Our recipes use commonly available cooking oils or lard. If you use lard, we recommend making your own, or buying the non-hydrogenated lard. If the lard is out on the store shelves, instead of in the refrigerator section of the store, then it is hydrogenated.

The cooking oils, or homemade lard recommended here, are good for frying at high temperatures. They have a high smoke point. For potato chips, we use peanut oil heated to 395 degrees Fahrenheit (201 C).

For Sichuan recipes, especially, we recommend Caiziyou oil, which is a Chinese roasted rapeseed oil low in erucic acid. Sichuan chefs use a 50:50 mix of Caiziyou and lard in their cooking. We recommend a non-GMO, expeller-pressed rapeseed oil, sold by the Mala Market, as this is naturally low in erucic acid, is not chemically processed, and does not use plants genetically modified for chemicals like Roundup.

Cooking oils:

• Caiziyou (roasted rapeseed oil)
• Peanut oil
• Soybean oil
• Homemade Lard