"olive oil, independently of its category label, is clearly resistant to degradation under domestic frying conditions (170 °C). Among the olive oil categories, the extra-virgin PDO olive oil was more resistant under the conditions of this study"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02786...
A simpler thermometer may have a single IR receiver. In that case its output can be far from truth without an emissivity calibration.
Better IR thermometers have 2 or more IR receivers for different wavelengths and they compute the temperature based on the ratios between them.
In this case the measured temperature no longer depends on the value of the emissivity, but only on the deviation from the behavior of a gray body. With an increased number of IR wavelengths that are measured, it becomes less likely that a calibration could change the results, but cheap thermometers are unlikely to use such a sophisticated method.
That's not the whole story though. Often, what is more important is how stable the oil is below the smoke point. There's a pretty decent video on this by Adam Ragusea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_aFHrzSBrM
Duck fat's smoke point is actually rather close to olive oil's. Actually, a low-acid extra virgin or virgin will have a higher smoke point. Also refined olive oil, of course, not that many people buy it.
Won't you be using peanut or soybean oil for a wok?
And "wok hei" relies on explicitly igniting the oil to burn it, which renders the whole discussion moot.
If I'm trying to keep a pan hot in the face of 2 pounds of cold, watery protein, I either need something like a mass of cast iron, an induction system or a gallon of oil.
Extra virgin olive oil is easily denaturated under relatively low heat, which is why it is recommended to use it with salads etc.
The olive oil that is perfect for cooking, with a high smoke point, is the refined one, or a mix of refined and virgin.
Not a lot of people know the fact right, hence a lot of confusion.
Unfortunately the olive oil for cooking is much harder to find than virgin oil, thus everybody ends up using the oil that does not stand well the heat.
Saying that it is easily denatured by heat does not mean it will smoke at these temperatures, but it will get its unsaturated fats partly becoming trans fats etc, thus losing its dietary benefit.
Though not quite as high as avocado or safflower, I presume you're aware that refined olive oils can have pretty high smoke points. But it surprises me how often I'll be at a friend's home and they grease up their frying pan with EVOO.
2. They use medium temperatures on the frying pan (so they keep it at 180-200°C, or lower). This is especially true when you use pans with anti-stick coating, which literally break at high temperatures (it's even written in the instructions to avoid using the highest temperatures).
Yeah, for something like lightly frying some mushrooms, or caramelising onions (though butter is imo tastier for the latter) there's no reason not to use EVOO other than that it still won't be the cheapest option, but cooking won't get rid of all of its health benefits nor taste. I suppose maybe there's a case (I don't know if this has been studied or just people with differing anecdotes?) for cheaper than EV olive oil being as good as EV when using it for cooking over a certain temperature? I don't know.
yeah, for deep frying certain frozen food products, it might be better to reach temperatures above 170 °C, so the oil doesn't get too cold as you add the frozen food.
What the heck are you talking about? Olive oil is perfectly fine for cooking. Not everything needs high temp and fast searing. The smoke point of olive oil is plenty high for tons of sauteing applications.
I know that. I'm just saying, rather than buying cheap olive oil for cooking which is probably very impure and diluted with cheap vegetable oil, there are other oils which one can purchase which aren't imitated with frauds as often and which have higher smoke points.
"during frying olive oil behavior is usually equal or superior to that of refined vegetable oils" https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1541-433...
"olive oil, independently of its category label, is clearly resistant to degradation under domestic frying conditions (170 °C). Among the olive oil categories, the extra-virgin PDO olive oil was more resistant under the conditions of this study" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02786...