Home cooks often use oils that are said to offer health benefits — unrefined oils like avocado or coconut, and the very popular extra-virgin olive oil. However, according to food science, you should always fry food in an oil with a high smoke point, which is the temperature at which an oil begins to smoke, with the next step possibly involving flames.

Neutral-flavored oils that are safe for frying are canola and vegetable (smoke point 400 F), sunflower (440 F), corn, peanut, and soybean (450 F), light olive (465 F), rice bran (490 F), and safflower (510 F). These oils tend to be less "natural," but refining processes help them stand up to high heat; never fry food in oil with a smoke point lower than 400 F.

If you've heard that high-heat cooking methods like frying pose a cancer risk, the University of California Davis' Science Says blog notes that potentially carcinogenic fumes pose little risk to home cooks — no matter which type of oil they use. However, UCD also notes that sunflower oil breaks down into fumes slightly quicker than olive or canola oil.