Deep frying is a method of cooking that involves submerging food in deep oils or fats at high temperatures. There are several reasons why someone would want to use this method of cooking. First and foremost, it seals in the taste and tenderness of the food to help it maintain its flavor and moisture. Also you can cook food quickly in a deep fryer. The consensus on deep fried food is that it can be some of the most delicious and tender food you can eat. Restaurants love using deep frying because their customers love the food and they can churn out dishes 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 could food much faster with deep frying than you can with other methods. The 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, thirty pound Thanksgiving turkey 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. So the time difference it takes to cook something in a deep fryer versus convention methods is significant.
2. Improved Taste of Food
Food that is cooked in a deep fryer always tastes better than food cooked on a stove or in the oven. This is because the surrounding fats or oils do a better job of sealing in the flavor during deep fry cooking. The oils and fats often add a delicious flavor themselves to the food during the cooking process.
3. More Tenderness of Food
This I think 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. When you go out to a restaurant and order an appetizer, you know what I’m talking about. Appetizers are what I usually look forward to the most when eating out. Chances are the appetizers you crave the most are deep fried. At home, you can cook a variety of foods and tasty treats with deep frying that you can’t with other methods. Here are some foods that are ideal for deep frying:
- Friend fries
- Onion rings
- Cheese fritters
- Mozzarella sticks
- Fried fish sticks
- Fried chicken tenders or cutlets
- Scotch eggs
- Fried zucchini disks
- Potato chips
- Doughnuts
- Banana or pineapple fritters
- Fried Mexican ice cream
- Friend pastries
So these are the main advantages of using your deep fryer to do your cooking. If you want to cook food quicker that is more tender and has more flavor, than you should break out the old deep fryer or invest in a new one. Once you experience foods cooked in the deep fryer, it’s hard to go back to the other convention ways of cooking.