Is Your Oil Ruining Your Pans? + Mikasa Chalk

Preamble
This morning I’ve got an offer for you on white dinnerware from my chums at KitchenCraft, in the form of their Mikasa Plain White Chalk range.
But, before I get started on this, Jeanne had an interesting discussion, with a couple of customers in Cobham the other day, which I thought might be worth passing on to you. There seems to be a fair amount of confusion or just plain ignorance on the subject of cooking with oils. And, talking of ignorance, in doing a little research on the subject, before putting pen to paper, I found several references on the subject, the first one of which, on Google unbelievably told me that Peanut Oil burns at 450°F and in the next breath that Rapeseed oil burns at 204°C.
Really!
Does it really think that I can work out in my head what 450°F is in Celsius?
I’m a simple sort of bloke and that kind of inconsistent approach I find very frustrating. It reminds me of my dear friends at one of our larger suppliers, who have at least two descriptions for all their products. I got a list from them the other day (over 200 items) of all the discontinued product for 2025, and barely recognised a thing on it.
The extra work involved in translating these things, or the telephone calls and emails that such inconsistency, and dare I say stupidity produces, is entirely avoidable.
What oils to use in your cooking
Anyway, back to oils. In an attempt to understand what the difference is between Fahrenheit and Celsius I found a complicated formula that looked like this (°F - 32) x 5/9 =°C. Unfortunately, these things (fractions) were a complete mystery to me at school and still are, so that didn’t help.
Beginning to run out of time, I went down to the shop to see if anyone could help. And whilst I think it is true to say that they all are pretty intelligent, no one I asked could explain the maths fully.
However, five minutes later Paul T came up to find me, clutching a comprehensive chart of oils and fats in alphabetical order, with their smoke points in both °F and °C, in his hand, that some soul in the dim and distant past had slaved over.
Brilliant!
So why did the conversation take place originally? Well, because the customer in question uses Extra Virgin Olive oil for cooking, specifically for frying. WE will always recommend other oils for this purpose such as Coconut, Corn Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Sesame Oil, Sunflower Oil, and vegetable oil, all of which have significantly higher burn points (smoking points) than Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
So why does this matter?
Well, two reasons come to mind:
1. The nutritional value of the oil.
2. The condition of your pan.
Taking point one first. The nutritional value of an oil is reduced quite significantly if you burn it through overheating. I think it’s also true that burned oils can release harmful compounds that, if nothing else change the flavour of the food, making it less palatable, and maybe are not doing us any good either.
So, if you are frying with oil and smoke starts to come off the pan, then my recommendation is pour it away and start with fresh oil. You can avoid the likelihood of this happening by using higher smoke point oils like Vegetable oils (and or lower frying temperature), whether generic, or ones such as Rapeseed, Corn, Sunflower or Coconut. Although some of the advice has now changed, it had become an accepted truth for many years that ‘saturated fats = bad’, so it’s worth mentioning that that advice is no longer so ‘black and white’ as previously thought. For example, at home I use Coconut fat predominantly, rather than the others I’ve mentioned, as apparently it is not as inflammatory for the gut.
The second point, “the condition of your pans”, is also important and is heavily influenced by the oil you use and the temperature you cook at.
Avoid low flashpoint (smoking point) oils for frying, such as Extra Virgin Olive Oil and your pans will be easier to clean, because the oil won’t get burnt onto the surface (or at least, not so much). Try to use lower temperatures for frying. And yes, I know if you don’t have food in the pan, just oil, it’s very difficult to tell what temperature it’s at.
But, if it starts to smoke, you have gone far too high!
Bin, and start afresh.
This advice is valid whichever surface or style of frying pan you use and whichever oil or fat you use.
Now, the reason I’m being deliberately vague is because this is a complex subject, and as I am not a chef, nor a chemist, I am not really qualified (other than through experience of life) to make many definite pronouncements. However, I think that there are certain general recommendations that I’ve outlined above, that we can follow, that will help keep our food tasty, nutritious, and our pans in good nick.
Read my “How to Cook with Uncoated Pans” Guide
To Product
KitchenCraft (Lifetime Brands) Mikasa Chalk (4 For 3 OFFER)
At some point last year, I went up to meet Matthew Canwell, Lifetime Brands Big Cheese, and a couple of his colleagues to have a look around KitchenCrafts new, huge and very impressive showroom and warehouse facility in Birmingham.
In fact, I didn’t really get to see the warehouse, other than from the outside, but the showroom was impressive enough. My reputation for being wowed by coffee and cake preceded me (“provide these and he’ll buy anything from you”), on the cake front at any rate (I’ve a feeling that we had to drink Nescafé …. Perhaps their Jura coffee machine was being serviced? Perhaps I could flog them a new Jura? or a Sage, or my current favourite, the new and marvellous KitchenAid Espresso Machine).
(You could just send them the link to our Coffee Machine Buying Guide 😊 Andi)
But coffee aside, work it did, because since then we’ve been stocking not only a range that I’m about to tell you about, but notably three ranges of KitchenAid Tools that are surprisingly* good quality and well designed.
But, getting back to the subject of this email, Mikasa Chalk, this is a range of plain white dinnerware that comprises
1. Dinner Plates
2. Side Plates
3. Cereal Bowls
4. Pasta Bowls
5. Mugs
6. Teacups & Saucers
7. Espresso Cups & Saucers
8. Jugs in two sizes
9. Gravy boat.
10. Egg Cups
11. Individual Oval Pie Dish
12. And a Tea Bag Tidy
It’s made in plain white porcelain, which, as a first observation, I think food always looks good against. Also, porcelain is fired at a very high temperature and this contributes significantly to producing a very tough and highly chip resistant surface.
It will, of course, still break if dropped on a hard floor, but we’ve had (another brand of) white porcelain at home for the last 30 odd years, and I don’t think one piece has been chipped in that time….quite impressive when compared to say china.
The other quality that porcelain has, over the competition, is its thermal shock resistance. This means that you are safe using it in the oven and a sudden change in temperature won’t crack it. And, I almost forgot to say that, compared to the whiteware range that it replaces, the glaze is deep and lustrous, rather, as I recall the French Pillivuyt's range being, when we stocked it years ago.
And lastly, in my opinion, I think the shapes are simple, elegant designs that would happily fit into many homes.
In the shops we sell all these items individually. Online however, I’m afraid that all plates bowls, mugs, eggcups and cups and saucers are sold in pack quantity, typically twos or fours. This is purely, and happily, because they are supplied in drop proof boxes that ensure that they get where they are going in one piece, whatever DPD or Royal Mail do to them**.
So, the offer this weekend is 4 for the price of 3. (Excluding the 12 Piece Dinner Set, unless you actually want four of them!)
Please use code CHALK25 if you are shopping on the website or just tell us who you are if coming into Cobham or Reigate shops.
*KitchenAid used to make the most hideous clunky, nice quality admittedly, but otherwise beyond the pale, kitchen tools, that belonged firmly the other side of the Atlantic.
**this is not a criticism of these two carriers, especially, just that they are the two we use.
That’s it for this this morning, I trust you have pleasant and peaceful weekend.
Warm regards
Andrew
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
Art of Living
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