Food Frying Tips

Frying food at home can be a great way to make a lot of really good food quick.  You can enjoy favorites like fried catfish, fried potato wedges and deep fried turkey.  However, there are a few crucial tips that every potential fry cook should know.

One thing to think about is what type of oil to use for frying at home.  Many people swear by peanut oil as the ultimate frying oil.  Peanut oil does tend to have both advantages and disadvantages.  An advantage of peanut oil is that it does not pick up the taste or smell of foods cooked in it.  If you are going to cook catfish today, and then use the same oil later for making fried doughnuts, then this is an important consideration.  You don't want catfish flavored doughnuts and neither does anyone else.  A disadvantage of peanut oil is the cost.  Peanut oil seems to be 3 to 4 times more expensive than a typical frying oil.  If you decide that peanut oil is too expensive, or that you will only fry food every once in a while, then cheaper vegetable oil will probably be okay for you.

Well, whatever kind of oil you choose, you must learn to filter the oil properly to use it again and again.  Filtering your frying oil removes food particles that broke off during the cooking process.  These particles often drift to the bottom of your fryer and get scorched from the extreme heat.  over time these scorched particles will sully the quality of your frying oil and cost you.  There are commercially available filters that can pump and filter your oil at the same time.  This is the easiest way to go when trying to remove sediment and debris from your frying oil.  If you don't want to spend the money on a commercial filter, you can always use an old, clean t-shirt or some other fine woven material to pour the oil through.  This will remove most of the debris from the oil and preserve it's quality.

A final consideration with home frying is maintaining the oil at the proper temperature while frying.  if the oil is too hot, it will smoke and could possibly catch on fire.  if the oil  is too cold, then your food will take forever to cook and soak up a lot of extra oil in the process.  The ideal frying temperature for home frying is 375 to 380 degrees.  There are a couple of ways to check the temperature of your frying oil.  One simple way is to get a good cooking thermometer.  This is the easiest and most reliable way to check the oil' s temperature.  if you don't have a thermometer, there is another way to estimate the temperature of the frying oil.  Take a slice of white bread and cut it into four pieces.  Be sure to remove the crust from the bread.  When you think the temperature is close to the desired cooking temperature, then toss one piece of the bread into the hot oil.  The bread will turn brown in about 60 seconds at 365 to 375 degrees.  It will turn brown in about 40 seconds at 375 to 385 degrees.  That will give you an indication of how hot the oil is and if it is ready for frying food.

Remembering the basics of frying at home will help you enjoy many years of delicious fried food at home.