Please explain "smoke point" to me as it relates to cooking oils

[Anonymous]

I've been reading up on different cooking oils- peanut oil, canola oil, olive oil, avocado oil, etc.
I understand these have different smoke points.

What exactly does smoke point mean and I assume it's a bad thing when you see smoke coming out of the oil, right?

So if I have a pan of canola oil and I'm about to make some French fries and the oil starts smoking, should I not use that oil anymore?

Please be gentle with me. I'm a rookie cook and I don't fry food often at all!

[Anonymous]

When oil reaches the smoke point it starts to devolve and can be carcinogenic. It's not totally dangerous to the point where I'd throw out a whole pan of oil, but I try to have different oils for different tasks--so shop for a higher smoke point oil for frying than you use in baking, eg

[Anonymous]

It is basically the temp where the oil burns/degrades. For frying, you want to use an oil with with a high smoke point. Something like peanut oil. You should really use a thermometer for frying, as too low of a temp is also bad and your food with absorb too much oil.

[Anonymous]

The temp of the smoke point is essentially the highest that the oil will get. After that, the PP is correct that the oil itself will start to burn/degrade, changing the flavor of your food (usually giving a burned flavor). Different foods cook better at different temperatures. Ffor example, deep frying,at a higher temperature, the batter/breading will achieve a crust immediately and the additional cooking will give you that crisp outside, and the batter/breading will no longer absorb as much oil. And the radiant heat will cook the food inside the batter/breading. At a lower temperature, the batter will not crust as quickly allowing the batter to absorb the oil and you get a greasier, soggier food. When making stir fry, you want to cook the meat initially with a high heat oil because again, you sear the outside and the crust will help the meat cook while retaining as much moisture as possible. If you use a lower heat, you don't get the seared outside and as it cooks, the meat will lose more moisture becoming drier and tougher. However, if you are stir frying veggies, you generally cook them at a lower temp because you want them to wilt and give up their moisture ear otherwise, later, the moisture will seep out and will water down the flavor of any sauce you create. Using too high heat will give you something at the end that tends to be watery. So, stir frying veggies is fine to do in an olive oil or a sesame oil with a low smoke point, but stir frying meat, chicken, pork, etc should be done with a high smoke point oil like canola, vegetable, or grapeseed oil.