Make top-quality deep-fried food by following these simple steps.
Fried foods are some of the most craveable, popular items on any restaurant menu. When cooked correctly, they’re piping hot, wonderfully crisp, never greasy and always receptive to sauces and condiments.
Yet the fried food lineup on many menus sometimes gets short shrift because the act of plunging food into hot oil seems so simple. Chefs who respect their fried items disagree, saying great fried foods result from well-executed systems. If any steps are neglected, food quality suffers and oil life decreases.
“Anybody who thinks frying is just a drop-it-and-go job isn’t doing it right,” says Michael Landgarten, owner of Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, Maine. Fried foods make up the core of his menu, necessitating a dozen fryers and multiple cooks to operate them. “We’re fanatics about clean oil, about correct temperatures, about getting as little of our coating into the oil. If we don’t do all that and more, we get bad food.
Fryer oils aren’t one-type-fits-all products. Some impart flavor while others don’t.
Some have high smoke points, others lower. Some are better for frying proteins, others
for vegetables. Chefs must take care to choose a frying oil that:
Next comes establishing trainable, trackable systems which allow cooks to master frying foods and maintaining oil. It’s not difficult, says Elliot Jablonsky, research and development chef for 57-unit Buffalo Wings & Rings, but too many ignore the basics.
“To do it right takes far more attention and care than some understand or realize,” Jablonsky says.
Correct frying oil temperature is crucial, especially in busy periods. The constant addition of cold food to the oil can drop its temperature by 50 degrees or more if it is not allowed to recover between cooking cycles. Cooled oil won’t cook properly and will leave food greasy.
Landgarten’s crews are constantly checking frying oil temperature manually to ensure it’s reheated and ready. Thermostats, he observes, are sometimes inaccurate too.
Keep the oil clean
Oil cleanliness comes next. The pristine golden color of fresh oil won’t last long if it’s not cared for during and after service. Breaded items are particularly harmful to frying oil condition since crumbs inevitably fall off as food cooks. To reduce fall-off:
Batter frying requires different techniques, some of which focus on safety. Katie Payne, chef-instructor in the culinary arts program at Sullivan University in Louisville, Ky., says new students tend to wince a little when learning the proper drag-and-release method of batter frying.
“A common mistake by rookies, who are intimidated when they get their hands close to the heat, is to drop the food in, which splashes the oil,” Payne says. “We teach them to give it a chance to sort of swim by lowering it by hand into the oil and floating it.”
Other batter frying tips:
Oil cleanliness is essential to proper frying, but filtering it is often the most disliked job in a kitchen. The old method of draining fryer wells into metal stock pots fitted with sieves and filters still happens, and accidents resulting from this method aren’t uncommon.
Thankfully, advances in self-filtering fryer and oil replenishment systems have streamlined the process to a completely safe push of a button. Less advanced options utilize a vacuum wand to draw oil out of the well and filter it for return to the fryer or transport to a recycling container.
Landgarten uses self-filtering equipment, but he preserves his frying oil on the front end by frying all his foods twice: first in the oldest oil in his bank of fryers, and then finishing it in a fryer with clean oil. The first cycle sets the coating on the food, he says, “and then it’s moved immediately to the next fryer to finish. We’re reducing the amount of crumbs falling into the fresh oil and extending its life.”
Frying foods isn’t as complicated as other cooking methods, but it takes diligence and attention to detail to make any deep-fried indulgence the best it can be.