So I had a grease fire the other day

>smoking

you deserved you're fire lmao

>describing heat as '8'

lmao

You're supposed to use refined oil for cooking, especially high-heat cooking. I disagrees with the manufacturer's suggestion on its website to use the oil for pan frying, even though it is clearly listed as being composed at least partially of cold-pressed oils. What you want to use for high-heat cooking is an oil with a very high smoke point, such as refined peanut oil, or refined oils high in oleic acid and low in polyunsaturated fats (high-oleic safflower, high-oleic sunflower)

probably one of the oils you used have a lower smoking temp.

setting it to 8/10 would bring it to smoke point in just a few mins if you had a good pan

Olive oil has a low smoke point. For frying, it's better to use something like peanut oil or sunflower oil.
seriouseats.com .com/2014/05/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.html

>heated the pan to about 8
>about 8
>8

I've had this happen to someone who added oil to a pan and it didn't at all take longer than the time it would take for him to put the lid back on the oil and fish the pan off the stove before it caught anything on fire.

something on the pot or burner most likely... or, you're lying about the few minutes part. You will eventually heat can-olive to its smoke point and beyond at 8, but not over the course of a few minutes.

Gas stove?

Sure, if you add oil to an already hot pan, and you don't know how hot that pan is, of course this can happen.

But if you're heating the oil from cold, you should see the problems coming from a long ways off.

pan too hot, oil with low smoke point

at least you didn't burn the place down

You overheated the oil. The dial settings are relative to the maximum heating capacity of the burner, not to any fixed temperature, which is an unknown unless you've actually tested it with a thermometer somehow. Regardless, you never walk away from a pan of oil over heat, ya dingus. If you stand there and watch it until it just starts to give off little wisps of smoke, then you can back the heat setting down a little. That is the point where you are seconds away from combustion. Now that you've learned this lesson you don't have to repeat this mistake.

like some user in the thread said earlier, olive oil smokes at about 300-350 degrees. for reference, on most stoves, an 8 would put you at something like 400+.

only use olive oil for low heat dishes like fish, stuff that needs a gentle cook

I never turn my stove above 4 or 5 unless I'm boiling water.

youtube.com/watch?v=c_YXN8PiFNM

A huge cloud of smoke not a good enough warning for you?

Once I covered a pan to make the oil get hot faster and forgot about it, when I lifted the lid it made a fucking FIREBALL.

olive oil has high enough smoke point for general frying especially if mixed with canola

Flash point of olive oil is just under 600 degrees. If you had it on high for 5 minutes on a crazy output burner, you could reach that temp pretty quick

I am going to assume 8/10 is about 425 F+ (218 C), which is beyond the smoke point of EV olive oil, which is a component of the oil you used.
Use oil that can take temperatures like that if you are going to cook with them.
jonbarron.org/diet-and-nutrition/healthiest-cooking-oil-chart-smoke-points

/thread

Is this a troll

Next time, add sherry to the fire to extinguish.

Not OP, but any tips for preventing grease fires? Never had cooking oil catch on fire, but searing greasy hamburgers is a different story.