Smoke Point

You put a skillet on the stove, pour in a couple of tablespoons of oil, turn up the heat and the phone rings. A few minutes of distraction and you have thick, black smoke billowing out of your skillet. What happened? It was only oil. You hadn't even started cooking yet.

What happened was that you hit the Smoke Point for that oil. The smoke point of oils and fats is the temperature when it breaks down and fails as a lubricant. When oil breaks down it forms a whole host of bad things, including stuff that can give you cancer. There are also things in that broken oil that will cause foods to stick and that taste very bad. Knowing how hot the oil you are using can get will help you avoid the Smoke Point. Below is a list of the most popular oils and fats.

You can increase the smoke point of an oil by combining it with an oil with a higher smoke point. For instance mixing butter with extra light olive oil will give you a smoke point much higher than that of butter.