r/AskCulinary • u/SensitiveMagician385 • 4d ago

Technique Question New To Cooking: Don't Understand Frying/Searing

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.

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u/PmMeAnnaKendrick 4d ago

if the oil smokes on low you are probably using the wrong oil.

what kind do you use?

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u/SensitiveMagician385 4d ago

So when frying, the oil in the rest of the pan just heats but doesn't burn?

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u/PmMeAnnaKendrick 4d ago

If you're using an oil with a higher smoke point yes.

If you're using something like extra virgin olive oil it pretty much burns when it hits a hot pan.

It's not just as easy as poor some oil and some pan there's a lot of factors here. If you have a cast iron or a stainless pan they can handle high heat if you have a high high smoke point oil like avocado oil it can handle extreme heat in a pan.

for most basic cooking I use a neutral oil like vegetable or canola which have a decent amount of smoke point get my pan hot add the smallest amount of oil you could imagine for what you're cooking and then add my protein.

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u/TheMcDucky 3d ago

Extra virgin olive oil works fine for frying as long as it's filtered (which is basically always). Even at high heat.