I'm referring to any/all cooking oils. I am wondering what temperatures cause significant degradation in quality or rancidity.
1 Answer
As I know almost all cooking oil become unhealthy and toxic when the "smoke point" is reached. Every oil has a temperature point that should be never reached, as follows:
For mechanic extra virgin oils:
- flax, safflower and sunflower oil - 107 C
- walnut and peanuts - 160 C
- coconut, soy, corn and sesame oil - 177 C
- extra virgin olive oil - 190 C
The regular cooking oils have "smoke point" even higher like over 235 C so it's better to use those for cooking and let extra virgin ones for salads and cold dishes.
Or just be aware to not see smoke while cooking with oil:)
Me, I'd suggest butter instead, because at higher temperature butter turns to "ghee" which is quite healthy. - avocado oil - 190 - 204 C - almonds and grapes oil - 216 C - palm oil - 235 C
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1Bibi, welcome to Seasoned Advice! Let me suggest you take the tour and browse our help center to learn more about the site. One of the rules is we don't discuss health here, for various good reasons. The bit about butter just turning into ghee is wrong, btw., for ghee, milk solids need to be removed or they'll burn, giving you an effective smoke point of butter lower than many oils.– Stephie ♦Commented Dec 15, 2016 at 7:49