Me and my girlfriend have been having a discussion for a whole day about whether or not fats are oils. We’ve googled it and the only facts we found is that fats are solids and oils are liquid, we also found that they are the same, we both agreed on that. But she also claims that oils are necessarily plant-based, which I don’t agree with.
She’s studying biology, and knows the chemistry and the proper names for things, while I have less scientific know-how, but know damn well you can use bacon fat as cooking oil. I don’t know if l’m right, moreover, I don’t know how to explain that she is wrong (if she is). Please help.
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***in biology*** an oil is any fat that is liquid at room temperature. so all oils are fats. Not all fats are oils.
There are some animal based oils. They tend to come from animals that live in cold climates, or from animals with low body temperatures, or from the parts of the animal that are cooler than the rest of the animal.
* we secrete oils onto our skin.
* Whale oil was an important source of fuel back in ye olden times.
* they sell fish oil capsules near the vitamins.
* You can buy neetsfoot oil (used for polishing leather), which is basically fat from the legs and feet of cows (they have a lower melting point because the temperature of a cow’s feet is quite low compared to the rest of their body).
* The same is true of mink oil, it’s a liquid body fat from mink. it’s used to keep leather soft.
That definition doesn’t include synthetic or petroleum oils (like crude oil, or motor oil), which are quite different, chemically.
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