Oils and Fats and Smoke Points, Oh My

Here’s the skin­ny on all your fats and oils.

Some­times a recipe will call for a spe­cif­ic oil for fin­ish­ing or fla­vor­ing. Oth­er times you run into a sit­u­a­tion we all face: a recipe that calls for a cooking/frying oil you don’t have.

You’re prepar­ing some­thing stir-fried and the recipe calls for peanut oil, but you don’t have any. You’ve got some but­ter and some light olive oil, though: Can you use one for a sub­sti­tute or do you need to go to the store?

Toast­ed oils or unre­fined oils tend to have a low­er smoke point; they’re more often used for sea­son­ing or fin­ish­ing. They also aren’t inter­change­able with lighter, more refined oils, which don’t car­ry as much fla­vor and have much high­er smoke points. These are more often interchangeable.

I’ll be adding more info about the oils and fats list­ed here, but for now here are all their smoke points.

Oil (ºF)
Almond Oil 420º
Avo­ca­do Oil, Refined 520º
Bacon Fat 325º
Beef Fat (Suet) 400º
But­ter 300º
But­ter, Clar­ifed (Ghee) 482º
But­ter, Clarified 450º
Canola (Rape­seed) Oil, High Oleic 475º
Canola (Rape­seed) Oil, Refined 470º
Canola (Rape­seed) Oil, Semirefined 350º
Chick­en Fat (Schmaltz) 325º
Coconut Oil 350º
Coconut Oil, Refined 450º
Corn Oil 320º
Corn Oil, Refined 450º
Cot­ton­seed 420º
Duck Fat  (Schmaltz) 325º
Flax Oil 225º
Goose Fat  (Schmaltz) 325º
Grape­seed Oil 420º
Hazel­nut Oil 430º
Hemp Seed Oil 330º
Lard 370º
Macadamia Oil 390º
Mar­garine 320º
Mus­tard Seed Oil 482º
Olive Oil, Extra Light 486º
Olive Oil, Extra Virgin 410º
Olive Oil, Light 486º
Olive Pomace 238º
Palm Ker­nel Oil 450º
Palm Oil 450º
Peanut Oil 320º
Peanut Oil, Refined 450º
Pump­kin Seed Oil 320º
Rice Bran Oil 490º
Saf­flower Oil 225º
Saf­flower Oil, Refined 510º
Saf­flower Oil, Semirefined 320º
Sesame Oil 350º
Sesame Oil, Semirefined 450º
Sesame Oil, Toasted 225º
Soy 320º
Soy, Refined 450º
Soy, Semi­re­fined 350º
Sun­flower Oil 225º
Sun­flower Oil, High Oleic 320º
Sun­flower Oil, High Ole­ic, Refined 450º
Sun­flower Oil, Refined 440º
Veg­etable Oil 400º
Veg­etable Shortening 360º
Wal­nut Oil 320º
Wal­nut, Semirefined 400º
Wheat Germ Oil 225º
Pine Seed Oil 225º