Explain Oil "temperatures" to me?

[TiG]

I may not be the best cook but for the life of me i can't work out why cooking with my decent bottle of extra virgin olive oil is so much easier than some of my ground nut oils, They taste better when doing stir fries etc, but damn they are so much more senstive to pan temperature to the sitatuation where i swear the oil is burning.

Is Olive oil much more resistant to heat?

Help, i can't work it out

TiG

[Moby-Dick]

Different Oils have different 'smoke points' , ie they can get hotter before they start to break down.

a good stir fry needs good hot oil I'd have thought , hence needing an oil with a high smoke point ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

[0iD]

Olive oil burns at a much lower temp than normal vegetable oil, so is generally crap for a good stir fry where you have to pump up the heat. In my experience, if you can get it, extra virgin rapeseed is a better choice than palm oil for stir fry's. It burns at a far higher temp & as a bonus it's very high in omega 3 & 6 fatty acids.

[mroz]

Yup, what they said. From this handy site:

• Groundnut and Grapeseed - Smoke point - 200°c, Flash point - 325°c.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Olive Oil and Almond Oil - Smoke point 150°c and a flash point of 300°c

[hajamie]

Sweet, someone told me about different burn temperatures a couple of days ago and I have been wondering which oils are better for which things, thanks!
J.

[mroz]

Here are a couple more interesting links:

• The Cook's Thesaurus
• Cooking for Engineers

[hajamie]

I've been on that cooks thesaurus before, very handy!
J.