That might be fine for s Mediterranean bread, but not corn bread. Would you top a corn bread with tapenade? I wouldn't.– EscoceJan 31, 2016 at 17:49
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1Other than greasing the pan, I have left the oil completely out of my cornbread recipe for years. Doing that doesn't seem to make any difference at all in flavor or texture, and it's a lot less calories. You'd probably notice the change if you were used to using bacon fat, but I haven't eaten that tasty mix in decades.– Wayfaring StrangerJan 31, 2016 at 19:08
3 Answers
Peanut oil is fine to use for vegetable oil. Since both are neutral with a high smoke point, they can be used interchangeably.
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1Peanut oil can also help make the bread tastier if you like the peanuty undertones. Peanut oil is on of my favored oils for this reasons– EscoceJan 31, 2016 at 17:49
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1+1 BUT "interchangeably" works in one direction only in some cases - peanut oil will stand its ground at a heat stress that will make some kinds of "vegetable oil" (especially if they are canola based) develop off flavors, off smells or downright smoke. Peanut oil would be the one "all purpose" oil to have in your pantry if it wasn't comparatively expensive 4€/L is the cheapest I can get, for example - cheap compared to flavoring grade oils, expensive compared to "vegetable oil" but well worth it. Jan 31, 2016 at 17:54
For cornbread you can use butter as a substitute. If you are using salted butter reduce the salt in the recipe somewhat to compensate for the salt in the butter.
I use 4 cups of cornmeal, half cup of self rising flour, half cup of crisco, 3 cups of buttermilk, 2 eggs and grease the cast iron pan with a liberal amount of crisco and bake at 450 for 30 minutes.