Cooking Fat and Oil Smoke Points

What Are The Smoking Points For Common Cooking Fats & Oils?

Selecting the right fat or oil can significantly improve your dish’s flavor and texture when cooking. One crucial factor to consider is the oil smoking point—the temperature at which fat or oil starts to break down and smoke.

When this happens, it not only affects the taste of your food but can also release harmful compounds. That’s why understanding the smoke points of various oils and fats is essential for choosing the right one for each cooking method.

For high-heat cooking techniques like frying or searing, you’ll want oils with a high smoke point, such as avocado oil or refined peanut oil, which can handle the heat without breaking down. On the other hand, for lower-heat tasks like sautéing or drizzling over salads, extra virgin olive oil or butter adds flavor while keeping things at a more moderate temperature.

In this post, I’ll explore the smoke points of common cooking fats and oils and how to use them to your advantage. By understanding these basics, you can make informed choices in the kitchen, resulting in better-tasting meals and safer cooking practices.

BY OIL

By Temperature

Cooking Tip – Once you burn cooking oil, forget about it. It is NO longer good to cook with, so throw it out and start over.

Refined or Unrefined Oils

The key differences between refined and unrefined cooking oils lie in how they are processed, their flavor, smoke points, and nutritional properties:

1. Processing:
   • Refined oils undergo additional processing to remove impurities, odors, and flavors. This process often involves filtering, bleaching, and deodorizing the oil.
   • Unrefined oils are minimally processed, typically by cold-pressing or expeller-pressing, preserving most of their natural characteristics.
2. Flavor:
   • Refined oils are usually neutral in flavor because the refining process strips away much of the oil’s natural taste. This makes them versatile for cooking without altering the flavor of a dish.
   • Unrefined oils retain the natural flavors of the source, like the fruity notes of extra virgin olive oil or the nutty taste of unrefined sesame oil, which can enhance certain dishes.
3. Smoke Point:
   • Refined oils generally have higher smoke points, making them ideal for high-heat cooking methods such as frying or searing.
   • Unrefined oils have lower smoke points and are better suited for low-heat cooking or as finishing oils for salads and drizzling.
4. Nutritional Value:
   • Refined oils lose some nutrients during processing.
   • Unrefined oils retain more vitamins, antioxidants, and beneficial compounds, making them more nutritious.

*IMPORTANT – So that you know, the tables above offer you approximate smoking point temperatures but will vary depending on many environmental factors.

Other Important Ingredient Conversions