How do you use oil in measured amounts in the kitchen?

Oil is the item least noticed in the kitchen and the one that takes up the most room on the plate. An amount added by pouring from the bottle can be several times the amount added by measure. Measuring oil with a spoon is the most effective change you can make in the kitchen without removing a single ingredient.

Below we look at why the measure goes wrong, how much a tablespoon actually is, how much oil each dish needs, and what reducing it does to the taste.

Why pouring freely misleads

The amount of oil poured from a bottle varies with the mouth of the bottle, the angle of the tilt and how long you pour. Someone cooking the same dish two days running can use different amounts without realizing it.

The visual feedback is weak too. Oil spread over the bottom of a pot looks like a thin layer; yet the same amount, taken into a spoon, comes to more than expected.

So the aim of measuring is not to reduce the oil but to know how much is being used. Nor is it possible to reduce it without knowing. Someone who cooks by measure for a week usually sees where their habit stands without even needing to reduce the amount.

How much a tablespoon actually is

Home measures are not fixed: the volume of a tablespoon has fallen over the last thirty-five to forty years from 15 milliliters to 10-12 milliliters. So the spoon in an old recipe and the spoon of today do not describe the same amount.

The weight equivalent is more defined: one tablespoon of oil is given as 13.5 grams. That figure is the most practical unit to use when working out the total on the plate.

Fixing on a single spoon in the kitchen as the measuring spoon removes that ambiguity entirely. That the measuring spoon is always the same matters more than which spoon it is.

The same principle holds for recipes. If a recipe gives spoons, the result will be a little different in every kitchen as long as it is not known which spoon that recipe was written for.

How much each dish needs

In sautés and pot dishes the aim is to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom; a spoonful or two usually does that job. More than that is added not to the taste but only to the total.

In the oven, oil keeps the surface from drying out. Adding it to the ingredients with a spoon and mixing by hand gives both less oil and a more even spread than pouring it freely over the tray.

In a salad the oil goes straight onto the plate and does not reduce at all in cooking. So measuring in a salad makes more difference than measuring in a hot dish. Adding the salad’s oil to the mixing bowl rather than to the plate also spreads the same amount more evenly and gives the same taste with less oil.

Where olive oil differs

Extra virgin olive oil is the most established oil in Turkish cooking and stands in a place of its own in terms of taste. In terms of measure, though, it is no different from other liquid oils; the same spoon gives the same amount.

Making that distinction matters, because an approach like “it is olive oil, so it is free” quietly enlarges the total on the plate. The quality of the oil you prefer and the amount you use are two separate decisions. Preferring olive oil does not remove the need to measure the amount used.

We covered the effect of oil on calories in cooking, with its measurements, in cooking with olive oil.

Tools that make measuring easier

What makes measuring sustainable is the simplicity of the tool. A complicated arrangement is dropped on the first busy day; a few small changes, on the other hand, last:

• Replace the oil bottle with one that has a measuring cap.
• Keep the measuring spoon on the counter, somewhere visible.
• Do not pour oil into the pot straight from the bottle.
• Add the salad’s oil to the mixing bowl, not to the plate.

All four repeat themselves once they are set up and ask for no further attention.

What happens to frying oil

Some of the oil used in frying passes into the food and the rest stays in the pot. Whether what stays in the pot will be used again is a separate decision.

Oil used at high heat for a long time changes in color and smell; when that change becomes noticeable by eye, the oil is replaced. Using the same oil over and over may look like a saving, but it also sets back the taste of the food.

The most practical way to reduce frying is to change the method. The oven gives most of the same texture with far less oil.

Does reducing it spoil the taste

Reducing oil does not have to make a dish tasteless. The flavor that goes missing is usually recovered with spices, lemon, vinegar and fresh herbs.

Another route is to add the oil not at the start of cooking but at the end. A small amount of oil added over the dish at the end contributes more to the taste than the same amount added at the start.

In short: fix your measuring spoon, stop pouring from the bottle, pay particular attention in salads and build the taste with spices. You can find the whole picture in the healthy kitchen habits guide and the individual values on the nutrition values page.