oil shimmering or just smoking?
So im relatively new to cooking and im reading all the technique focused books I can. I noticed that for the same exact goal (ie browning a piece of meat) some books call for you to heat the oil until it shimmers (Salt Fat Acid Heat)) whereas others call for you to heat the oil until it is just smoking (ie most of the America's Test Kitchen books). Can anyone clarify which is correct? Or are there any guidelines for knowing whether your oil should be shimmering or "just smoking"? Maybe im overthinking this and the difference is negligible? Thanks!
Best Answer
It doesn't matter. All you need is for the oil to be properly heated. You can use the cue which is most convenient for you - shimmering, smoke, an IR thermometer, smell, throwing stuff into the pan, or your spidey sense that suddenly reminds you of the pan after enough time has passed. Go with whichever is most convenient for you, they are all correct.
That being said, shimmering is usually visible in stainless steel pans, but more difficult to notice in pans with a dark bottom such as seasoned iron pans or PTFE coated ones, so it might not be the easiest one to pick.
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For Optimal Browning, Heat Oil Until It Just Starts Smoking, Not Shimmering.What does it mean when oil is shimmering?
Answer: Heating oil until it shimmers is just a fancy way of saying "until it's hot" (but not too hot). "The oil spreads out, begins to glisten, and ripples," says Stock. You want the oil to be hot, but you don't want it to start smoking.How long does it take oil to shimmer?
For one steak, we heated 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil until shimmering, which took about 2 minutes. In the other pan, we heated 1 tablespoon of oil until it reached the smoke point, which took 6 minutes.Is oil supposed to be smoking?
Sometimes there's just hot oil. All fats, including the oils you typically use in the kitchen, have a smoke point, the point at which they will begin to produce smoke.At what temperature does cooking oil shimmer?
Starting with oil in the pan is a good indicator of how hot the pan is. We know that shimmering oil is hotter than pooled oil (it starts shimmering at around 300 to 400\xb0F), while smoking oil is hotter still (depending on the type of oil, this begins at around 450 to 500\xb0F). The oil is a built-in temperature indicator.Is olive oil safe at high heat? Does it taste bad?
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Answer 2
I only can provide an incomplete answer, because when double-checking what I thought I knew I discovered that there seem to exist in fact two opinions on this topic. One is that oil should never be heated to it´s smoke point when cooking, because there the ingredients of the oil start to disassemble to burnt products that are unhealthy to consume, while the other argues that the smoke point still does not mean that the oil is effectively burning up and only some minor fractions of it´s contents start do break up and evaporate. E.g. compare here vs. here.
I personally prefer to go on the safe side and use heat resistant oils or fats like sunflower, canola or clarified butter fat for browning and frying.
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