After that batch finished, I added about twice as much oil as was already in there, returned the oil to 375 and fried the same amount. Sure enough the oil temperature dipped but not nearly as much.

So, what have we learned today? More oil, at least twice as deep at the items being fried, is better for deep frying.

Being that tonight is Friday and I just happen to have one remaining haddock filet, fried fish seems like a good candidate for pulling all the frying details together. So if you are ready, here we go:

The Prep

While the fish finishes thawing we’ll get out:

• a 12″ non-stick pan
• peanut oil
• 1 rimmed baking sheet, some newspaper, 1 cooling rack
• nylon tipped tongs
• candy thermometer
• 3 shallow containers for holding our breading ingredients for rolling/dredging.
• Another cooling rack for the breaded, uncooked fish to sit on while they await the oil

If we were deep frying we would start heating the oil first, but since we’re pan frying the fish it won’t take that long for the oil to reach our target temperature. Instead we’ll assemble the draining rack, and position the thermometer in the pan.

prepped frying pan and draining rig

Time to put our breading ingredients together:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp milk
• 15-20 crackers, crushed
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

In one of the shallow bowls, mix the all-purpose flour and cornstarch together. This is the initial dry layer. In another, whisk together the egg and milk. In the remaining bowl mix the crushed crackers and seasonings.

Add enough oil to the prepped pan so that it will come up about 1/4-1/2 the way on the filets and crank the heat medium-high (high on some stoves – YMMV). Monitor the probe (or set its alarm) so you know when it’s getting close to 375.

In the mean time, pat the fish dry. Since I’m serving mine on bread, I’m cutting the filets into 4-5″ pieces and butterflying the thicker chunks so they fit nice on a roll.

Bread ‘em

Make sure the breading area and the prep rack are close together. For each filet dredge:

• in the flour-cornstarch mixture to coat and shake off the excess
• through the egg mixture to coat
• finally through the cracker mixture. Press each side down into the crackers to get a good coating and then set on the prep rack.

breading the cracker mixture

Let those sit for a coule of minutes so that breading gets a chance to set up.

ready for the pan

Fry Baby, Fry

Hopefully the oil is now hot enough. We’re looking for 375. When it hits that mark, in go the bredded filets – don’t forget to use the tongs! Since we’re only frying one small filet we can put the entire batch in – the oil won’t cool that much. More than that and we’d be working in batches.

Let the fish fry for 2-3 minutes. The bubbling will subside somewhat and the underside will have a nice golden brown color. Flip them over and repeat.

almost ready

Remove to the draining rig after another couple of minutes when the other side becomes browned. Let drain and cool and then serve.

nice and brown

Out Takes

Watch the oil temperature. While it naturally drops when food is first added it will climb again.

If it starts to climb too rapidly, turn the heat down. We want to keep it around 375 max. It’ll be impossible to keep it there but it should be 300 – 375 during a frying session.

Don’t move the food around much. Too much movement will keep the good crust from forming. Once in the pan, just leave them alone until they need flipping or become done.

The crust should stay on the food and not fall off and it shouldn’t end up in the bottom of the pan. Some of it will but there shouldn’t be a lot of excess breading floating around down there. If there is, the breading may be too thick or thin.

Good frying takes practice but the technique is pretty much the same regardless of the food. Experiment – try chicken, chicken fried steak, home made onion rings, coconut shrimp even frozen french fries (but no breading please) - man I’m hungry again!

But the frying process alone won’t produce that juxtaposition of textures. Left unprotected in the hot oil, most foods will overcook and even burn. What they need is a coating to protect and defend the food within and promote development of that amazing crust, potatoes and other high starch foods not included.

There are really two coating choices – breading or battering the food. Breaded foods can be pan or deep fried while battered ones are typically only for the deep fryer.

Bread for Success

Breading food typically involves applying a moist coating to the food and then applying a drier coating on top. The moist coating adheres to the food and allows the drier coating on top to stick to it.

The moist coating is typically eggs or dairy products (milk, buttermilk, etc), or a combination of the two, but other wet “binding” agents containing protien can be used. The outer dry coating can be flour, cornstarch, bread crumbs, crackers, potato chips, corn chips, etc – basically anything dry that’ll stick well to the wet stuff below.

All-purpose flour is a traditional coating but it can develop a chewy texture. Rice flower won’t do that and neither will cornstarch. There are literally thousands of recipes for creating breading for frying. Go on, Google “breading frying recipe” and see how many you get.

Regardless of the exact breading recipe it’s best to follow this simple process:

• set up 3 shallow pans: 1 with flour based dry ingredients, one with the egg/dairy/wet ingredients and one with the outer coating ingredients
• roll the food in the flour based pan to coat. This provides a dry, rough surface for the wet coating to adhere to.
• dredge it in the wet stuff next
• roll it in the exterior coating last
• let it sit for a few minutes before introducing it to the 375 degree oil. This’ll give the wet proteins a chance to set before the oil hits them and help keep the breading on the food.

Feel free to season any/all of the components – wet or dry – to give them the flavors you like.

Batter Up

Batter by contrast is one stop shopping. It’s the wet and dry teams mixed together – just like a cake/pastry batter (surprise!). Again, everyone out there has a frying batter recipe but it comes down to wet proteins like eggs and/or milk mixed with dry flour and/or other dry ingredients such as cornstarch, baking soda, etc. plus seasoning.

Once the oil is at that magic 375 degree temperature, the food is submerged into the batter and then directly into the hot oil – no waiting!

Batch, Batch, Batch!

Regardless of method, don’t try to fry all of the food at once. Working in batches and allowing the oil to return to temperature before the next batch will help ensure that a good crust develops and food that is not greasy.

Too many items in the pan will drop the oil temperature below the critical 300-325 degree level and allow the frying oil into the food instead of cooking it from the outside. That would be bad.

A good indicator that the food is done is the lack of bubbles from around the food. Bubbles (really the steam from the moist interior of the food) help keep too much oil from entering. No bubbles means more oil is getting in than you probably want. Extracting or turning/flipping the food (depending on your cooking method) at this point will also help keep the greasiness away.

Almost done!

The Long Arm

In frying, longer is better – at least when it comes to the handles for manipulating fried food inside the vessel. You’ll want a frying utensil that can withstand the heat of the oil with out degrading and without conducting a lot of heat. It’ll also be helpful for the frying utensil to allow the hot oil to flow off the food while the finished food is being extracted from the oil. So far I’ve found the need to have two kinds of frying utensils depending on the food I’m frying. For small items like potatoes, a perforated metal or wire basket style utensil is a great choice. It can swoop up those small chunks in a hurry.

For larger items, like say chicken metal tongs are the way to go. If you’re frying in a non-stick pan, you’ll want the ones with the silicone tips on them so as not to scratch the pan. The tongs should not be the ones that are hinged in the middle unless you fancy getting your knuckles burned every once in a while. Get tongs that are hinged on the end and plenty long. Here’s are the ones I use.

frying utensils

Resting Place

Fried food needs to be drained. No matter how long you hold that food over the oil, some of it will remain in or on the food. It needs to come into contact with something to wick that excess frying oil away not to mention a place to sit and cool a bit. My favorite draining rig is one I picked up from Alton Brown on Good Eats. You’ll need a jelly roll pan (otherwise known as a rimmed baking sheet), a couple of sheets of news paper and a cooling rack that will fit inside the rimmed baking sheet.

Fold the newspaper so it completely fits into the inside of the baking sheet. Getting the newspaper 2-3 layers thick will keep the drained frying oil from making too much of a mess. If you don’t have newspaper, a couple of large paper bags (not plastic!) will do. Place the cooling rack upside down on the newspaper inside the baking sheet. Yes, the legs on the cooling rack will be point upwards. Looks like this when fully assembled.

fried food draining rig

Why upside down with the cooling rack? So that the oil draining away from the food sitting on the wire rack comes in contact with something that can absorb it. If we leave the cooling rack right side up, some of the frying oil will cling to the wires on the cooling rack and stay attached to the food – ick! With the cooling rack inverted the oil hits the paper and drains away not only from the food but from the cooling rack as well. Sweet!

After the food is drained you can wad up the newspaper and just throw it away.

Hungry yet?

Break Down Lane

For a good frying experience the oil needs to be able to withstand an internal temperature of at least 375 degrees. Not all oils or fats can withstand that kind of temperature with out breaking down. An oil’s break down temperature is known as its smoke point so we want to pick a frying oil with a smoke point beyond 375 degrees. That rules out some favorites like butter (clarified butter is another story), regular olive oil, lard, vegetable shortening and most unrefined oils. And while extra-virgin olive oil (EVO) could be used, you probably don’t want to impart its taste to the food during frying.

That leaves canola, corn, peanut, sunflower, and safflower oils as good candidates. Most vegetable oils are really soy bean oil which also has a high smoke point – but you’ll need to read the label to be sure. Peanut oil, with a smoke point of 450 degrees, is a good frying oil choice if you can get it in quantity. Most grocery stores don’t sell it in large containers like say corn, canola, or vegetable oils.

Strain and Reclaim

It’s important to know that despite the oil not reaching its smoke point during a frying session (hopefully), it will break down somewhat when it’s used. If you’re considering straining the cool, used oil back into a container for use in another frying session, it’ll only last a few more times before it becomes worn out. The higher the smoke point of the oil the longer it’ll take to completely break down. About 2 more uses is all I tend to get out of fry oil reuse.

So, with a vessel for frying, a trusty temperature gauge and now the frying oil of our choice, we’re almost ready to crank the heat.

Well, sort of. I did have one of her cast iron skillets – well seasoned from lots of use – but my fried chicken was horribly greasy. Yuck!! There was much to learn.

After reading a bit on frying and watching several cooking shows – Good Eats and America’s Test Kitchen – and reading a bit in I’m Just Here for the Food there’s a lot more going on than just hot oil.

For starters there’s the method – deep or pan frying. My initial attempt was pan frying like I’d seen grandma make it in an iron skillet but deep frying is another alternative. While you can get a dedicated deep fryer, a dutch oven is a better investment. America’s Test Kitchen recommends this one. At around $50 you can’t beat it and you’ll use it for soups, stews, braising, and even baking. Try that with a fryer. It’s even available at Walmart.

Regardless of the vessel used, the oil temperature within the container is critical. If it’s too low the food will be disgustingly greasy! The only way to tell if the oil is ready for frying is to measure it and that means getting a thermometer. Spend the money and get a digital candy probe thermometer. While a glass one is cheaper, I went through three of them before I gave up. They break sitting in drawers, shelves, when washed and especially when dropped.

Typically the oil should be at 375 degrees or so to begin frying. And since the food being fried is below 375, the oil temperature will drop when the food is added. Typically that means all the food can’t be added at once and hence multiple batches will be required in order to fry it all. The oil should stay above 300 for a good frying session – yes leave the thermometer in during cooking so you can see what’s going on. After removing a batch to drain, let the oil recover to 375 before adding the next batch.

That “fry-a-batch-and-recover” technique works with pan and deep fried foods. I’ve used it on chicken, sea food, vegetable and yes frozen french fries and onion rings. Which reminds me – get a splatter screen if you want to keep clean up to a minimum.