A Guide to Cooking Oils and When to Use Each One

The oil aisle looks more complicated than it needs to be, mostly because most of the differences between bottles come down to one number that rarely gets explained: smoke point, the temperature at which an oil starts to break down and burn rather than simply heat. Choosing the wrong oil for a cooking method usually isn’t a flavor mistake, it’s a smoke point mismatch — and once that one variable clicks, most of the “which oil for what” confusion resolves itself.

Extra virgin olive oil sits at the lower end of that range, with a smoke point around 375-400F, which makes it a poor choice for high-heat searing or deep frying despite being a kitchen staple. Its real strength is in dressings, finishing drizzles, and gentle sautéing, where its distinct, slightly peppery flavor actually gets to come through rather than burning off.

Refined vegetable, canola, and grapeseed oils sit at the opposite end, with smoke points well above 400F, often closer to 450-475F. Their tradeoff is flavor neutrality — they won’t compete with a dish’s other ingredients, but they also won’t add much. That makes them the default choice for high-heat cooking methods like deep frying, stir-frying, and searing, where a lower smoke point oil would burn and turn bitter.

Avocado oil has become more common in recent years and sits in an unusually good spot on this spectrum, with a smoke point around 500-520F, among the highest of any common cooking oil, while still carrying a mild, slightly buttery flavor rather than being fully neutral. It costs more than most other high-heat options, which is largely why it hasn’t fully replaced vegetable and canola oil as the default, but it’s a strong choice for searing or roasting where a bit of flavor is welcome.

Coconut oil behaves differently from the other oils on this list because of its saturated fat content, which keeps it solid at room temperature and gives it a smoke point that varies significantly by type. Refined coconut oil handles heat reasonably well, around 400-450F, and has a mostly neutral flavor, while unrefined virgin coconut oil smokes earlier and carries a noticeable coconut flavor that works well in some baking and certain cuisines but can clash in others.

Butter occupies an odd middle ground, and its behavior actually explains a common kitchen problem. Butter’s milk solids scorch around 300F, well before the fat itself would smoke, which is why butter alone burns quickly in a hot pan. Clarified butter, or ghee, removes those milk solids, pushing the effective smoke point up to nearly 450F — the same reason ghee, not regular butter, shows up in high-heat South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking.

Sesame oil is really two different products people often conflate. Regular, light sesame oil behaves similarly to other neutral oils and can handle real heat. Toasted sesame oil, the darker, more fragrant version, has a much lower smoke point and a much stronger flavor — it’s meant to be added at the end of cooking or used in dressings, not as the cooking fat itself.

A workable rule that covers most situations: reach for a neutral, high smoke point oil whenever real heat is involved, and save the more flavorful, lower smoke point oils — extra virgin olive oil, toasted sesame oil, unclarified butter — for finishing, dressing, or gentle, lower-temperature cooking.

Recipes that lean specifically on this distinction include our Ultra-Crispy Korean Fried Chicken, which needs a neutral high-heat oil for frying, finished afterward with a touch of toasted sesame oil for flavor rather than heat.