Deep Frying - Advantages & Pro Tips

Deep Frying - Advantages & Pro Tips

Deep frying is a method of cooking that involves submerging food in deep oils or fats at high temperatures. The crispy golden outer layer and the wonderful taste are hard to resist, even with the thought of the negative nutritional value in the back of your mind. 

There are several reasons why someone would want to use this method of cooking. First and foremost, it seals the taste and tenderness of the food to help in maintaining its flavour and moisture. Also, you can cook food quickly.

Let's look at the most common advantages of deep frying when compared to other methods of cooking.

1. Speed of Cooking

You can cook much faster with deep frying when compared with other cooking methods because basic laws of thermodynamics state that heat transfer between a hot liquid and solid food occurs much quicker than it does from heated air to a solid food. The larger and more dense the food you are cooking, the more you will see this effect realized. Let's take a large, Thanksgiving turkey (the one that they show on television) for instance, To cook that in an oven, it would take eight hours. In a deep fryer, you can cut your cooking time down to an hour or less.

2. Improved Taste of Food

Food that is cooked in a deep fryer always tastes better than food cooked in the oven. This is because the surrounding fats or oils do a better job of sealing in the flavour during deep fry cooking. The oils and fats often add a delicious flavour themselves to the food during the cooking process.

3. More Tenderness of Food

I think this is the primary reason why people love to deep fry their foods. Foods that are overcooked in the oven tend to dry out, and eating food that is dry and overcooked is certainly an unpleasant experience, especially when you are looking forward to a tasty meal. With a deep fryer there is no worry of this occurring. If you happen to cook food in a deep fryer longer than necessary, it will still retain its moisture. You can be sure to have a tender meal when it is cooked in the deep fryer.

4. Makes Great Appetizers and Desserts

Deep frying is ideal for making a variety of foods in a style that is most appealing. 

Things to keep in mind while Deep Frying or using a Deep-Fryer;

1. Checking out the Temperature

Check the temperature of the oil before deep frying. If you are confused, drop a crumb or cube of bread into the oil/fat and notice how long it takes to brown (I have shown below how to understand temperature by this method). Similarly, you may use my simple rules of thumb too! If it starts dancing in the oil, food can be placed in the oil for frying or wet the tip of your finger and flick it at the oil. If the oil is hot enough, it will sizzle when the water hits the oil (Don't use much water, just a wet finger tip)

• 60 seconds : The oil is approximately 180 degrees Celsius/360 degrees Fahrenheit and is suitable for gentle frying.

• 40 seconds : The oil is approximately 190 degrees Celsius/ 375 degrees Fahrenheit and moderately hot.

• 20 seconds : The oil is about 195 degrees Celsius/385 degrees Fahrenheit and very hot.

• 10 seconds : The oil is dangerously hot and needs to be cooled down.

You may cool oil down by turning off the heat and frying several slices of bread.

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2. Cooking

Always cook in modest amounts while deep frying. Adding too many pieces of food at the same time will lower the temperature of the oil. Which means that the coating will not form a crispy crust, and the food will shed its juices and soak up fat. And also when you crowd the food in the frying it does not allow the hot oil to completely surround each piece. You need the hot oil to completely surround the food to set up the steam barrier that prevents the oil from penetrating your food items.

when frying frozen food such as chips or fish fingers. Don't make the mistake of using very hot oil to counteract the cooling temperature of the frozen food; a fairly cool fat temperature (180 degrees Celsius/360 degrees Fahrenheit) is required to cook frozen food to make certain that the centre is thawed and cooked before the coating browns.

Also, Drain any cooked foods well, and put on kitchen paper to mop up any unwanted oil. Moreover, Store any food that is not to be served straight away in a warm oven with the door but be cautious as covering or enclosing the food will make it soggy.

3. Cleaning the Oil

After the fat has cooled, it should be filtered through muslin or filter paper to get rid of any food particles. The oil should be changed once it becomes dark, odorous or cloudy.

4. Oil Temperature

If the temperature is too high the coating will burn before the food is cooked.

If the temperature of the oil is too low the food being cooked will absorb the oil and take on a greasy taste.

If the recipe does not call for a specific temperature, 360 -375 degrees Fahrenheit is usually best for deep frying fish and slightly lower for meat. 

There are usually 2 ways of deep frying in cooking

• Deep frying the ingredients directly.
• Deep frying the ingredients with batter.

The latter one is the most commonly used method in modern cookery. 

The sizes of the ingredient pieces should be uniform. Otherwise, some pieces will be overcooked, some will be undercooked, and even the colours will be different piece by piece. If you want more flavour Marinade the ingredients to enhance the taste and the aroma of your cooking.

Deep fry Twice on ingredients that are not easily fried. The first time using medium heat until 70, 80% cooked. Take them out, crank up the heat to high, then deep fry them again to achieve the desired results.

5. Food must be dry before deep frying 

Coating it in flour or breadcrumbs can help in drying it out. When using a coating to dry the food, allow it to sit on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes to dry properly. Medium heat should be used to warm the oil. A desirable oil temperature for this cooking method is between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

When adding the food to the pan, use the space sparingly because too much food will make the temperature of the oil to drop causing the food to begin to absorb fat rather than cooking. Once the food is browned on the outside, it should be finished cooking. Remove it with a spoon that has holes in it and place it on a paper towel to soak up the oil. If the rest of the meal is not ready yet, fried foods can be kept warm in an oven at 200 degrees.

6. Do not use a lid when frying, EVER

7. Stay next to your fryer

Never leave it unattended. You must monitor that the temperature remains at 350 degrees at all times and - more importantly- you DO NOT want anyone to get hurt or burned with the very hot oil or fryer. When you place the meat into the hot oil the temperature will be reduced a bit. Increase your heat and return it to 350 degrees. This will take a few minutes.

8. Let the oil cool for 2 hours before you start cleaning up

9. Do not allow water to come into contact with hot oil or there could be a violent and dangerous explosion. Moreover, don't try to extinguish oil fry with water or else, you may worsen up the situation.