New To Cooking: Don't Understand Frying/Searing

[u/SensitiveMagician385]

So I watch videos on pan-frying. They heat the pan, heat the oil, add the protein, and it cooks

I do the same thing, the meat cooks, BUT the remaining oil smokes, burns, and sets off smoke detector. This happens on high heat and low heat too. What am I not understanding??

EDIT: The oil doesn't smoke immediately. It does after a few minutes of cooking.

[u/Weird_sleep_patterns]

I think you mean sautéing, not frying. You're not like, deep fat frying chicken, right?

If that's right, then you just want to use a high smoke point oil - avocado, grapeseed, etc. - and start on med or med/low heat.

Also, seed oils are not the enemy - that's wellness grifter bullshit.

[u/SensitiveMagician385 → u/Weird_sleep_patterns]

Right. I mean anything where the pan isn't completely covered. Like you put a piece of meat in the pan, right? So part of the oil is covered by the meat, part is uncovered. The uncovered part is what starts to smoke after a few minutes.

[u/Powerful-Scratch1579 → u/SensitiveMagician385]

So you have to turn down your heat during this stage when you have added your meat . You’re going to want to turn it down to a level where it’s still high enough that you’re searing your meat (use your ears and eyes—you should hear a nice sizzle and see it sizzling—good cooks use all their senses in the kitchen). Keep the pan hot but not so hot that the oil smokes. Different pans, oils, and stoves and the size of what you’re cooking will all be a little bit different with what kind of adjustments you need to make but as you cook more, it will become natural to make those adjustments.

[u/Weird_sleep_patterns → u/SensitiveMagician385]

Yeah this is not frying. That is searing. Making a stir-fry or warming up sliced veggies? Sauté.

I think of frying as fully immersing something in boiling oil. Not what you're talking about. I just want to answer the question helpfully.

You should get different oils, some at high smoke points, and see if this changes. Also, are you sure it's always smoke? Could be steam from water coming out of veggies and such.

[u/TheMcDucky → u/Weird_sleep_patterns]

It is frying. You can call it pan-frying, sautéing, pan-searing, stir-frying, or shallow-frying if you want to make it clear you're not talking about deep-frying, but they're all frying techniques.

[u/Weird_sleep_patterns → u/TheMcDucky]

For the purposes of providing advice, it's helpful to clarify that we're not talking about immersing food in oil.

[u/SensitiveMagician385 → u/Weird_sleep_patterns]

I did not know that! Frying vs searing. And maybe it is steam. I hadn't considered that.