Oil ---- Smoke Points

[Greg Stahl]

Link provided by WAGS member, Jeff Friend.  If you want to avoid smoke in your house from seasoing in the oven, look at this chart and the smoke temperatures for oils (some used for seasoning cast iron).

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/CollectedInfo/OilSmokePoints.htm

[Brian Vick]

Great post...that's why I use to use peanut oil high smoke point but don't now because of our allergy posts
The other Brian ;D ;

[ysageev]

I'm wondering if there is a correlation between the smoke point and the darkness of the patina -- the higher the smoke point the lighter the patina, or if the patina is unrelated to the oil entirely.

I just tried seasoning with refined canola oil and there was much less smoke and MUCH less stink, and the patina is pretty dark.  Far better than Crisco Vegetable Oil, which I believe is refined soybean oil.  This is strange because refined Soy oil is supposed to have a higher smoke point than refined Canola.  Perhaps Crisco oil is not refined, or perhaps soy oil is not soybean oil....  :-?

I would like to switch to the extra light olive oil, and in general I always wanted to simply season with olive oil, but I'm not sure it can strictly be considered a "neutral" oil, that is, neutrally flavored.  Some chefs with overactive palates may always detect it....

Thanks, Jeff, excellent link.   8-)

[livens]

Thanks for the info!

Question. I see that Safflower oil has a smoke point of 510°F. Does that mean at 450°F it will still carbonize into a nice seasoning without smoking? Or do you have to exceed the 510°F before it will carbonize?

My brain is telling me it should smoke before burning up into a nice black carbon.

[Maynard Stanley Jr]

When I fry Donuts I fill the DO with lard and the pans get real black with out the oven, I would say that at or after the the smoking point is when the pan blacks up, lard breaks down early, that is why we can digest lard or things cooked in lard and on the other side many donut shops use special formulated oils with very high smoke points and these can be hard to digest.

[Rebecca McCartney]

Just a couple more useful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point
(Also has a list of oils)

And an article from Cooking for Engineers
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats