When frying, the temperature of the heated fat or oil used is transferred to the food, which is why the frying temperature plays a major role, as does the frying time.

The temperature inside does not normally reach 100ºC, so the degree of roasting can be determined.


If you want to work with initially high temperatures, e.g. to sear meat, you should always use fat or oil that is heat-stable and does not negatively affect the quality and flavour of the food.

Butter

Butter is not very suitable for frying at high temperatures as it has a low smoke point and burns quickly. Furthermore, the proportion of saturated fatty acids is quite high, which makes butter not the healthiest alternative.

Clarified butter

The smoke point of clarified butter, on the other hand, is quite high, so frying at high temperatures is perfectly possible and the typical butter flavour also comes into its own.

Nevertheless, it also contains a high level of saturated fatty acids.

Animal fats

Animal fats, such as lard, withstand high temperatures very well, but are also too rich in saturated fatty acids. The flavour of animal fats is very pronounced, which is why they cannot be recommended for all dishes.

Vegetable fats

Vegetable fats such as coconut or peanut fat are neutral in flavour and can often be reused, but also have a very high content of saturated fatty acids.

Vegetable oils

Among the vegetable oils, olive oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil and soya oil are particularly popular. What they all have in common is that they are liquid and anhydrous and therefore splatter unpleasantly when frying.

The advantages of frying with these oils, however, are that they are much healthier than their other competitors, as they are low in saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and have a very high smoke point, which can be almost 200ºC. With cold-pressed oils, however, this is lower and you should not work with excessively high temperatures.

Refined oil is preferable at high temperatures, but in principle both refined and cold-pressed oils are suitable for frying.