Pantry Staples
Best Vegetable Oil Substitutes
Out of Vegetable Oil? Here are 3 real substitutes, ranked and ratio-backed.
1. Melted butter
Ratio: 1:1
Adds butter flavor and slightly more moisture (butter is ~80% fat vs. oil's 100%) — baked goods can turn out marginally denser.
Best for: baking
2. Unsweetened applesauce
Ratio: 1:1 for up to half the oil in a recipe
Cuts fat and adds moisture and mild sweetness, but fully replacing all the oil can make baked goods gummy — best for partial substitution.
Best for: baking (lower-fat)
3. Coconut oil (melted)
Ratio: 1:1
Adds a mild coconut flavor and solidifies at cooler temperatures, which can firm up a finished baked good's texture slightly.
Best for: baking
Vegetable oil substitutes divide into full-fat swaps (butter, coconut oil) that work in essentially any recipe calling for oil, and a lower-fat option (applesauce) that only works for partial substitution, not a complete 1:1 replacement.
Melted butter is the most common substitute because it's already in most kitchens and adds only a modest textural change — slightly denser baked goods, thanks to butter's roughly 20% water-and-milk-solids content compared to oil's pure fat — while also contributing real butter flavor oil doesn't have.
Applesauce is a genuinely different kind of substitute from the other two: it's specifically a lower-fat option meant to cut oil, not fully replace it, and the site's guidance is explicit that swapping out ALL the oil for applesauce risks a gummy texture — it works best replacing up to half the oil in a recipe, not the whole amount.
Smoke point is worth checking before using any of these three substitutes for high-heat frying rather than baking — melted butter's milk solids scorch at a noticeably lower temperature than a neutral vegetable oil, making it a poor choice for deep-frying even though it works fine in a baked good, while coconut oil's smoke point sits closer to vegetable oil's and holds up somewhat better under direct high heat.
Canola oil and generic "vegetable oil" are close enough in fat content and neutral flavor that this site treats a straight 1:1 swap between the two as effectively interchangeable in any of these recipes — the meaningful substitution decisions on this page are really about butter, applesauce, and coconut oil, not about which specific brand of neutral oil sits in the pantry to begin with.
Need to convert Vegetable Oil first? See its conversion page.
Frequently asked questions
Will melted butter make baked goods taste noticeably different from oil?
Yes, in a generally positive way for most people — butter adds real dairy flavor oil lacks, though the extra water content in butter (versus oil's pure fat) can make the final texture slightly denser.
Can I replace all the oil in a recipe with applesauce?
Not recommended — applesauce works well as a partial substitute for up to about half the oil in a recipe, cutting fat and adding moisture, but replacing all of it can leave baked goods gummy rather than properly tender.
Does coconut oil need to be melted before substituting for vegetable oil?
Yes — coconut oil is solid at cool room temperature and needs to be melted to substitute properly for a liquid oil; keep in mind it will also re-solidify at cooler temperatures in the finished baked good, which can firm up its final texture slightly.
Is avocado oil a good substitute for vegetable oil, even though it's not listed here?
It works well as a neutral-enough substitute in most applications, similar in behavior to canola oil, though this site's bounded substitute list focuses on the most commonly reached-for pantry options rather than every neutral oil available.
Does grapeseed oil work as a substitute the way canola does?
Yes, similarly — grapeseed oil is another neutral, mostly flavorless oil with a comparable density and behavior to vegetable oil, even though it's not one of the specific options detailed on this page.