So I picked up a Tasty OneTop last month. It's a portable burner that lets you set the temperature (to the degree) via your smartphone, very neat tool for precision cooking. I've been using it to figure out the perfect temperatures for different things, such as grilled cheese, pancakes, and so on, so that I can replicate the cooking process the same way every time (I can follow instructions pretty decently, but sometimes 'freestyling' my food results in being undercooked or overcooked, so some added consistency when using a skillet or pot would be welcome!), and have found some interesting pieces of information that fits into the list of stuff you didn't know & probably don't care about, haha:
Stovetop range temperatures:
275F Low
300F Medium
330F Medium-High
375F High
Deep-frying:
Typically done between 350F to 375F
Process triggers:
285F: Maillard (browning) starts
355F: Pyrolysis (burning) starts (slightly higher at 338F for sugars, such as caramel, although the typical range for caramelization can be between 340F to 360F)
500F: Grill marks start
750F: Instant pyrolysis (note that too much pyrolysis results in a bitter taste from being overly-charred)
Oil smoke points:
200F: Butter (200F to 250F)
225F: Flax seed oil
350F: Coconut oil (extra virgin)
350F: Sesame oil (unrefined)
360F: Vegetable shortening
370F: Lard
375F: Olive oil (extra virgin)
391F: Olive oil (virgin)
400F: Canola oil (refined)
440F: Corn oil
450F: Coconut oil (refined)
450F: Peanut oil
460F: Soybean oil (refined)
468F: Olive oil (extra light...note that extra light is just a milder flavor, not less fat or calories)
485F: Ghee (clarified butter, which is actually pretty easy to
make at home with just a cheesecloth)
570F: Avocado
It's interesting that the different versions of the same oil have different smoke points, such as olive oil, which comes in extra-light, virgin, extra-virgin and has a temperature points of 375F up to 468F, depending on what you use. Butter itself has a range of 200-250F, but ghee is 485F (which can pretty much replace any cooking oil, to give you a buttery flavor without burning). I've been using avocado oil to do searing for sous vide proteins lately, and there's no discernible taste difference, and it has a really nice super-high smoke point (my kitchen is unventilated, been trying to figure out how to sear meat without smoking the place out!).
Applied thermal processes:
Browned butter
Toasted sugar (which uses a lower temperature of 300F & a longer bake time to produce caramelization)
Toasted cream
Anyway, part of the reason I was doing temperature research was because I recently discovered
caramelized croissant French toast, which doesn't look all that pretty, but is pretty amazing. Basically just blend up the ingredients, cut the croissants in half & soak 'em for a minute per side, and then fry up in a skillet with butter to get a crispy caramel layer going on:
http://cleobuttera.com/breakfast-muffins-and-donuts/caramelized-croissant-french-toast/