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I tried both peanut oil and sunflower oil on the same food cooked in the same pan and noticed that when cooked with sunflower oil, the food tends to stick to the pan. If I use peanut oil, I have less of a problem.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why both oils react differently even though they are used for cooking food? Both of them have the same smoke point.

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    Are you sure you had all the other variables unchanged? I have never heard of or observed such a difference.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Dec 2, 2011 at 11:58
  • I assume you're doing this with refined sunflower oil? Also, you may want to try Canola (rapeseed) oil for a different healthy oil
    – derobert
    Dec 2, 2011 at 13:28
  • Please avoid making health claims in your questions in the future, especially when the information does not directly pertain to the question.
    – Aaronut
    Dec 5, 2011 at 0:07
  • Comments are not the place to debate health issues. Feel free to take it to Seasoned Advice Chat or ask/answer questions about nutrition on Physical Fitness. This is a site for culinary topics.
    – Aaronut
    Dec 5, 2011 at 17:54
  • I use the cold oil method of making french fries (from Cooks Illustrated) starting them in room temperature oil and cooking for 15 minutes before stirring them at all. I have noticed that when I do them in Canola Oil, there are a fair number stuck to the bottom of the pan when I stir them. When I do them in Peanut Oil, there are only a couple. And today I used more oil than usual and the potatoes didn't stick at all. The method is here: deep-fried.food.com/recipe/…
    – user20056
    Sep 6, 2013 at 17:14

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I feel the same as you Anderson. I found that too and you just made me to do some research, which I found they have different smoke points.

Unrefined sunflower oil 225°F 107°C Unrefined peanut oil 320°F 160°C

see the link: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats

Also, one of the reasons food stick to the pan is the evenness of the temperature of the pan. If you use a thicker pan or copper pan, the heat will be distributed on the pan more evenly and food will stick less. The higher smoke point of oil makes me to believe the oil helps to distribute heat more evenly.

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    Same link as the OP included, and given that he said the two had the same smoke point, I'm guessing he's not using unrefined oils. Peanut and sunflower oil are both listed as 440°F/227°C, and refined varieties at 450°F/232°C.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Dec 4, 2011 at 8:00
  • Thanks Jefromi. I jumped to the conclusion too quickly. Need an expert to answer this.
    – Foodrules
    Dec 4, 2011 at 9:40
  • I've never heard of anybody frying with unrefined oils - but certainly if one were using unrefined sunflower oil it would smoke and stick like crazy. Refined peanut oil and sunflower have approximately the same smoke point (450° F).
    – Aaronut
    Dec 5, 2011 at 0:08
  • @Aaronut, I fry with unrefined oils - mainly canola and olive, sometimes with a bit of additional sesame. However it's all low heat frying. Almost broiling.
    – Konchog
    Jan 14, 2022 at 18:02

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