Advantages of Deep Frying

There are advantages to deep frying, but they all depend on following guidelines regarding how to deep fry correctly. If you do deep fry correctly, you will find that there is nothing easier and many other advantages.

1. Use a vessel (pan or pot) deep enough for a single layer of frying food to be completely submerged in oil. You don’t need a special deep fat fryer and any wide casserole (cooking pot) will do the job well enough, as long as it is both wide and deep enough, as you need do without the comfortable basket found in many deep fry pans.

2. Choose a cooking oil that has a high “smoke point” (the temperature at which the oil starts burning and breaking, thereby smoking) – the higher the “smoke point” the more boiling time and at a higher temperature the oil can endure without smoking, thinning and losing all the qualities it has.

3. One of the best cooking oils for Deep Frying is Canola oil (produced from Rapeseed) which is relatively cheap, can endure a long, hard day of frying and won’t be expensive to replace when the task is done.

4. The Oil should reach a high temperature of between 345-375 degrees F (175 and 190 C), which can easily be measured using a specialized Thermometer, if one is unavailable try dripping into the oil a small (drop size) piece of food, if it starts “dancing” in the oil and is surrounded by a ring of gushing oil, that means the temperature is high enough, and food can be placed in the oil for frying. In this way you can save on purchasing a thermometer. You should check the oil temperature between each batch of food you fry in it.

5. Food cooks very quickly when Deep Fried! As it is a speedy process, place only a small amount of food, each batch you fry, and do not leave the food in the oil once it is ready: the water in the food turns into vapor when it comes in contact with boiling oil so the food cooks in it’s own liquids and as long as there is vapor, the food doesn’t absorb much of the frying oils, but for that reason should be taken out once frying is done (once there is no more steam the oil will start penetrating the food making it oily, soggy and fattening).

6. Some foods have a natural skin that forms during the frying process (like potatoes- the outer layer turns into a crisp skin that is harder than the inside) to protect the food against oil penetration, other types of food (such as chicken) need a batter or a coat of seasoned bread crumbs to block out oil- but both batter and crumbs are simple to prepare and are cheap to execute.

7. If you purchase a suitable (non-expensive) frying oil, place it in a suitable cooker, heat it up sufficiently, and fry small batches, you should enjoy lightly oiled, crispy delicious and juicy food!

Please note that oil is flammable and should be monitored (preferably with a fire extinguisher near by) at all times. Frying oil should be replaces often and used correctly to maintain the advantages declared above.

Enjoy!
Michelle Blu