Temperature and heat energy aren’t the same. You can put your bare arms into a 375 degree oven’s air while taking out cookies and suffer no harm, but if you dip your finger into the 375 degree oil for just a moment, your finger will fry. Why? The hot oil has much more heat energy in it compared to the air at the same temperature. Generally, temperature says how fast the molecules in something are moving (kinetic energy). Heat energy depends not only on temperature but also the mass and number of the molecules moving at that speed. The oil has many, many more molecules imparting energy to the food and those molecules are much more massive, carrying more energy per molecule.
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