Things not to do with sesame oil…
Tags: blog, rant, cooking, rant March 8th, 2012… put it in a wok on high heat and use it to stir-fry chicken and noodles for a full 2-3 minutes. (as seen in my canteen today)
Toasted sesame oil, the Chinese kind, has a low smoke point at 180°C, which means that it starts decomposing into a lot of components if you use it on high heat–including a fair amount of carcinogens. Most cooking oils, by contrast, have a higher smoke point at 230°C or something like that, and are thus suitable for frying on high heat. Sesame oil is more like a dressing: you put it on cooked stuff, or in salads, but you certainly never ever use it for frying.
So, no, thank you, I’ll pass on the chef’s special stir-fry today…
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March 8th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
An important tip for cooks everywhere. Watch your smoke point!
March 8th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Yup! (I just finished the same discussion with the H, who discovered you can’t fry with sesame oil, though he knew about smoke points)