Oil heated beyond the smoke point breaks down in molecular structure and starts to turn carcinogenic. This is important to know when cooking for Krishna and His devotees. Below is a chart of maximum cooking temperatures for various frying mediums. They are listed in order from lowest smoke temperature to highest. Notice how ghee rates as one of the mediums with the highest cooking temperature ranges. This is provided that it is good quality ghee. I’ve used ghee that began to smoke at temperatures around 200 degrees Celcius (395 F) which is significantly less than what is posted here. In any case, its good to be aware of some smoke points as a passionate session in the kitchen can lead to overlooking the health of the devotees who will partake.

To know what temperature your oil is when cooking you need either an infrared or a probe thermometer. (The prices on this page are pretty high. I bought my infrared for less than AU$200 to use with my wood fired oven. I just didn’t have time to look around the internet much.)

Here you can download a printable .pdf format of this chart for laminating and hanging on the kitchen wall at your local Hare Krishna center.

(Data from Cooking for Engineers)