every cooking fat, be it butter, lard, or oil, has a smoke point: a temperature at which it stops shimmering and starts sending out some serious smoke signals.

oils are extracted from nuts and seeds through mechanical crushing and pressing. If bottled immediately thereafter, you've got a cold-pressed raw, or "virgin" oil, which tends to retain its natural flavor and color. Many unrefined oils are packed with minerals, enzymes, and other compounds that don't play well with heat
these are the oils best-suited to drizzling, dressings, and lower temperature cooking.


To produce an oil with a high smoke point, manufacturers use industrial-level refinement processes like bleaching, filtering, and high-temperature heating to extract and eliminate those extraneous compounds. What you're left with is a neutral-flavored oil with a longer shelf life and a higher smoke point
when it comes to actually cooking with fats, smoking oil isn't always a bad thing—oftentimes, you'll want that wok or skillet ripping hot. But when a flavorful, raw oil or pool of butter starts sending up smoke, you're headed into a danger zone.

Heated past its smoke point, the oil starts to break down releathing unhealthy substances, damaging the flavor food turning it bitter, and creating smoke that leads to tears in the eyes.

So after watching this video, once the oil starts smoking, take it off the heat.

Here a list of oils and their smoke point. The data given are averages.

For searing, sauteing, deep frying and stir frying, choose an oil with a high smoke point.

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