Why does my red palm oil seem to have such a low smoke point? I bought some red palm oil from an African grocer (no brand... it just comes in an unlabeled plastic milk jug), and it seems to have the lowest smoke point of any oil I've used despite every online source claiming red palm oil should have a pretty high smoke point of 450F (I've checked to see that it seems to start smoking faster than EVOO even!)
I'm assuming this means it's an unrefined oil, and that all the sources claiming 450F as a smoke point are using a refined oil. Unfortunately, I can't find any info about what the smoke point for unrefined red palm might be, and I'm kind of worried about using it a bunch of recipes now because of this.
Does anyone here know what the smoke point of this oil I'm using might actually be, or whether I can safely use it despite all the smoke it's giving off?
I've found a couple of sources differentiating red palm from palm kernel oil &amp; quoting smoke points from 150℃/300℉ to 235℃/450℉ depending on how refined it is.
One can only imagine if you got a 'straight from the farm' type then it will be unrefined.
I'd use it only for low-temperature cooking, don't let it smoke too much.
Refs:
https://www.evolvingwellness.com/post/guide-to-red-palm-oil-health-nutrition-sustainability-brands
https://nutivauk.com/red-palm-oil-faq
http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/oilchart.html