High heat cooking safety

[puffin3]

IMO too many cooks use too high a heat when cooking food.
I'm no expert but something tells me cooking foods at extreme heat isn't a good thing visa vi what happens to the cooking oils. What about about Chinese stir frying?
Can some expert here on the subject tell me/us if the 'ancient' Chinese cooks used extreme heat to cook? What types of oils/fat did they use. I'm guessing pork and poultry fat. These fats aren't able to withstand too high a heat without burning. Once burned they can't be that good for a person. Did they have the technology to use extreme heat? Did they use some sort of 'bellow' method? Did the average Chinese family have access to enough fuel to get fires to extreme eat?
Or is extreme heat using a wok a relatively new thing since the invention of propane tanks? What type of fat/s do commercial Chinese cooks use when using extreme heat with a wok?
Do people who eat a lot of Chinese food over time/years risk health problems from eating fats that have broken down b/c of extreme heat?
Are there links to this issue?

 

[powerplantop]

By keeping the food moving most of the time the oil and food does not burn.

By cutting the food into uniform pieces the food cooks quicker and uses less fuel.

Life expancy in the US 78.74
Life expancy in China 75.20

 

[taxlady]

As I understand it, the high heat used for wok cooking is traditional. Maybe not as hot as in some restos nowadays. Apparently kindling was easier to come by than bigger pieces of wood. I believe that kindling burns hotter than bigger pieces of wood.

 

[powerplantop]

BTW: The Chinese have been using natural gas since the 4th century BC.
Natural Gas as Fuel - China culture

 

[roadfix]

I love my steaks cooked over screaming hot heat.

 

[taxlady]

BTW: The Chinese have been using natural gas since the 4th century BC.
Natural Gas as Fuel - China culture

Wow! Thanks for the link. Another thing the Chinese were doing long before the "West".

 

[puffin3]

BTW: The Chinese have been using natural gas since the 4th century BC.
Natural Gas as Fuel - China culture

I read the article.
Sorry. I'm having a hard time believing the Chinese back in the fourth century BC "drilled bore holes up to 2000 feet deep" to find natural gas.
I don't doubt they somehow were able to use natural gas discovered in salt brine shallow wells.
Anyway. This technology such as it was was very unlikely to be used by your average rural Chinese farm family.

 

[Hoot]

I read the article.
Sorry. I'm having a hard time believing the Chinese back in the fourth century BC "drilled bore holes up to 2000 feet deep" to find natural gas.
I don't doubt they somehow were able to use natural gas discovered in salt brine shallow wells.
Anyway. This technology such as it was was very unlikely to be used by your average rural Chinese farm family.

This article from the Encyclopedia Britannica, Natural Gas, indicates that the Chinese were using natural gas very early.

 

[puffin3]

The article says the first 'deep' wells were maybe 500'. Sometime between 900 BC and 1900 was when the really deep wells were drilled. I'm guessing that would have been nearer the nineteenth century than BC. 'Anyway, who cares.
I think the average rural farmer in China for thousands of years was more likely to use dung and straw for everyday cooking.

 

[CraigC]

The article says the first 'deep' wells were maybe 500'. Sometime between 900 BC and 1900 was when the really deep wells were drilled. I'm guessing that would have been nearer the nineteenth century than BC. 'Anyway, who cares.
I think the average rural farmer in China for thousands of years was more likely to use dung and straw for everyday cooking.

Exactly!