FRYING.
The word “frying” may mean either of two modes of cooking food: using a common frying-pan, with only a small amount of fat, or immersing the article to be cooked in a deep kettle of hot fat.
The first method is unhealthful, extravagant, and troublesome; the second saves time and is more economical and healthful. When a housekeeper once masters this method of frying, she will not return to the more unsatisfactory and indigestible mode.
There should be enough fat to float the article to be cooked. The fat must be so hot as to harden the surface of the article of food the moment it is immersed, making it impervious to the fat or the juices contained in the food itself. Different articles of food brown at different temperatures, so that the frying temperature varies from 345° to 400° Fahrenheit. Most mixtures composed in part of flour, sugar, milk, or eggs—like fritter batters, doughnuts, etc.—may be cooked at 350°; whereas such articles as oysters, white-bait, croquettes, etc., require a heat of at least 400°. French fried and thin fried potatoes need ten minutes’ cooking. The fat must have a temperature of about 370° when they are put into it, because the potatoes should stand in ice-water for some time before they are cooked. Moisture will cling to them; and this, with their chilliness, reduces the fat at least 20° as soon as the frying begins, making it then 350°. At this heat the potatoes may be cooked brown and crisp in ten minutes. As already stated, oysters require a heat of 400°. Drop a piece of stale bread into the fat; and if the temperature be right, the bread will become brown in half a minute. Oysters and white-bait should be cooked brown and crisp in one minute; longer cooking will make them rather tough and dry. A little lower temperature—say 380°—will do for croquettes, which should be fried for about two minutes. If the temperature be too low, croquettes will burst open during the cooking; particularly rice and potato croquettes.
Put the fat into a deep kettle (that called a Scotch bowl being best) and heat it slowly. When the time for frying the food is near at hand, set the kettle on the hottest part of the range, and watch to see the blue smoke rise from the centre of the surface of the liquid. The smoke indicates the temperature to be about 350°. Drop a piece of stale bread into the fat; and if one minute be required to brown it, the fat may be used at once for frying muffins, doughnuts, fritters, breaded chops, and indeed nearly all articles that require three or four minutes’ cooking.