I’m Nigerian and we use palm oil in many of our dishes. It’s grown locally but not in the fashion seen in countries where it’s mass produced. Our cuisine would not be the same without it. I’ve had to explain many times to others in the west that its use in our food and culture shouldn’t be scrutinized in the same way. Honestly it can be exhausting. Thank you for shining light on the subject. P.S, when you use red palm oil in a stew, put it on really high heat first before adding other ingredients. And open a window or turn on an exhaust fan because your smoke alarm might be set off.
do you have to wait untill it stops smoking, or throw in ingredients to cool it down, when it just starts? and what to put in first, meat, spices, or aromatics and onions? i'm really curious about trying red palm oil in my already eclectic cooking, but i dont knoe how to use it yet.
Exactly! Oil palm is not from Malaysia or Indonesia, it's indigenous to West Africa. Oil palm was taken from Nigeria to those places by the Dutch to be a cash crop. Oil palm still grows wild in Nigeria/West Africa and is used by many West Africans as part of our cultures as it has been for thousands of years. The problems of the oil palm plantations are separate and will manifest anywhere plantations are planted, because it's an exploitative system. So blame the system that makes it profitable to destroy the environment to grow monocultures, not the plant itself, and stop supporting exploitative plantation palm oil. It can be grown differently
@@meerali5050 Hit the nail on the head. Even the our cousins from brazil can attest to this fact. Plus its been a staple diet(i mean ritual procession) for african gods, even all the way to egypt. i dont know of any indo/asian sacrifices that uses palmoil but since they grow it, i guess our contribution to society has been distorted.
I suppose your oil is also not refine . C est aussi un probleme politique en Europe . En Inde ,une consommation enorme quasi impossible de ne pas en consommer ...je cuisine tout depuis la base a La maison avec huile de coco locale ,donc jamais de petit plaisir a s offrir un repas au restaurant ...je ne mentionne pas l effet sur les corps des jeunes personnes ....😢
It's so great that there are content makers like you and Adam Ragusea who can get into the nuance and challenges of palm oil. Internet isn't that great with nuance but there are those like you who do a phenomenal job and you were still able to give your own twist to the conversation. The ecological disaster is bad for nature and for people so I do hope were figure this out ASAP.
I'm from the state of Bahia, in Brazil, and red palm oil is essential to our cuisine. I can not imagine our regional dishes witout it (like Acarajé, Abará, Moqueca, etc.). Since we are the state with most balck people outside of Africa, I guess that explains a lot why this ingredient has so many uses here.
Living in Ghana i can say, that Red Oil as you showed in your video really is an important cooking ingredient here. Also for "Palmnut Soup" for example you typically buy the palm fruit and grind it at home to break down the pulp. Also Palm Oil just is the most Sustainable and productive per ground local source of fat in tropical climates especially sub saharan West Africa. The issue: even here where it is grown localy the demand is higher than production now adays leading to imports from South East Asia that sadly can well compete in price with the local product. Little Fun Fact, we sometimes feed the raw Redoil like you chugged to animals to make them throw up, if they swallowed something they we're not supposed to or If they fell sick for example.
I'm from Malaysia. The problem with palm oil is that the whole world consumed it but you expect literally 2 countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) to shoulder the consumption. The two countries can't do much when there are hundreds of international companies pressuring them to not reduce production. Don't boycott it. Encourage more countries to plant it. Maybe then Malaysia and Indonesia can relax a bit. The whole of south east asia can grow it, africa can grow it, hell even some part of China can grow it, then why settle for just Malaysia and Indonesia when the consumption and demand are that HUGE? But of course EU would rather pick an agenda that suit their own vegetable oil rather than that. There is a clear advantage to palm oil. Replacing it is an idiotic move. Boycotting and not encouraging other countries to plant it is what cause the problem in the first place. You don't see the same problem with rubber tree cause more than two countries major in it. The international politic stuff we can do without, it's just complicate things.
I don't think anyone is "expecting" anything. Other countries are free to plant it - no one is stopping them. But plenty of countries can't. I'm from the US: we don't grow it here because the weather is wrong for it. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons (some bad - like cheap labor - and some good - like excellent weather) it's most profitable to produce palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. It makes no sense for other countries to try to produce large quantities for export when the retail price of Indonesian/Malaysian palm oil is much lower.
For real, Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet with some beautiful areas and really should be left alone. Some other countries are planting oil palm, mainly in central America, with equally disastrous effects. Really, we need to seek out the lowest biodiversity, least valuable areas of tropical land to plant this. Oil palm is a fantastic plant that has been seriously misused
Good to hear your thoughts from someone from Malaysia. Would you say the Malaysian government has a responsibility as well? They are doing deals with the large corporations
Thank you so much for this video. I have been defending the oil palm for years now and its horrible reputation. The plant itself is so overwhelmingly productive it's ridiculous that people demand other vegetable oils. If we are to keep pace with current consumption, the oil palm is the obvious choice. It's just that demand for oils has shot up so much in the recent decades that the sustainable agricultural processes can't keep up. Sadly, partly because the oil palm is so productive, the economic incentives are too much for people to care about the long term environmental and social damages. It's such a shame that a wonderful palm, with so much going for it, will be the face of such wanted destruction of our planet's natural beauty.
The problem it's the oil demand, not a healthy food, as any refined oil, on top of that saturated and omega 6 fats. Only potentially sustainable system would be something similar to masarang sugar palm system, but that's not profitable, so, such a conondrum
@@Dewe196 rapeseed is a good oil producer as well, hence why it was a major crop for such a long time, with canola especially being a game changer in the 70's. Yet, oil yields are only a third to half that of the oil palm. And it requires more intensive harvesting measures (but can be done with industrial equipment). The oil palm can easily be productive for 30+ years if it's not destroyed during errant harvesting/disease.
I'm actually interning with a woman who's assisting in research to develop a sunflower that produces seeds that are high in saturated fat, with the goal of being a more sustainable alternative to palm oil.
I mean but the thing is nothing will ever beat the raw yield of palm oil. Its by far the most productive oil crop. People are going to grow things in the tropics no matter what, and its better to use comparative advantage and grow high yielding oil palm as opposed to grains or something which would be better suited for temperate climates. The biggest issues are a lack of access to fertilizers (hence the constant need to burn rainforest), poor farming practices which lead to low biodiversity and lots of herbicide use, and high global consumption driven by a vast array of products that use plant based oils and our exploding population which puts too much pressure on the planet. The oil palm is fine, great actually, you really couldn't ask for a better plant. Its the way we use it that's the problem.
@@StuffandThings_ "you really couldn't ask for a better plant" I dunno, it kind of looks like a lot of plant per fruit, to me; with rather small, somewhat tough fruits that require high amounts of processing to extract. Even if it's constantly fruiting, it feels like oil palms right now are where tomatoes were before we began applying scientific cultivation methods to them: good eating, but _inefficient_ as an input to mass-production of various blended and distilled extracts. For flavor, the "heirloom" oil palm would continue to be preferable, so there's not much we need to do to the oil palm for those seeking that flavor. But for just raw output per hectare of flavorless vegetable oil, we could definitely aim toward a more "beefsteak tomato" kind of oil palm cultivar. Something smaller in size, less spiky, requiring less fertilizer, producing less fibrous fruit, larger fruit, easier to machine-harvest without tearing down and threshing the tree. Less a palm _tree_ , more a palm _bush_ . Is anyone working on that? Or is forest land in Malaysia and Indonesia still considered "cheap" enough by those governments, that there's no pressure to get high-CapEx scientific investment involved to further optimize for yield (not just per hectare, but also per man-hour and per watt!) yet?
@@sentropez1337 From what I know, the Austronesian peoples managed to breed much smaller coconut trees (closer to coconut bush, like you described). Additionally, being a tree is actually really promising for trying some sort of permaculture, establishing multiple layers of oil producing crops (there are some canopy/emergent trees that produce oily seeds, as well as many, many herbaceous plants). I definitely agree that there is a colossal amount of untapped potential for breeding or genetically engineering better varieties though. The fact that even just the generic version of oil palm is so popular and successful says a lot. There's probably an ungodly amount of money to be made by making even marginal improvements to the oil palm or to oil palm cultivation methods, right now the incentive seems to still be to burn more rainforest but my bet is that something will happen soon.
@@danielpicassomunoz2752 Healthy Omega- 3 oils are Monounsaturated which also means that it will oxidize (turn rancid). Polyunsaturated oils are what the hybridized plants company select because these dont spoil as readily, can ship but lacks the desired specific benefit of the monounsaturated fats. Saturated fats solidify and once again lacks the monounsaturated.
The savory tomato-like flavor you mention is likely from the lycopene, which also gives it its red color. I have heard similar descriptions from other fruits high in lycopene.
The insane amount of carotenoids in red palm oil is why some people in west Africa have such a vibrant reddish skin color... It is also the reason why people with light skin should avoid consuming it regularly, else they would develop a yellow/orange skin tone in no time and it takes half a year to disappear after you stop consuming it.
High effort video!! I had no idea how efficient palm oil production was compared to other oils. If only it could be produced by more responsible companies. Seems like the answer is that the world needs to use less vegetable oil in general. That is probably not going to happen though. Producing it efficiently with much stricter regulations on those companies is probably the real world solution.
it aint the oil production companie's fault...it is the fault of all the merchandise companies and consumers that demand the production!! of course, the palm plantation companies would gladly accept the business...but at the lost of the home of the tigers!
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Its saturated fat content is one of the reasons it's so popular because that makes it more solid at room temperature which makes it useful for stuff like Nutella, some baked goods and many cosmetics.
Saturated fat is also, against popular opinion, healthier for you. Polyunsaturated fats aren't inherently bad and can have benefits, but your body is prone to store them. They oxidize easily, so when stored can increase inflammation as they oxidize. There's also a complex relationship with stored body fat composition as one of the signals for metabolic rates in mammals, but that's way to complex for a RUclips comment. I highly recommend following Brad Marshals explaining the "emergence diet" mimicking triggers mammals use when coming out of hibernation. Seems a bit odd, but he backs it up with science. He also goes into detail how low fat starch based is better than high fat diets, but explains how each work for weight loss, as well as other metabolic signals to push, and those tomavoid for a healthy metabolism. If you like science, definitely good reads or listening. Even being knowledgeable, I have to listen a few times. His blog is _"fire in a bottle"_ or find videos on RUclips.
Just inaccurate, and goes against the little knowledge we do have in nutrition. Cherry-picking science papers and following social media gurus that advocate for this is at best negligent, and at worst malicious (if you sell health products based on this). Hate seeing this stuff repeated online. People who like science shouldn't follow hot-shot innovator gurus that come up with another "cool-name-diet" in name of paleo/bears/ancestral spirits. Go and read mainstream science, start following doctors and nutritionists and learn how to read science papers on your own. That way you might not fall into the rabbit whole of coming with some ridiculous idea and then "backing it up with science" with single small research that you took out of context. Saturated fats aren't better for health, they have their uses, but stop spreading misinformation.
@@Unsensitive Where would humans find an abundance of non-toxic starches in nature? Nowhere. See that tells me that guy you mentioned that recommended that doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just another NWO shill begging in pleading that you put yourself in a state of extreme disease by stuffing yourself with sugar. Lots of these types are absolutely TERRIFIED of people waking up and healing themselves by eating their natural diet.
@@Unsensitive The body of scientific literature overwhelmingly suggests that consuming less saturated fat has better health outcomes. Doesn't mean you only consume PUFAs but saturated fatty acids are clearly over-represented in most people's diet.
This is a complicatee subject to tackle. The palm oil plant is an incredible plant, but the way production is being approached is abysmal. That being said, the productivity of the plant itself makes it nearly impossible to replace without creating further definite environmental issues, and possibly more social and economic issues than palm oil carries.. I am happy you discussed red palm oil as well. There is a Ghanaian okra stew that uses red palm oil and there is something about it that is just amazing, at least for me. Perhaps it's simply that okra is one of my favorite foods. 😅
Very reasonable and nuanced view on palm. I also like to focus on it being one of the healthiest "vegetable" oils. The only real downsides have zero to do with the plant, but all to do with human actions, which could easily get worse if you tried to replace it.
The problem with replacing pals oil with other vegetable oil is that it takes a lot more acreage to produce the same amount due to how productive the plant it at producing oil. You be saving one acre of forest while clearing several time more for soy.
The oil palm yield is 8 to 9 times more than peanut, soybean, sunflower, etc. You are free to cut down 9 times more jungle size like Brazilians did in cultivating soybeans to produce the same amount of vegetable oil.
Thanks for this video, as I was genuinely curious about the fruit. To the credit of the fruit, the reason why it's the center of so many problems is because it's attributes are highly desired for the needs of an industrial scale food supply. The lipid profile on it isn't particularly healthy, but one could say that about most seed oils.
I've always loved your uploads, this one was definitely very interesting, never even considered what "palm oil" even was, or have ever really heard about it
In Norway we mostly stoped using palm oil in food a few years ago. You still see palm oil in some foods, but I think that's mostly food that's prduced in other countrys.
Tidak ada minyak sawit kamu tidak boleh memakan coklat, aiskrim,makanan ringan keropok dan barang2 make up dgn sempurna,tidak ada minyak sawit kamu tidak boleh jual empat benda ini ke seluruh dunia,minyak sawit tahan panas boleh hindari kanser,selain minyak sawit apabila di goreng seperti minyak sayuran,minyak soya dan lain2 minyak ini tidak tahan panas dan tidak elok untuk di buat gorengan,apabila minyak tidak tahan panas di buat gorengan sebab itu mengakibatkan kenser,negara2 barat memburukkan minyak sawit untuk menyekat ia berkembang di mata dunia,tetapi negara2 barat adalah munafik sebab mereka hendak menjual aiskrim,coklat,makan ringan iaitu keropok dan bahan kosmetik mereka menggunakan minyak sawit,kalau tidak ada minyak sawit barang2 ini tidak boleh di jual ia akan jadi tidak berkualiti dan cepat cair,wahai warga2 Eropah buka minda kamu itu jangan di perbodohkan oleh para politik2 barat yang hendak merosakkan kamu,kalau kamu kata kerana alam sekitar iaitu hutan sebab itu kamu memboikot minyak sawit,kalau macam itu kamu harus memboikot getah sebab banyak hutan2 musnah oleh kerana hendak menanam pokok getah,kamu sepatutnya memboikot getah seperti kamu memboikot minyak sawit,aku cuba sampaikan semoga kamu warga barat membuka minda kamu itu.
Roughly four decades ago, we were told that eating palm oil (and other “tropical oils,” e.g. coconut oil) was unhealthful, due to the saturated fat content. However, these days the effects of various fats in the diet, and how much fat a person should consume, are much more controversial in medical circles. “All things in moderation” is my best advice. That doesn’t do anything about the forced labor, deforestation, and pollution issues, of course.
Man, I wish more people would stop thinking there is ANY miracle diet that is perfect and just accept "All things in moderation". Not necessarily ALL things, but the idea that everything has beneficial and detrimental effects depending on how much of it you eat, and our bodies are absolutely incredible at making due with what it gets to the point where as long as you provide it with a bit of everything and don't overdo anything it's going to usually be decent. People are so laser focused on there being "a right answer", some sort of Theory of Diet that can mathematically determine the perfect things for you to eat, they can't accept that there is a lot of nuance and a lot of it depends on the specific person and there is essentially nothing that is universally bad or good. Heck, even the concept of "healthy" as in "X food is healthy" is problematic. Thinking in terms of healthy or unhealthy is...well, unhealthy. Sorry for the digression rant.
The funny thing is that the tropical oils are traditionally consumed in amounts comparable to non-traditional oils in processed diets but the non-traditional oils were not consumed by anybody in these amounts before the end of the 19th century. As if anybody was grinding down enough rapeseeds with a mortar and pestle to use as cooking oil. Whereas olive, coconut and red palm oils were harvested for human consumption for thousands of years. Nobody ever consumed the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids you get from non-traditional vegetable oils (except people who eat cold-water fish and mammals), dietary fat sources which are consumed for thousands of years usually have saturated fatty acid profile or the unsaturated component is majority monounsaturated.
Thank you so much for talking about this subject! I have seen this red palm oil and I didn't know how to feel about it! I'm so happy to know that it's safe to consume it. I'm also happy to better understand what's behind all this. Thank you very much for this video! 😄
I personally despise the palm oil industry. I live in a city that's surrounded by palm oil plantations and every few years or so large tracts of land always happen to "accidentally" catch on fire at the same time. The air quality becomes so bad that you can't see more than 100m in front of you. These plantation owners have friends in high places and they never face any consequences
@@andersjjensen Burning down the natural forests to create clear fertile land (the ashes are surprisingly fertilising) for plantations . Done in many countries both illegally and legally. Often done to make way for pastures. It's sad because it's really easy to blame 'natural causes' and then you can say 'oh but we have this open fertile land! We might as well use it for farming ;)'
@Bro15263 Ah, that makes sense. 20 years is a pretty short cycle compared to many other types of trees. Walnut takes 15-20 years just to reach maturity, and they peak produce between 60 and 80 years old. Olive trees can still be in peak production after several hundred years.
Red palm oil is a main ingredient in Brazilian food culture. It is called "dendé". It is often used with cassava flour. It adds some specific kind of umami to the dishes.
Specially important here in Bahia, as many dishes like moqueca, vatapá, caruru and acarajé, all African in origin, require dendê. But we also have local, responsible production.
Hello. Thank you for your video. I am Ghanaian; palm oil is staple…along with almost every aspect of the palm tree. The spine of the leaves are used for local brooms, the dried fruit fiber for lighting open fires and palm wine…fresh or fermented is very popular. I didn’t know about palm oil ‘controversies’ till today. About your use of the red palm, (we just call it palm oil in Ghana) I know you admitted you used your own style, but I think it left a tad negative impression on your pallets because of how you prepared the meals. I recommend getting a Ghanaian or Nigerian to make palm nut soup then trying that. There are ways we prepare palm based foods to take away the raw taste of the palm …that which you described as ‘fruity…avocado…’. The stew would have tasted much different if the nkulenu (palm cream) had cooked for much longer(don’t follow the instructions on the can😅). Typically, the base is steamed animal protein with just spices and a bit of water before the diluted palm pulp is poured on. In your case, Palm cooked separately and when oil starts to surface, put in the blended cooked tomatoes and onions…it would make a big difference. Same for the fufu… it should have cooked much longer and at some point added some water, let it simmer while covered. The final look should be almost glossy when you get it into a bowl. So I think you need to give this a 2nd chance after some indigenous coaching😊 then do an update video. Otherwise, Well done, great content.
This is an incredibly nuanced take, thanks. I recently got to taste the peach palm fruit, not nearly as oily but definitely had fat. It was filling, nutritious, and an important part of the indigenous diet in Colombia. I found it delightful. I'm sure the oil palm has similar virtues - the problem is exploitation of natural resources, not the resources themselves.
I can buy red palm oil in Belgium with easy thanks to a large immigrant population from Africa. It’s actually pretty tasty and improves a lot of dishes like Thai curries. The mouthfeel is so much better than regular vegetable oil due to its high content of saturated fat.
Hearing about Belgians appreciating the culture of African immigrants 🥰 Remembering that the connection between Belgium and West Africa started with King Leopold's unfathomably brutal colonial domination of the Congo 💀
Yes thanks for that. I have floted the idea of growing oil plam in Fiji but didn't get far with it because it has such a bad public image. But as you say there is nothing inherently wrong with the oil plam and it is highly productive so in terms local food security it seems like a good thing to have around . Maybe just not in huge mono crop plantations
brings back memories. You need to try the egusi soup. It's brilliant. And planteen baked in red oil is also very good.Also fufu with just some red oil with salt and hot pepper in it.
Red palm oil has been used in Brazilian cuisine for centuries… and it’s great. We love it and we produce our own oil locally!!! If you talk about palm oil sustainability problems here in Brazil, people will think you’re going crazy hahahaha by the way, try MOQUECA, VATAPÁ and BOBÓ DE CAMARÃO, three delicious examples of Brazilian food made with red palm oil.
Guns, knives, nuclear energy, opium poppy, and oil Palm(amongst many others) are not evil. Without the irresponsibility of evil, greedy humans they cause no harm on thier own, so no point in blaming a plant.
The total harm caused by negligence with nuclear energy, every nuclear accident, is less than the harm caused by regular use of coal. Every coal plant litters the area around it with heavy metals and soot, whereas only the very very worst nuclear plants do harm
10:01 it's worth keeping in mind that this is also a very reasonable reaction to taking a shot of olive oil I've never heard you mention mushrooms before this video (to be fair I've probably seen like 10% of your huge catalog). I'm sure you've gotten this before so sorry if it's annoying, but like, what mushrooms have you tried? I went the first 27 years of my life thinking I hated all mushrooms except truffles and that they were disgusting because first of all I wasn't told truffles were mushrooms (and technically they aren't, though they are a fungus) before I tried them in something the first time, and second because the list of mushroom "species" I had tried were as follows: -White button -Cremini -Portobello This is a problem because while these are misleadingly sold as different types of mushroom (often to sell white buttons too ugly to be sold as white buttons as "gourmet" creminis or "pizza mushrooms"), these are all the same mushroom, and they are in fact disgusting and horrible. I still cannot stand these mushrooms. But a little after I turned 27 I was on a kick of trying foods I had hated since I was a kid to see if I'd come around to them (things like shrimp (still hate it), lobster (still tastes like crab that has gone bad; I've always liked crab though), mayonnaise (I like hollandaise and aioli but these are not technically mayonnaise; to be mayonnaise something has to be basically a bad hollandaise sauce and by that standard I still hate it), and of course mushrooms. So I picked up some bags of mixed mushrooms from a local grocers' coop, and discovered I actually liked _almost all mushrooms._ There were a few I didn't care for (the lion's mane I had might not have been top-quality or maybe I cooked it wrong, because it tasted like very little and had an unpleasantly rubbery texture) but most of them were pretty good and shiitake became one of my favourite ingredients overnight- I put it in most savory dishes I cook now, whether as a broth, minced in a sauce, as whole caps or in big fried slices. Of course, part of the appeal of shiitake is that it tastes like a meat but not exactly like any "actual" meat (fresh shiitake is closest to high-quality rare beef imo), so I could see the appeal of my favourite mushroom in particular being lost on a vegan, but still- The variety in mushrooms is immense, so I have to wonder when I hear someone else say they dislike mushrooms now whether they really dislike mushrooms, or only certain common mushrooms they've had occasion to try.
There are a lot of cool mushrooms out there, I didn’t like mushrooms until I went to China and tried all the crazy mushrooms in Yunnan China. I was in Kunming for a month and there were 100s of mushrooms that I had never heard of. When I came home none of those other genetics were available locally so I thought I would grow them, but I failed at it. Now I forage some while in season like Morels but chanterelle that are free if you find them or $100usd a kg bought. Morels and chanterelle are top, though some chanterelles can be excellent and others just ok to bad. Giant puffball can be great when still white inside. In cultivation there are only 15 to 30 so species under cultivation with half being types of oyster mushrooms like tropical pink complex, tuberosa(African species with huge sclerenchyma- tuber like that that is harvested and eaten, also crazy mushroom fruiting body with straight stock. Almond amanita is supposed to taste like almonds but I haven’t tried it. There are lots of crazy types of mushrooms out there that are edible but rarely foraged.
What an intelligent look at palm oil. I cant believe the out of control use of this oil since the 1960's. I also do not buy any products with palm oil, but never knew about red palm oil! Great video to expose the good and the bad. !!!!! Thk you.
Near my parents home in Jakarta, the housing megacomplex they live in has these ornamental oil palms they planted all along the road. Sometimes when it's harvesting season they'll load the fruits up in trucks and sell them to a local oil factory. Funny side business for a billion dollar housing magnate lol.
I haven't watched yet, but I'm already excited. There's a palm oil refinery possibly opening in my state, but they're importing their oil. If we diversify pur palm oil sources, it could be a major environmental boon! The problem seems to be how we harvest it from a small pool of very delicate sources
On a personal note, it's a real shame that the refinery here doesn't seem to be making plans to diversify sources. I feel like LSU's agricultural program or the state agriculture board could conceivably allot land for planting
I've had red palm oil and I would describe the flavor as somewhat dank. I know it's kind of a silly and cliche description but I do actually think it applies here. It's earthy, the *slightest* bit fruity, and dank. I'm not actually a fan myself, but I can totally understand why people like its flavor.
I wish they sell those palm pulp stuff here since this place is already one of the leading producers of palm oil. However you look at it though, any other oil crop would be way more devastating for the environment if produced in the traditional cash crop system. Soy production is far more devastating to the Amazon rainforest, for example. Also, European colonialism had its role too, as all the oil palm plantations companies started out as European ventures where they planted rubber plantations. One of them that you featured, Sime Darby, was the target of the infamous Dawn Raid where Malaysian traders bought majority shares of the company in the wee hours of the stock exchange opening, eventually putting the company under local control.
Judging from my own (mis)adventures with dangerous amounts of coconut fat, you can absolutely add a bunch of certain oils or oil-bearing pulp without things getting "greasy". It just depends what other bulk material (starches, etc.) is in the food and what exact mixture of fat molecules you're dealing with.
Palm oil was brought to Brazil by african slaves and today is an integral part of BAHIA cuisine. they use the red oil for a fried pastry called acaraje, wich is made with mashed white beans. after the fry it they fill it with tomato okra paste and shrimp. its delicious.
I always assumed the fruit would actually be really sweet, considering how sweet dates are, to the point where date syrup is often used as a replacement for honey.
Usually the more oil a fruit produces the less sugar it produces and vice versa. Date when ripe have so much sugar they can actually start to crystalize and have 0 fat content. Oil palm has a very high fat content so it's safe to assume they have little to no sugar content.
Two dishes with red palm oil, where the palm oil is the subtle basis of the flavor, from two different continents: Moqueca de Peixe Baiana from Brazil, and stewed lamb in palm oil with fufu from Ghana. Red palm oil has such an amazing, distinct flavor.
Jared what’s your potato pancake recipe? Those look wonderful! Also super good video. Been watching your content for a month and discovered 2 fruits growing in my Berkeley neighborhood since then, fejoa and tomarillo.
Growing up my mum never let me have anything with palm oil in it, we'd always have to check the back of the product for the ingredients, even now tho where I have my own job and money I still find myself trying to avoid it, as much as it pains me to read those tiny little letters lmao
Hey man! A dish very popular in Brazil that uses palm oil in its cooking process is called Acarajé, it's made from beans. Pretty good, you should try it sometime :)
lordy I want to try red palm oil, I like to cook with it, have done so for while, alas there is no West African supermarket near me in rural mid wales, hard to get hold of, I suppose somewhere online has it
Wow! Thank you so much for this great content! I always learn something new. As an old man, cooking for just myself is sometimes too much trouble but I have grandkids that fortunately visit me often. I always really enjoy cook them something new and exciting for dinner and breakfast, and we always have a great time. I appreciate everything you do and I wish you the very best of health and happiness to you and your families! Thanks again!
What I don't get is why they don't grow more oil palm in West Africa. The native rainforest there has already been devastated for various crops, many of them nonnative cash crops like cacao. Why not grow something native? Growing oil palm in Indonesia and cacao in West Africa instead of their native regions is absurd to me. It seems like a lot of crops have this problem tbh, pineapples in Hawaii, sugarcane in Fiji, vanilla in Madagascar, somehow all these crops ended up outside of their native regions. At least when grown in their home setting they can provide something to the habitat. Brazil nuts actually mostly come from the Amazon rainforest, collected straight from the wild (due to serious pollination issues in a cultivated setting and the fact that they're fairly common as the primary emergent tree of the Amazon basin) and only pose some minor issues with recruitment (since so many seeds are collected) and gives the rainforest economic benefit. I imagine that large oil palm plantations in West Africa, if done right with a little bit of permaculture, could even add to the local biodiversity if they're replacing exotic crops.
There are some big palm oil plantations in west Africa with similar problems. www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/03/liberia-palm-oil-miracle-farmers-empty-promises
Great description of the flavor and aroma (as always) i got a very nice idea of it, i excepted to hear about the health issues i always heard of Palm oil but i t seems it was a myth against the "cheap industrial ingredientes" like always was. I get why it it's cheaper though
Really interesting video. I do like the little cooking sections you sometimes do. How are there still clips from Vanuatu! It must have been a jam packed trip!
i've seen 5+ brands of red palm oil in an african store nearby, i sometimes stop by for spices, incense, and the real deal boullion cubes now i definately have to try it! suggestions on which kinds of dishes, and what ingrediets it's typically paired with, would be much appreciated. is sure gave those tater fritters a lovely color!
This is grown in Guyana. Next to Venezuela. There are trees all over Trinidad but we don’t use it. Conventional western culture would have us believe that it is a bad oil. I have discovered that like anatto it’s a good source of vitamin E tocotrinol ( spelling incorrect).
Gonna be on the lookout for red palm oil next time I go shopping. Definitely not something I've ever seen in regular Danish supermarkets though. But yeah, I try to avoid regular palm oil as well, because of the deforestation and loss of biodiversity it leads to. But just so much stuff that uses it that it's hard to avoid. That's why I mostly make all of my own food now, at least that way I can control the ingredients - except, I can't know for sure if my curry and garam masala is ethically made..
Just do sustainable sourcing,/buying that's all, when you can (controlled) organic or similar cultivating methods, choose these also or even especially in supermarket products, best go for small farmers/producers, ideally or whenever you can buy directly. Never understood why it's a problem, but because of this. Don't make it a problem, becaus its all of us making things - it always takes some to make something. That's all. Love
I watched "The Woman King" recently and it includes scenes of the oil palm plantations and processing; although I'm not actually certain what part of Africa it was set in. It was very interesting to hear nuance on a topic I've thought to look into further
It is set in the kingdom of Dahomey, (modern day Benin). I remember that movie being a bit controversial since Dahomey's economy was like 95% based around selling slaves and like 5% palm oil production.
As a Nigerian, where will our local cuisine be without palm oil.... Palm oil os great and that os what we all grew up eating in our diets and cuisines...
I’m Nigerian and we use palm oil in many of our dishes. It’s grown locally but not in the fashion seen in countries where it’s mass produced.
Our cuisine would not be the same without it. I’ve had to explain many times to others in the west that its use in our food and culture shouldn’t be scrutinized in the same way. Honestly it can be exhausting.
Thank you for shining light on the subject.
P.S, when you use red palm oil in a stew, put it on really high heat first before adding other ingredients. And open a window or turn on an exhaust fan because your smoke alarm might be set off.
thanks for the tip!
do you have to wait untill it stops smoking, or throw in ingredients to cool it down, when it just starts? and what to put in first, meat, spices, or aromatics and onions? i'm really curious about trying red palm oil in my already eclectic cooking, but i dont knoe how to use it yet.
Exactly! Oil palm is not from Malaysia or Indonesia, it's indigenous to West Africa. Oil palm was taken from Nigeria to those places by the Dutch to be a cash crop. Oil palm still grows wild in Nigeria/West Africa and is used by many West Africans as part of our cultures as it has been for thousands of years. The problems of the oil palm plantations are separate and will manifest anywhere plantations are planted, because it's an exploitative system. So blame the system that makes it profitable to destroy the environment to grow monocultures, not the plant itself, and stop supporting exploitative plantation palm oil. It can be grown differently
@@meerali5050 Hit the nail on the head. Even the our cousins from brazil can attest to this fact. Plus its been a staple diet(i mean ritual procession) for african gods, even all the way to egypt. i dont know of any indo/asian sacrifices that uses palmoil but since they grow it, i guess our contribution to society has been distorted.
I suppose your oil is also not refine .
C est aussi un probleme politique en Europe .
En Inde ,une consommation enorme quasi impossible de ne pas en consommer ...je cuisine tout depuis la base a La maison avec huile de coco locale ,donc jamais de petit plaisir a s offrir un repas au restaurant ...je ne mentionne pas l effet sur les corps des jeunes personnes ....😢
It's so great that there are content makers like you and Adam Ragusea who can get into the nuance and challenges of palm oil. Internet isn't that great with nuance but there are those like you who do a phenomenal job and you were still able to give your own twist to the conversation. The ecological disaster is bad for nature and for people so I do hope were figure this out ASAP.
I'm from the state of Bahia, in Brazil, and red palm oil is essential to our cuisine. I can not imagine our regional dishes witout it (like Acarajé, Abará, Moqueca, etc.). Since we are the state with most balck people outside of Africa, I guess that explains a lot why this ingredient has so many uses here.
Living in Ghana i can say, that Red Oil as you showed in your video really is an important cooking ingredient here. Also for "Palmnut Soup" for example you typically buy the palm fruit and grind it at home to break down the pulp.
Also Palm Oil just is the most Sustainable and productive per ground local source of fat in tropical climates especially sub saharan West Africa.
The issue: even here where it is grown localy the demand is higher than production now adays leading to imports from South East Asia that sadly can well compete in price with the local product.
Little Fun Fact, we sometimes feed the raw Redoil like you chugged to animals to make them throw up, if they swallowed something they we're not supposed to or If they fell sick for example.
I'm from Malaysia. The problem with palm oil is that the whole world consumed it but you expect literally 2 countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) to shoulder the consumption. The two countries can't do much when there are hundreds of international companies pressuring them to not reduce production. Don't boycott it. Encourage more countries to plant it. Maybe then Malaysia and Indonesia can relax a bit. The whole of south east asia can grow it, africa can grow it, hell even some part of China can grow it, then why settle for just Malaysia and Indonesia when the consumption and demand are that HUGE? But of course EU would rather pick an agenda that suit their own vegetable oil rather than that. There is a clear advantage to palm oil. Replacing it is an idiotic move. Boycotting and not encouraging other countries to plant it is what cause the problem in the first place. You don't see the same problem with rubber tree cause more than two countries major in it. The international politic stuff we can do without, it's just complicate things.
I don't think anyone is "expecting" anything. Other countries are free to plant it - no one is stopping them. But plenty of countries can't. I'm from the US: we don't grow it here because the weather is wrong for it.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons (some bad - like cheap labor - and some good - like excellent weather) it's most profitable to produce palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. It makes no sense for other countries to try to produce large quantities for export when the retail price of Indonesian/Malaysian palm oil is much lower.
For real, Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet with some beautiful areas and really should be left alone. Some other countries are planting oil palm, mainly in central America, with equally disastrous effects. Really, we need to seek out the lowest biodiversity, least valuable areas of tropical land to plant this.
Oil palm is a fantastic plant that has been seriously misused
Good to hear your thoughts from someone from Malaysia. Would you say the Malaysian government has a responsibility as well? They are doing deals with the large corporations
Also, just growing more somewhere else doesn’t ensure that it will be grown sustainably. Could just lead to more forced labour and natural degradation
Boycott just sends the best message to them and if you want to eat them buy locally
Thank you so much for this video. I have been defending the oil palm for years now and its horrible reputation. The plant itself is so overwhelmingly productive it's ridiculous that people demand other vegetable oils. If we are to keep pace with current consumption, the oil palm is the obvious choice. It's just that demand for oils has shot up so much in the recent decades that the sustainable agricultural processes can't keep up. Sadly, partly because the oil palm is so productive, the economic incentives are too much for people to care about the long term environmental and social damages. It's such a shame that a wonderful palm, with so much going for it, will be the face of such wanted destruction of our planet's natural beauty.
Poverty and capitalism breeds greed and ecosystem destruction 😢 as you said, it’s not the fruit that’s the problem, it’s the context
The problem it's the oil demand, not a healthy food, as any refined oil, on top of that saturated and omega 6 fats. Only potentially sustainable system would be something similar to masarang sugar palm system, but that's not profitable, so, such a conondrum
What about rapeseed I heard it good oil source and animal food
@@Dewe196 rapeseed is a good oil producer as well, hence why it was a major crop for such a long time, with canola especially being a game changer in the 70's. Yet, oil yields are only a third to half that of the oil palm. And it requires more intensive harvesting measures (but can be done with industrial equipment). The oil palm can easily be productive for 30+ years if it's not destroyed during errant harvesting/disease.
@@Dewe196 At 5:29 rape in on the diagramm third from below.
It's only ~20% as space efficient as oil palm.
I'm actually interning with a woman who's assisting in research to develop a sunflower that produces seeds that are high in saturated fat, with the goal of being a more sustainable alternative to palm oil.
What we need is less oil consumption, not healthy anyway. More useful would be high, rancidity resistant omega 3, IP free, open pollinated sunflower
I mean but the thing is nothing will ever beat the raw yield of palm oil. Its by far the most productive oil crop. People are going to grow things in the tropics no matter what, and its better to use comparative advantage and grow high yielding oil palm as opposed to grains or something which would be better suited for temperate climates. The biggest issues are a lack of access to fertilizers (hence the constant need to burn rainforest), poor farming practices which lead to low biodiversity and lots of herbicide use, and high global consumption driven by a vast array of products that use plant based oils and our exploding population which puts too much pressure on the planet.
The oil palm is fine, great actually, you really couldn't ask for a better plant. Its the way we use it that's the problem.
@@StuffandThings_ "you really couldn't ask for a better plant"
I dunno, it kind of looks like a lot of plant per fruit, to me; with rather small, somewhat tough fruits that require high amounts of processing to extract. Even if it's constantly fruiting, it feels like oil palms right now are where tomatoes were before we began applying scientific cultivation methods to them: good eating, but _inefficient_ as an input to mass-production of various blended and distilled extracts.
For flavor, the "heirloom" oil palm would continue to be preferable, so there's not much we need to do to the oil palm for those seeking that flavor. But for just raw output per hectare of flavorless vegetable oil, we could definitely aim toward a more "beefsteak tomato" kind of oil palm cultivar. Something smaller in size, less spiky, requiring less fertilizer, producing less fibrous fruit, larger fruit, easier to machine-harvest without tearing down and threshing the tree. Less a palm _tree_ , more a palm _bush_ .
Is anyone working on that? Or is forest land in Malaysia and Indonesia still considered "cheap" enough by those governments, that there's no pressure to get high-CapEx scientific investment involved to further optimize for yield (not just per hectare, but also per man-hour and per watt!) yet?
@@sentropez1337 From what I know, the Austronesian peoples managed to breed much smaller coconut trees (closer to coconut bush, like you described). Additionally, being a tree is actually really promising for trying some sort of permaculture, establishing multiple layers of oil producing crops (there are some canopy/emergent trees that produce oily seeds, as well as many, many herbaceous plants). I definitely agree that there is a colossal amount of untapped potential for breeding or genetically engineering better varieties though. The fact that even just the generic version of oil palm is so popular and successful says a lot.
There's probably an ungodly amount of money to be made by making even marginal improvements to the oil palm or to oil palm cultivation methods, right now the incentive seems to still be to burn more rainforest but my bet is that something will happen soon.
@@danielpicassomunoz2752 Healthy Omega- 3 oils are Monounsaturated which also means that it will oxidize (turn rancid). Polyunsaturated oils are what the hybridized plants company select because these dont spoil as readily, can ship but lacks the desired specific benefit of the monounsaturated fats. Saturated fats solidify and once again lacks the monounsaturated.
The savory tomato-like flavor you mention is likely from the lycopene, which also gives it its red color. I have heard similar descriptions from other fruits high in lycopene.
I thought that was going to be beta carotene.
The insane amount of carotenoids in red palm oil is why some people in west Africa have such a vibrant reddish skin color... It is also the reason why people with light skin should avoid consuming it regularly, else they would develop a yellow/orange skin tone in no time and it takes half a year to disappear after you stop consuming it.
it's good for the eyes.
High effort video!! I had no idea how efficient palm oil production was compared to other oils. If only it could be produced by more responsible companies. Seems like the answer is that the world needs to use less vegetable oil in general. That is probably not going to happen though. Producing it efficiently with much stricter regulations on those companies is probably the real world solution.
it aint the oil production companie's fault...it is the fault of all the merchandise companies and consumers that demand the production!! of course, the palm plantation companies would gladly accept the business...but at the lost of the home of the tigers!
for sure. tightening regulations and actually keeping companies to them would most likely help.
Once again, Jared hitting it out of the park, proving time and time again that he is by far the most underrated RUclipsr.
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Terrible, but I’ve never even heard of fufu before. About to look it up. Thanks!
Its saturated fat content is one of the reasons it's so popular because that makes it more solid at room temperature which makes it useful for stuff like Nutella, some baked goods and many cosmetics.
Saturated fat is also, against popular opinion, healthier for you.
Polyunsaturated fats aren't inherently bad and can have benefits, but your body is prone to store them. They oxidize easily, so when stored can increase inflammation as they oxidize.
There's also a complex relationship with stored body fat composition as one of the signals for metabolic rates in mammals, but that's way to complex for a RUclips comment.
I highly recommend following Brad Marshals explaining the "emergence diet" mimicking triggers mammals use when coming out of hibernation. Seems a bit odd, but he backs it up with science.
He also goes into detail how low fat starch based is better than high fat diets, but explains how each work for weight loss, as well as other metabolic signals to push, and those tomavoid for a healthy metabolism.
If you like science, definitely good reads or listening. Even being knowledgeable, I have to listen a few times.
His blog is _"fire in a bottle"_ or find videos on RUclips.
Just inaccurate, and goes against the little knowledge we do have in nutrition. Cherry-picking science papers and following social media gurus that advocate for this is at best negligent, and at worst malicious (if you sell health products based on this).
Hate seeing this stuff repeated online. People who like science shouldn't follow hot-shot innovator gurus that come up with another "cool-name-diet" in name of paleo/bears/ancestral spirits.
Go and read mainstream science, start following doctors and nutritionists and learn how to read science papers on your own. That way you might not fall into the rabbit whole of coming with some ridiculous idea and then "backing it up with science" with single small research that you took out of context.
Saturated fats aren't better for health, they have their uses, but stop spreading misinformation.
@@Unsensitive Where would humans find an abundance of non-toxic starches in nature? Nowhere. See that tells me that guy you mentioned that recommended that doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just another NWO shill begging in pleading that you put yourself in a state of extreme disease by stuffing yourself with sugar. Lots of these types are absolutely TERRIFIED of people waking up and healing themselves by eating their natural diet.
@@Unsensitive The body of scientific literature overwhelmingly suggests that consuming less saturated fat has better health outcomes. Doesn't mean you only consume PUFAs but saturated fatty acids are clearly over-represented in most people's diet.
@@Unsensitive Please don't tell me this "Brad Marshall" is some social media figure or that he is selling anything
This is a complicatee subject to tackle. The palm oil plant is an incredible plant, but the way production is being approached is abysmal. That being said, the productivity of the plant itself makes it nearly impossible to replace without creating further definite environmental issues, and possibly more social and economic issues than palm oil carries..
I am happy you discussed red palm oil as well. There is a Ghanaian okra stew that uses red palm oil and there is something about it that is just amazing, at least for me. Perhaps it's simply that okra is one of my favorite foods. 😅
Very reasonable and nuanced view on palm.
I also like to focus on it being one of the healthiest "vegetable" oils.
The only real downsides have zero to do with the plant, but all to do with human actions, which could easily get worse if you tried to replace it.
Going to look up this recipe and give it try , love okra!
Amazing take on a hard subject! Thank you so much!
thank you!
The problem with replacing pals oil with other vegetable oil is that it takes a lot more acreage to produce the same amount due to how productive the plant it at producing oil. You be saving one acre of forest while clearing several time more for soy.
The oil palm yield is 8 to 9 times more than peanut, soybean, sunflower, etc. You are free to cut down 9 times more jungle size like Brazilians did in cultivating soybeans to produce the same amount of vegetable oil.
All that's needed is a shift to permaculture so that large palm monoculture doesn't destroy nature
@@biodiversityfanatic2454 Malaysia has 60% forest reserve policy unlike western world with less than 30%.
On paper only.
@@Davyjones5454 no scientists prove otherwise except idiot in internet
The main problem is it outcompetes european products like rapeseed.
Thanks for this video, as I was genuinely curious about the fruit. To the credit of the fruit, the reason why it's the center of so many problems is because it's attributes are highly desired for the needs of an industrial scale food supply. The lipid profile on it isn't particularly healthy, but one could say that about most seed oils.
I've always loved your uploads, this one was definitely very interesting, never even considered what "palm oil" even was, or have ever really heard about it
Thank you!
Enjoyed the cooking section of the video. Also learned a lot about palm oil.
Glad you enjoyed it!
In Norway we mostly stoped using palm oil in food a few years ago. You still see palm oil in some foods, but I think that's mostly food that's prduced in other countrys.
good for you now quit bothering us with export restrictions on palm oil.
Tidak ada minyak sawit kamu tidak boleh memakan coklat, aiskrim,makanan ringan keropok dan barang2 make up dgn sempurna,tidak ada minyak sawit kamu tidak boleh jual empat benda ini ke seluruh dunia,minyak sawit tahan panas boleh hindari kanser,selain minyak sawit apabila di goreng seperti minyak sayuran,minyak soya dan lain2 minyak ini tidak tahan panas dan tidak elok untuk di buat gorengan,apabila minyak tidak tahan panas di buat gorengan sebab itu mengakibatkan kenser,negara2 barat memburukkan minyak sawit untuk menyekat ia berkembang di mata dunia,tetapi negara2 barat adalah munafik sebab mereka hendak menjual aiskrim,coklat,makan ringan iaitu keropok dan bahan kosmetik mereka menggunakan minyak sawit,kalau tidak ada minyak sawit barang2 ini tidak boleh di jual ia akan jadi tidak berkualiti dan cepat cair,wahai warga2 Eropah buka minda kamu itu jangan di perbodohkan oleh para politik2 barat yang hendak merosakkan kamu,kalau kamu kata kerana alam sekitar iaitu hutan sebab itu kamu memboikot minyak sawit,kalau macam itu kamu harus memboikot getah sebab banyak hutan2 musnah oleh kerana hendak menanam pokok getah,kamu sepatutnya memboikot getah seperti kamu memboikot minyak sawit,aku cuba sampaikan semoga kamu warga barat membuka minda kamu itu.
Palm oil so good tasty food,,so yummy
Roughly four decades ago, we were told that eating palm oil (and other “tropical oils,” e.g. coconut oil) was unhealthful, due to the saturated fat content. However, these days the effects of various fats in the diet, and how much fat a person should consume, are much more controversial in medical circles. “All things in moderation” is my best advice.
That doesn’t do anything about the forced labor, deforestation, and pollution issues, of course.
Man, I wish more people would stop thinking there is ANY miracle diet that is perfect and just accept "All things in moderation". Not necessarily ALL things, but the idea that everything has beneficial and detrimental effects depending on how much of it you eat, and our bodies are absolutely incredible at making due with what it gets to the point where as long as you provide it with a bit of everything and don't overdo anything it's going to usually be decent. People are so laser focused on there being "a right answer", some sort of Theory of Diet that can mathematically determine the perfect things for you to eat, they can't accept that there is a lot of nuance and a lot of it depends on the specific person and there is essentially nothing that is universally bad or good.
Heck, even the concept of "healthy" as in "X food is healthy" is problematic. Thinking in terms of healthy or unhealthy is...well, unhealthy.
Sorry for the digression rant.
The funny thing is that the tropical oils are traditionally consumed in amounts comparable to non-traditional oils in processed diets but the non-traditional oils were not consumed by anybody in these amounts before the end of the 19th century. As if anybody was grinding down enough rapeseeds with a mortar and pestle to use as cooking oil. Whereas olive, coconut and red palm oils were harvested for human consumption for thousands of years. Nobody ever consumed the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids you get from non-traditional vegetable oils (except people who eat cold-water fish and mammals), dietary fat sources which are consumed for thousands of years usually have saturated fatty acid profile or the unsaturated component is majority monounsaturated.
Here in Brazil the crude palm oil is used alot in traditional Afro-Brazilian cuisine, its called Azeite-de-Dende here
The oil palm is completely uncontroversial in West Africa. It has been used for ever there. Palm oil is great! The West have given it a bad name.
dude this video was so expertly handled im my opinion, great stuff!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for talking about this subject! I have seen this red palm oil and I didn't know how to feel about it! I'm so happy to know that it's safe to consume it.
I'm also happy to better understand what's behind all this. Thank you very much for this video! 😄
Great video! Thank you for the information.
You bet!
The fruit you can boil it until soft.. them eat with brow/ palm sugar
I personally despise the palm oil industry. I live in a city that's surrounded by palm oil plantations and every few years or so large tracts of land always happen to "accidentally" catch on fire at the same time. The air quality becomes so bad that you can't see more than 100m in front of you. These plantation owners have friends in high places and they never face any consequences
What's the benefit for them to burn them down? I thought the palms took a long time to give a good yield?
@@andersjjensen Burning down the natural forests to create clear fertile land (the ashes are surprisingly fertilising) for plantations . Done in many countries both illegally and legally. Often done to make way for pastures. It's sad because it's really easy to blame 'natural causes' and then you can say 'oh but we have this open fertile land! We might as well use it for farming ;)'
Do you live in Indonesia?
@Bro15263 Ah, that makes sense. 20 years is a pretty short cycle compared to many other types of trees. Walnut takes 15-20 years just to reach maturity, and they peak produce between 60 and 80 years old. Olive trees can still be in peak production after several hundred years.
Not in Africa And BRASIL
Red palm oil is a main ingredient in Brazilian food culture. It is called "dendé". It is often used with cassava flour. It adds some specific kind of umami to the dishes.
Specially important here in Bahia, as many dishes like moqueca, vatapá, caruru and acarajé, all African in origin, require dendê. But we also have local, responsible production.
@@afterSt0rm E essa comida traditicional esta muita sabrosa tambem.
That's because Brazilians are West Africans
Egg fruit, avocado, and a stick. MMMM...tasty.
Hello. Thank you for your video. I am Ghanaian; palm oil is staple…along with almost every aspect of the palm tree. The spine of the leaves are used for local brooms, the dried fruit fiber for lighting open fires and palm wine…fresh or fermented is very popular. I didn’t know about palm oil ‘controversies’ till today. About your use of the red palm, (we just call it palm oil in Ghana) I know you admitted you used your own style, but I think it left a tad negative impression on your pallets because of how you prepared the meals. I recommend getting a Ghanaian or Nigerian to make palm nut soup then trying that. There are ways we prepare palm based foods to take away the raw taste of the palm …that which you described as ‘fruity…avocado…’. The stew would have tasted much different if the nkulenu (palm cream) had cooked for much longer(don’t follow the instructions on the can😅). Typically, the base is steamed animal protein with just spices and a bit of water before the diluted palm pulp is poured on. In your case, Palm cooked separately and when oil starts to surface, put in the blended cooked tomatoes and onions…it would make a big difference. Same for the fufu… it should have cooked much longer and at some point added some water, let it simmer while covered. The final look should be almost glossy when you get it into a bowl. So I think you need to give this a 2nd chance after some indigenous coaching😊 then do an update video. Otherwise, Well done, great content.
I love your channel and i love the fact that you are still posting after all these years
very informative, thanks Jared
You bet!
This is an incredibly nuanced take, thanks. I recently got to taste the peach palm fruit, not nearly as oily but definitely had fat. It was filling, nutritious, and an important part of the indigenous diet in Colombia. I found it delightful. I'm sure the oil palm has similar virtues - the problem is exploitation of natural resources, not the resources themselves.
I can buy red palm oil in Belgium with easy thanks to a large immigrant population from Africa. It’s actually pretty tasty and improves a lot of dishes like Thai curries. The mouthfeel is so much better than regular vegetable oil due to its high content of saturated fat.
Hearing about Belgians appreciating the culture of African immigrants 🥰 Remembering that the connection between Belgium and West Africa started with King Leopold's unfathomably brutal colonial domination of the Congo 💀
Your stats are fantastic by the way dude. Thank you for this.
Glad you enjoyed!
Wow, great video!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, this was super interesting. Thank you
great video, very informative. love your vids!
Yes thanks for that. I have floted the idea of growing oil plam in Fiji but didn't get far with it because it has such a bad public image.
But as you say there is nothing inherently wrong with the oil plam and it is highly productive so in terms local food security it seems like a good thing to have around .
Maybe just not in huge mono crop plantations
brings back memories. You need to try the egusi soup. It's brilliant. And planteen baked in red oil is also very good.Also fufu with just some red oil with salt and hot pepper in it.
Red palm oil has been used in Brazilian cuisine for centuries… and it’s great. We love it and we produce our own oil locally!!! If you talk about palm oil sustainability problems here in Brazil, people will think you’re going crazy hahahaha by the way, try MOQUECA, VATAPÁ and BOBÓ DE CAMARÃO, three delicious examples of Brazilian food made with red palm oil.
It's red palm oil. It is a sustainable breed where it produces better amount with lesser space. Just the process makes it costly.
Guns, knives, nuclear energy, opium poppy, and oil Palm(amongst many others) are not evil. Without the irresponsibility of evil, greedy humans they cause no harm on thier own, so no point in blaming a plant.
Id argue nuclear energy is not evil at all. Nuclear weapons are a different beast.
The total harm caused by negligence with nuclear energy, every nuclear accident, is less than the harm caused by regular use of coal. Every coal plant litters the area around it with heavy metals and soot, whereas only the very very worst nuclear plants do harm
It's easier to blame the plant
10:01 it's worth keeping in mind that this is also a very reasonable reaction to taking a shot of olive oil
I've never heard you mention mushrooms before this video (to be fair I've probably seen like 10% of your huge catalog). I'm sure you've gotten this before so sorry if it's annoying, but like, what mushrooms have you tried? I went the first 27 years of my life thinking I hated all mushrooms except truffles and that they were disgusting because first of all I wasn't told truffles were mushrooms (and technically they aren't, though they are a fungus) before I tried them in something the first time, and second because the list of mushroom "species" I had tried were as follows:
-White button
-Cremini
-Portobello
This is a problem because while these are misleadingly sold as different types of mushroom (often to sell white buttons too ugly to be sold as white buttons as "gourmet" creminis or "pizza mushrooms"), these are all the same mushroom, and they are in fact disgusting and horrible. I still cannot stand these mushrooms. But a little after I turned 27 I was on a kick of trying foods I had hated since I was a kid to see if I'd come around to them (things like shrimp (still hate it), lobster (still tastes like crab that has gone bad; I've always liked crab though), mayonnaise (I like hollandaise and aioli but these are not technically mayonnaise; to be mayonnaise something has to be basically a bad hollandaise sauce and by that standard I still hate it), and of course mushrooms. So I picked up some bags of mixed mushrooms from a local grocers' coop, and discovered I actually liked _almost all mushrooms._ There were a few I didn't care for (the lion's mane I had might not have been top-quality or maybe I cooked it wrong, because it tasted like very little and had an unpleasantly rubbery texture) but most of them were pretty good and shiitake became one of my favourite ingredients overnight- I put it in most savory dishes I cook now, whether as a broth, minced in a sauce, as whole caps or in big fried slices. Of course, part of the appeal of shiitake is that it tastes like a meat but not exactly like any "actual" meat (fresh shiitake is closest to high-quality rare beef imo), so I could see the appeal of my favourite mushroom in particular being lost on a vegan, but still- The variety in mushrooms is immense, so I have to wonder when I hear someone else say they dislike mushrooms now whether they really dislike mushrooms, or only certain common mushrooms they've had occasion to try.
There are a lot of cool mushrooms out there, I didn’t like mushrooms until I went to China and tried all the crazy mushrooms in Yunnan China. I was in Kunming for a month and there were 100s of mushrooms that I had never heard of. When I came home none of those other genetics were available locally so I thought I would grow them, but I failed at it. Now I forage some while in season like Morels but chanterelle that are free if you find them or $100usd a kg bought. Morels and chanterelle are top, though some chanterelles can be excellent and others just ok to bad. Giant puffball can be great when still white inside. In cultivation there are only 15 to 30 so species under cultivation with half being types of oyster mushrooms like tropical pink complex, tuberosa(African species with huge sclerenchyma- tuber like that that is harvested and eaten, also crazy mushroom fruiting body with straight stock.
Almond amanita is supposed to taste like almonds but I haven’t tried it.
There are lots of crazy types of mushrooms out there that are edible but rarely foraged.
What an intelligent look at palm oil. I cant believe the out of control use of this oil since the 1960's. I also do not buy any products with palm oil, but never knew about red palm oil! Great video to expose the good and the bad. !!!!! Thk you.
glad you enjoyed it!
Buy Red Palm oil
in Hainan and Yunnan in China, people boil fresh oil palm with red sugar, you can try!😀
What does that taste like? Sounds fascinating.
exactly like sweet potato mixed with oil and a little tomato flavor@@ardius9777
the kernel inside is also edible, ripe coconut flavor@@ardius9777
Near my parents home in Jakarta, the housing megacomplex they live in has these ornamental oil palms they planted all along the road. Sometimes when it's harvesting season they'll load the fruits up in trucks and sell them to a local oil factory. Funny side business for a billion dollar housing magnate lol.
I haven't watched yet, but I'm already excited. There's a palm oil refinery possibly opening in my state, but they're importing their oil. If we diversify pur palm oil sources, it could be a major environmental boon! The problem seems to be how we harvest it from a small pool of very delicate sources
On a personal note, it's a real shame that the refinery here doesn't seem to be making plans to diversify sources. I feel like LSU's agricultural program or the state agriculture board could conceivably allot land for planting
I've had red palm oil and I would describe the flavor as somewhat dank. I know it's kind of a silly and cliche description but I do actually think it applies here. It's earthy, the *slightest* bit fruity, and dank. I'm not actually a fan myself, but I can totally understand why people like its flavor.
I bought some and tried cooking with it. It was okay but after a while I just decided I didn’t like it enough to use it regularly.
Thanks for a great presentation ❤
Glad you liked it!
I like your nuanced and critical, solutions suggesting take. Almost like all the issues come from corporate mismanagement for profits
weird how almost all problems in our society are caused by the results of private ownership
I wish they sell those palm pulp stuff here since this place is already one of the leading producers of palm oil.
However you look at it though, any other oil crop would be way more devastating for the environment if produced in the traditional cash crop system. Soy production is far more devastating to the Amazon rainforest, for example.
Also, European colonialism had its role too, as all the oil palm plantations companies started out as European ventures where they planted rubber plantations. One of them that you featured, Sime Darby, was the target of the infamous Dawn Raid where Malaysian traders bought majority shares of the company in the wee hours of the stock exchange opening, eventually putting the company under local control.
Can I just say that your kitchen looks amazing! Those dark cupboards are the stuff
Thanks so much! 😊
Thank you... this video really helped me.
I'm so glad!
Nice video as always Jared, your channel is like the River Monsters of Fruit searching!
🤣 Sometimes the fruit is a bit like a river monster.
I added grated apple to my latke after I drained out the starch( no onions)
Really good, I bet the red palm oil would be good
Your fufu is perfect! I dated a west African and I had this and it is pretty good. As he would say, “You really put your foot in it!”
Judging from my own (mis)adventures with dangerous amounts of coconut fat, you can absolutely add a bunch of certain oils or oil-bearing pulp without things getting "greasy". It just depends what other bulk material (starches, etc.) is in the food and what exact mixture of fat molecules you're dealing with.
An appetizing looking soup.👍👍
I LOVE THIS CHANNEL! You tickle my nerd nerve, man! Thank you so much for continuing to do this great documentary work!
Glad you enjoy it!
Jared, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't at least try the palm kernel. We need to know what it's like. Part 2, plz?
I'll try it next time :). I'd also like to try eating the fruit boiled
Palm oil was brought to Brazil by african slaves and today is an integral part of BAHIA cuisine. they use the red oil for a fried pastry called acaraje, wich is made with mashed white beans. after the fry it they fill it with tomato okra paste and shrimp. its delicious.
Quite common in Malaysia.. They have huge plantations... When flying into KL you will see thousands of oil palms..
I always assumed the fruit would actually be really sweet, considering how sweet dates are, to the point where date syrup is often used as a replacement for honey.
Usually the more oil a fruit produces the less sugar it produces and vice versa. Date when ripe have so much sugar they can actually start to crystalize and have 0 fat content. Oil palm has a very high fat content so it's safe to assume they have little to no sugar content.
@@RobRuckus65
interesting. i just assumed the fruit would at least be somewhat sweet because it's closely related to dates.
Two dishes with red palm oil, where the palm oil is the subtle basis of the flavor, from two different continents: Moqueca de Peixe Baiana from Brazil, and stewed lamb in palm oil with fufu from Ghana. Red palm oil has such an amazing, distinct flavor.
Jared what’s your potato pancake recipe? Those look wonderful! Also super good video. Been watching your content for a month and discovered 2 fruits growing in my Berkeley neighborhood since then, fejoa and tomarillo.
Nice finds!
I believe I gave the recipe in my apple ketchup video. 👍
This oil pair well with dried shrimp.You should try that.
Growing up my mum never let me have anything with palm oil in it, we'd always have to check the back of the product for the ingredients, even now tho where I have my own job and money I still find myself trying to avoid it, as much as it pains me to read those tiny little letters lmao
Don’t ever stop reading the ingredients!
It's the same thing with soy here in Brazil. Soy cultivation is a major driver of deforestation here in Brazil.
Hey man! A dish very popular in Brazil that uses palm oil in its cooking process is called Acarajé, it's made from beans. Pretty good, you should try it sometime :)
If you're looking for something to help use up your remaining red palm oil, try making moqueca!
lordy I want to try red palm oil, I like to cook with it, have done so for while, alas there is no West African supermarket near me in rural mid wales, hard to get hold of, I suppose somewhere online has it
Wow! Thank you so much for this great content! I always learn something new. As an old man, cooking for just myself is sometimes too much trouble but I have grandkids that fortunately visit me often. I always really enjoy cook them something new and exciting for dinner and breakfast, and we always have a great time. I appreciate everything you do and I wish you the very best of health and happiness to you and your families! Thanks again!
This was great big homie
My goodness, this is a fantastic video. Thank you for going into detail and showing alternatives. Want to talk about gluten sometime? ; )
You are so welcome! Oh man... I haven't considered talking about gluten.. but wheat IS technically a fruit. So that could be one for the future.
Do you have a red pandanus videos I couldn’t find one from you?
I wonder how it would taste if you popped corn in red palm oil.
Good
What I don't get is why they don't grow more oil palm in West Africa. The native rainforest there has already been devastated for various crops, many of them nonnative cash crops like cacao. Why not grow something native? Growing oil palm in Indonesia and cacao in West Africa instead of their native regions is absurd to me. It seems like a lot of crops have this problem tbh, pineapples in Hawaii, sugarcane in Fiji, vanilla in Madagascar, somehow all these crops ended up outside of their native regions. At least when grown in their home setting they can provide something to the habitat. Brazil nuts actually mostly come from the Amazon rainforest, collected straight from the wild (due to serious pollination issues in a cultivated setting and the fact that they're fairly common as the primary emergent tree of the Amazon basin) and only pose some minor issues with recruitment (since so many seeds are collected) and gives the rainforest economic benefit. I imagine that large oil palm plantations in West Africa, if done right with a little bit of permaculture, could even add to the local biodiversity if they're replacing exotic crops.
There are some big palm oil plantations in west Africa with similar problems.
www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/03/liberia-palm-oil-miracle-farmers-empty-promises
Been working in west Africa for about 10 years, currently surrounded by palm trees, but never took a shot of red palm oil.
Great description of the flavor and aroma (as always) i got a very nice idea of it, i excepted to hear about the health issues i always heard of Palm oil but i t seems it was a myth against the "cheap industrial ingredientes" like always was. I get why it it's cheaper though
Really interesting video. I do like the little cooking sections you sometimes do.
How are there still clips from Vanuatu! It must have been a jam packed trip!
Vanuatu is almost done, but we went to 6 countries on that trip. So plenty more adventure 😄
i've seen 5+ brands of red palm oil in an african store nearby, i sometimes stop by for spices, incense, and the real deal boullion cubes now i definately have to try it!
suggestions on which kinds of dishes, and what ingrediets it's typically paired with, would be much appreciated.
is sure gave those tater fritters a lovely color!
This is grown in Guyana. Next to Venezuela. There are trees all over Trinidad but we don’t use it.
Conventional western culture would have us believe that it is a bad oil. I have discovered that like anatto it’s a good source of vitamin E tocotrinol ( spelling incorrect).
Gonna be on the lookout for red palm oil next time I go shopping. Definitely not something I've ever seen in regular Danish supermarkets though. But yeah, I try to avoid regular palm oil as well, because of the deforestation and loss of biodiversity it leads to. But just so much stuff that uses it that it's hard to avoid. That's why I mostly make all of my own food now, at least that way I can control the ingredients - except, I can't know for sure if my curry and garam masala is ethically made..
Just do sustainable sourcing,/buying that's all, when you can (controlled) organic or similar cultivating methods, choose these also or even especially in supermarket products, best go for small farmers/producers, ideally or whenever you can buy directly. Never understood why it's a problem, but because of this. Don't make it a problem, becaus its all of us making things - it always takes some to make something. That's all. Love
We had red palm oil once and it ruined our fan oven, by gumming it up somehow. But it made really nice roasted veg
There is red palm oil in Malaysia too
The red palm info is especially interesting.
Awesome Les halles t shirt though 👍👍👍
I was praying for an exception bc egusi (a Nigerian stew with a red palm oil base) is my all time favorite food 😭
Thank you. What a mouth-wateringly informative video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love that you made Latkas haha
I put sauerkraut in mine a couple weeks ago.
Tackling difficult subjects, nice
I watched "The Woman King" recently and it includes scenes of the oil palm plantations and processing; although I'm not actually certain what part of Africa it was set in.
It was very interesting to hear nuance on a topic I've thought to look into further
It is set in the kingdom of Dahomey, (modern day Benin).
I remember that movie being a bit controversial since Dahomey's economy was like 95% based around selling slaves and like 5% palm oil production.
Much more better than planting Christmas tree
😂😂
When it comes to production, hard to beat palm oil. Harvesting every 2 weeks is an insane rate! 😂
As a Nigerian, where will our local cuisine be without palm oil.... Palm oil os great and that os what we all grew up eating in our diets and cuisines...
As you say, the question is the sustainability or lack there of which matters.
Good job with the fufu!
We have the same exact blue flower bowl!!! Did you also get it from an asian grocery? I got mine from a big Vietnamese grocery in south Philly lol
I did!