Smoke after cooking = grease?
I really really really hate grease. I have a small house, my kitchen is next to my living room separated by a tiny hallway. I close the doors when I cook and generally don't have a problem. But when I do a steak, I like high heat to fry the outside well.
Its not on for long as I like the inside rare and I've followed advice to keep the smoke down which has helped a lot but... there is still smoke.
If there is smoke floating around, is that grease? Like, will it eventually settle down as grease?
I only ask because I have ocd about grease on electronics...and I hate the feel of it. To be fair, it doesn't feel like grease after the smoke has gone but I'm paranoid. Even thought about getting a tiny BBQ to use for just the steak but...maybe thats a little extreme
Best Answer
Scientifically speaking, smoke is a solid mixed with a gas, so no, smoke is not grease.
However, the smoke that gets generated by the decomposition of cooking oils (called the "smoke point") at a certain temperature (T°) is mixed with grease molecules and yes, they settle down somewhere.
To explain further let's take an analogy with water at 1 ATM
- 1L of water boils at 100°C
- At 75°C it evaporates rather quickly
- at 50°C it evaporates quicker than at room T°
- at 25°C it will eventually evaporate (Room T°)
- at 0°C it will sublimate rather slowly
Now, with cooking oils, the smoke point is way below the boiling point for most, but as you can see from the above analogy they will evaporate though more slowly than water as an oil molecule is heavier so takes more energy to get "kicked" out of the liquid.
Note 1: I tried finding a list of cooking oils with both their boiling and smoke points but couldn't find a decent list with both, but it's irrelevant to the question as any liquid does evaporate at room T° eventually...
Note 2: The best way to ensure the grease molecules don't settle down inside is to ensure there is excellent ventilation or invest in a high-volume extractor
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Quick Answer about "Smoke after cooking = grease?"
Ever left oil in a pan over high heat, only to turn around and find it billowing with smoke? That's because 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.Is smoke from cooking food harmful?
Cooking fumes also contains carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic compounds[1-3,9-13]. Exposure to cooking fumes has also been associated in several studies with an increased risk of respiratory cancer[14-18].Is vegetable oil smoke toxic?
When an oil is heated past its smoke point, it generates toxic fumes and free radicals which are extremely harmful to your body. When the smoke point is reached, you'll begin to see the gaseous vapors from heating, a marker that the oil has started to decompose.Why does my food smoke when I cook it?
Drips, spills, and cooking techniques leave food residues on your pans, oven racks, and cooking appliances. Typically, the food that sticks has a high grease content, and when these get hot, they pass their smoke point and start to burn.How do I stop smoking when frying?
Choose an oil with a higher smoke point than olive oil; go for canola, safflower, avocado or peanut oil. (See: 7 Common Cooking Oils and When to Use Them) Then, lightly coat your fish, meat, tofu or vegetables you plan to sear with oil instead of coating the pan.What should you do with leftover cooking grease?
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Answer 2
Smoke is not grease. However, air currents will carry smoke and grease. The best solution is to invest in ventilation that leads to the outdoors. If you can't do that, there is nothing wrong with a small grill for outdoor cookery. I used to carry mine to the parking lot, years ago, when I lived in an apartment that did not allow grilling on the attached deck.
Answer 3
You can get one of those grease screens that you can put over the frying pan, They do work. But an outside grill is excellent idea.
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