Smoke Point Isn’t Everything: How to Choose the Best Cooking Oil for High Heat If you've ever searched for the best cooking oil for high heat, you've probably seen the same advice repeated again and again: Choose the oil with the highest smoke point. It sounds logical. A pan gets hot, oil starts smoking at a certain temperature, so the oil that smokes at the highest temperature must be the best choice. The problem is that food science is not quite that simple. Smoke point is useful information, but it tells us only part of the story. An oil's behaviour during cooking also depends on its fatty-acid composition, antioxidant content, level of refining, freshness, temperature, cooking time and whether it has already been heated before. That is particularly important during frying, where oil can remain hot for much longer than it does during a quick sauté. So instead of ranking cooking oils by one number, this guide looks at what actually happens to oil under heat and how you ca...
Clear guides to cooking oils—cold-pressed vs refined, smoke points, health benefits, and best picks for every recipe.