The decanter is cute but it is a very bad way to store oil if you don't use it quickly, especially in warm weather and doubly so right next to the stove like that. A little bit of oil in a large clear bottle is going to oxidize very quickly, and oxidization means rancidity. Air, light, and warmth are enemies of all food oils. Rancid oils not only taste downright wretched, but are unhealthy to consume. IMO only the amount of oil that you're going to use within a couple of weeks should be stored at room temperature in such a way that it will be exposed to air and light. Food oils should be stored in the dark (or in a dark bottle), at cool temperatures (the refrigerator is ideal), and with a minimum of air space in the bottle. I use mainly grapeseed oil when a recipe calls for "vegetable oil" or "salad oil". I prefer grapeseed for general use because I think it just tastes better and has a nicer texture than other neutral oils like canola and safflower, and it's cheaper than apricot kernel or avocado. Although the unit price is higher I purchase smaller containers so I have a fresher supply - it's not a good value if half the jug goes rancid - since we do not use a great deal of oil in cooking, an average meal for the two of us might use two tablespoons of oil assuming we're not splurging on something like pesto! I absolutely loathe olives too, but we do use quite a bit of olive oil - many olive oils on the market taste nothing at all like olives, thank goodness. Look for the ones labeled "extra light"; that term has nothing to do with calories, it's a description of its color and flavor. Even some of the extra virgin olive oils we've tried don't taste like olives, they have very different flavors ranging from buttery to peppery. A couple of the fancy-pants food stores around me have olive oil tastings from time to time and that's a good way to try different ones out. (Never buy "pomace" olive oil. It's not fit for human food IMO and doesn't even really make particularly good soap.) Cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils are the way to go whenever possible; the solvents and high-heat processing used to produce cheap oils break down the oil and are not good for you to consume as well as just plain trashing the flavor. We also like to use some of the many unrefined vegetable oils out there because they taste so good, but they must be stored carefully (refrigerator) and the shelf life is still comparatively short. Unrefined corn oil is one of our favorites, sweet and buttery, and especially good for baking. I think I have five or six different oils in the fridge now, because they all taste distinctly different. Spectrum is one of my favorite brands for a wide range of good quality oils and is comparatively easy to find. I find clouding and thickening under refrigeration to be a minor problem and primarily an issue with heavier-bodied and unfiltered unrefined oils like higher-end olive oils. The oil still pours, albeit more slowly, and it cooks just the same. If I'm making a salad dressing or something like that and need the oil completely liquid right this moment, I pour it into a small bowl and set that into a larger bowl of very hot tap water. I never leave the entire bottle out to warm up, but rather pour out what I need and return the rest to the fridge. When I want a butter flavor for sauteeing fish or veggies, I use half butter and half a neutral oil to improve the smoke point of the butter (since I'm too lazy to make clarified butter), and toss in some broth or wine to assist further cooking and boost flavor without using a ton of fat. I almost never cook savory foods with plain water, except for boiling pasta - why throw away that opportunity to augment flavors? We don't use up butter very quickly (DH has gotten me spoiled on Kerrygold butter from Ireland which comes in a half-pound block instead of the usual 1/4-pound sticks, but it can take us weeks to go through a block!) so it does turn in warm weather if left at room temperature. I won't have margarine in my house though, foul stuff... there are two things DH and I will not give up no matter what, we'll rearrange other dietary components to accomodate them but real butter and real mayonnaise are sacrosanct. Oh, here's a trick if your butter is rock-hard and you need it to soften to a malleable texture quickly without risking melting (as often happens if you try to soften it in the microwave or the oven)... grate it on the coarse holes of a hand grater and spread it out on a plate. Set the plate in a warm, but not hot, place. oakleyok, what the heck is "Crisco lard"? Crisco does not manufacture lard (meaning rendered pork fat, and lemmetellya it is dang hard to find unhydrogenated lard!). Do you mean solid vegetable shortening?

i use canola oil for deep frying or high heat stir frying, evoo(extra virgin olive oil) for salads, over pasta for flavoring, light olive oil for sauteing, i don't use coconut or palm oil in cooking too much saturated fat bad for my health, don't get me wrong i eat it because its in many types of cookies or snacks but i try. canola oil, light olive oil from costco, evoo from farmers market. we are so spoiled in san francisco with farmers market all year, whole food 2 in the city ,3 trader joes within 5 miles of my house, Happy New Year

As long as you use the same rating 10W30 and it is marked as meeting the SAE standard, it would be acceptable for use in your John Deere. (no fudging, like similar to the standard, we know about the SAE standard etc.) The large oil companies make a batch of oil to meet the SAE standard and then it is packaged out in to the retail containers, as is required by their sales. They make a batch of 10W30 oil to SAE standards for that grade of oil. They will fill and label the retail containers as needed. Fill for Shell, then filling from the tank for Walmart, the next for John Deere, and so on. When the tank is empty they make the next batch and continue filling as required by their sales on that day. You may see some difference between the manufacturers in the little things. One manufacture may add blue color to the the oil. The next wants it natural. Bottom line is they are all the same regardless of the vendor if they meet the SAE Standard. Same goes for gasoline. There is a large gasoline terminal near us, a couple of dozen 500,000+ gal tanks. The gas from these tanks go to all of the gas stations in the area, regardless of brand. This works the same for many items. One of my favorite memories when working through college, was listening to a customer explain for 15 minutes that the store brand milk was so much better, than that from the local dairy. If she had only known the difference between the store brand milk and the local dairy was the container into which they were filled. The milk came from the same tank and the dairy filled to meet the demands of the customer. She was so sure of her facts, and I knew the customer was always right.

UPDATE: Well, yesterday's treatment got out more than half of the oil, so I treated it again today the same way. It is sitting, sudsy and soaking on my washer waiting to be washed with similar colors in an hour or so. That darn deva cloth is lovely to wear, but is extremely absorbent. After the spill, I tried sopping it up with paper towels, but very little oil came off, so I'm not too surprised that I have to treat and wash it again. I think I can at least save the dress from being demoted to around the house only wear. If the second wash doesn't remove everything, it will go another round tomorrow. I will prevail.