Smoking Hot

D

DSBradley

Member
OK I got your attention :D I've sat and read and/or listened to the art of seasoning and I'm confused on one point. One method to seasoning I've read is to heat the pan on the stovetop while wiping with oil until it starts to smoke and then remove to cool, repeat. Another method is to heat in oven and then wipe on oil, wipe off oil, and bake. But this thread:
http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3103
Steve said someone told him to heat oil until smoking and Mark said that oil burns at it's smoking point. I have personally found that in seasoning, if you don't smoke the oil you get sticky results.

Now I've laid the ground work, my question is: Smoking or Non-Smoking?
 
She said oil it and let it slowly come to temp for about 10 minutes until the oil begins to smoke, then reduce heat and cook. This would also keep the pan seasoned.
Click to expand...
Exceed smoke point for seasoning. Do not exceed smoke point for cooking.
 
Different oils have different smoke points/temps. Peanut is one of the higher ones and is often used but you pay more for it. When you smoke the oil for cooking purposes it then will have a burnt taste. A commercial kitchen always watches the fry temp carefully. Once it starts to smoke, it is ruined for future fry work. A candy thermometer of a high insta read will keep you in the game by keeping the oil below smoke temp.
Smoking the oil will get you fired quickly in a professional kitchen.
 
Smokin’! I use the smokin’ oil/fat method only when I’m searing and the hot handle method for other cooking. The smoking oil method is good advice, but far left. Mark’s response was far right. Yes, oil will burn at the smoking point, but over time. One may detect a negative burnt flavor between it starting to smoke and having nothing left but carbon but this is most noticeable in larger quantities of oil. I never noticed it with a swipe of oil in a skillet.

There is a difference between oil at the beginning of the smoking point and burnt oil. The smoke you see is moisture with impurities in it. As the temperature rises, or the moisture is all boiled off then burning can occur. Incomplete burning can leave sticky, or in the case of a deep fryer bad tasting oil. As Doug said, exceeding the smoking point is not good while cooking. Then it will burn.

The idea is while cooking don’t let the oil get too hot or smoke for too long to the burning point. (Bacon burns real quick.) A steaming, read smoking, pot of mashed potatoes is fine but if they sit too long on a simmering burner without being stirred the bottom will burn.

After cooking, heating any residue to or over the smoking point will burn off remaining impurities and leave a non-sticky vessel.

Hilditch
 
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