What temperature is the smoking point for your favorite fat or oil? If you don’t know, I’ll help you find out. This is one more important note about cooking with any fats or oils, which I should’ve included in the recent post, “Get rid of the unhealthy fats in your kitchen“, but I forgot. (I’ve added it there now.)
At this Wikipedia link on smoking points, there is a chart that tells what temperature is the smoking point for various fats and oils.
The smoke point for tallow isn’t listed there, but from what I can find, its smoke point is 420*, which makes it perfect for making french fries, as the info at this post on smoking points says that those need to be cooked at 375*.
WONDER WHAT A ‘SMOKING POINT’ IS?
This is the temperature at which the oil will actually smoke and you risk the formation of free-radicals/cell damage, which can cause cancer. You should never re-use cooking oil for the same reason. (Since writing this post, I’ve heard it’s OK to re-use 3 times or so…not sure about this…keep reading.)
***See this post about oxidized cholesterol where the issue of smoke points and re-using oils is discussed more.
And that’s all for today on that terribly exciting topic.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jody 06.04.08 at 12:33 pm
Kelly,
The Wikipedia chart doesn’t include refined coconut oil. Here’s a chart that does: http://www.answers.com/topic/smoke-point?cat=technology
(refined coconut oil has a smoke point of 450)
[Reply]
Kelly the Kitchen Kop 06.04.08 at 7:02 pm
Jody,
GREAT! Thanks for looking that up!!
Kelly
[Reply]