Frying

“ By means of frying, cooks can soon satisfy many requisitions made on them, it being a very expeditious mode of preparing dishes for the table, and one which can be employed when the fire is not sufficiently large for the purposes of roasting and boiling. The great point to be borne in mind in frying, is that the liquid must be hot enough to act instantaneously, as all the merit of this culinary operation lies in the invasion of the boiling liquid, which carbonizes or burns, at the very instant of the immersion of the body placed in it. ”

“ The little unsavoury morsels we daily eat, created incessant quarrels, every one contending for the frying-pan; and our only convenience for a fire, was a tub half filled with earth, which made cooking so tedious, that we had the continual noise of frying from morning to night. ”

“ Only a small quantity of anything should be fried at one time, and the fat must be heated to a proper temperature before frying a second lot. There are two distinct methods of frying, known respectively as deep or wet frying, and dry frying. ”

“ Frying is easier than broiling, the fat, oil or butter in which the article is fried must be boiling, but have ceased to bubble before it is put in the pan, or it will be greasy and black: there is now a new description of fryingpan, called a sauté pan, and which will be found extremely convenient for flying small cutlets or collops. ”

“ It differs from frying in this: that to fry any object requires fat enough to immerse that object; while to sauté it, requires just enough to prevent it from scorching.
Vegetables, omelets, etc., are sautéd, and not fried.
Meat or fish cooked in a frying-pan with a little butter or fat, is sautéd, and not fried; but the term fried is most generally used, the other being only known to practitioners.
To sauté requires a brisk fire; the quicker an object is cooked by sautéing the better. ”

“ Ingredients.—A pig's fry, which consists of the heart, lights, liver and sweetbread, frying-fat, flour, salt and pepper, sage.
Method.—Wash the fry well, cover it with water, add a little salt, and cook gently for 1⁄2 an hour. Drain and dry well, cut into thin slices, and coat them lightly with flour seasoned with salt, pepper and a little sage. Fry in hot fat until nicely browned, then remove and keep hot. Sprinkle a little flour on the bottom of the frying-pan, let it brown, then pour in a little boiling water, and add seasoning to taste. ”

“ All kinds of rissoles, croquettes, fillets and cutlets of fish, fritters, &c., should be fried in this manner, and should not be darker than a golden brown. It is an advantage to use a frying-basket for all such things as are covered with egg and bread-crumbs; but fritters, or whatever is dipped in batter, should be dropped into the fat, as they become so light that they rise to the top of it. When they are a pale fawn colour on the one side, they should be turned over to the other. Care must be taken to drain everything, after frying, on kitchen paper in order to remove any grease. ”

“ Boiled fowl, with a white sauce, is a favorite English dish, and very nice it is if properly prepared.
Frying.
Frying means cooking by immersion in hot fat, butter, or oil. There is no English word for what is called frying in a{44} spoonful of fat, first on one side, and then on the other. Sauté is the French word, and should be Anglicized. Ordinary cooks, instead of frying, invariably sauté every thing. Almost every article that is usually sautéd is much better and more economical fried; as, for instance, oysters, fish, birds, cutlets, crabs, etc. ”

“ Frying is boiling in fat, which must be quite fresh. Lard, suet, and dripping are better adapted as batter for fish, eggs, potatoes, or anything watery, than butter.
Fish are more difficult to fry than meat: for them the pan should be hot, and the fat boiling. ”

“ Frying may be looked on as a derivative of broiling, and passes by easy stages, from broiling on a slightly greased metal plate, or sautéing in a shallow pan in a small quantity of Crisco, to cooking by actual immersion into a bath of hot fat. In a house where small and delicately made dishes are in demand, and where variety in the re-dressing of cold meats has to be studied, this frying in deep fat is one of the cook's most needed accomplishments. Though exceedingly easy to do well, it is also exceedingly easy to do badly. ”

“ Like the Gridiron, the Frying-pan requires a clear but not a large fire, and the pan should be allowed to get thoroughly hot, and be well covered with fat, before meat is put into it. The excellence of frying very much depends upon the sweetness of the oil, butter, lard, or fat that may be employed. ”

“ BROILED MEATS. IT has been said that the frying-pan has ruined more American digestions than all the other hurtful agencies combined. It is certainly true that while the process of frying properly performed upon certain substances does not of necessity, make them unwholesome—the useful utensil does play altogether too important a part in our National cookery. Broiled meats are more wholesome, more palatable, and far more elegant. Certain things should never be fried. That beefsteak should never make the acquaintance of the frying-pan is a rule without an exception. ”

“ Lard, suet, drippings, olive oil and combinations of these things are used for frying because they can be raised to a very high temperature. We cannot fry in water because it can never be made hot enough to crisp anything. ”

“ FRYING. The process of frying follows next in natural order to those of roasting and grilling. A little reflection will show that in frying the heat is not communicated to the food by radiation from a heated surface at some distance, but by direct contact with the heating medium, which is the hot fat commonly, but erroneously, described as ‘boiling fat.’
As I am writing for intelligent readers who desire to understand the philosophy of the common processes of cookery, so far as they are understandable, this fallacy concerning boiling fat should be pushed aside at once. ”

“ Then wash the frying-pan, cleaning it well from the fat, and put into it plenty of cold boiled cabbage, cut small, and some cold carrots, sliced thin, adding some thin sliced suet, or beef dripping to fry them in. When done, dish the meat with the vegetables laid around it; adding the gravy. This is the dish called in England, Bubble-and-Squeak, perhaps from the noise it makes when frying. It is only designed for strong healthy people with good appetites. ”

“ It seems to me just here that before giving further recipes for fried articles I had better make sure that all my readers understand the process of frying in deep fat. I have used the word sauté too, and although no doubt both these processes are familiar to most readers who would be likely to practise “Choice Cookery,” for those who are not adepts many of the recipes would be impossible to execute. Frying, once understood, is so easy a process one wonders that so few should excel in it. To those who are not sure of themselves I recommend practice. ”

“ Frying has been described as boiling in fat. It is not a correct phrase, because the fat is not boiled, and the thing fried is not always immersed in fat. It is the quickest mode of cooking, because melted fat or oil can be brought to a high temperature, and, by contact with it, the food fried is very quickly and very much heated. All fried food is heated beyond boiling water point on its surface; if the frying is prolonged the meat is over heated throughout, so that this method is not fitted for food that should be slowly cooked at a low temperature, such as tough meat. ”

“ Frying is a process somewhat intermediate between roasting and boiling. Indeed, in one sense, it may be termed boiling, as it is the application of heat to the substance to be cooked, through the medium of melted fat, raised to the boiling temperature. The effect on the meat is very peculiar, and easily distinguished from every other mode of cooking. The meat is prepared in the same way as in broiling, by cutting it into chops, or slices, of not more than half an inch or three quarters in thickness. ”

“ As has been mentioned, birds slightly older and larger than those used for broiling should be fried, because frying is a slower method and gives the flesh a more thorough cooking. However, most of the dishes commonly known as fried poultry are not fried, but sautéd in shallow fat. ”

“ Herbert. "To-day we shall be quite sufficiently busy preparing the fat for frying. Can you, Mary, tell me what it is to fry food? If you had to fry the fritters, for instance, how would you set about it?"
"Please, ma'am, let me think," said Mary. "When we fried the pancakes, we put a little fat in the frying-pan, and let it melt, and then put in the batter. So I suppose we should do the same with fritters."
"That is exactly what we must not do," said Mrs. Herbert. "There are a few things which we must fry in a shallow pan, with very little fat. Pancakes and omelettes are amongst them. ”

“ They both contain other constituents common to vegetable juices, and some peculiar to themselves. These mucilaginous matters, when roughly separated, carry down with them some sugar, and form a sort of coarse sweetwort, capable by skilful treatment of producing a rich caramel well suited for mixing with coffee.
Returning to the subject of frying, we encounter a good illustration of the practical importance of sound theory. A great deal of fish and other kinds of food is badly and wastefully cooked in consequence of the prevalence of a false theory of frying. ”

“ To know when the fat is of a proper heat, according to what you are to fry, is the great secret in frying.
To fry fish, parsley, potatoes, or any thing that is watery, your fire must be very clear, and the fat quite hot; which you may be pretty sure of, when it has done hissing, and is still. We cannot insist too strongly on this point: if the fat is not very hot, you cannot fry fish either to a good colour, or firm and crisp.
To be quite certain, throw a little bit of bread into the pan; if it fries crisp, the fat is ready; if it burns the bread, it is too hot. ”

“ Have the clean frying-pan warm, but not hot, when the meat goes in. Turn the slices as they brown. When done, take the pan over to the sink or table, remove the meat to a hot dish and set where it will keep warm.
Strain the grease left in the pan through a bit of tarlatan or coarse muslin into a cup. Wipe the frying-pan clean, pour in the strained fat and return to the fire. If there is not enough to cover the bottom a quarter of an inch deep, add a tablespoonful of butter. Break the eggs one at a time in a cup, and when the fat hisses put them in carefully. ”

“ By frying fish I mean that it is to be immersed in hot lard, beef drippings, or olive-oil. Let there be a little more fat than will cover the fish; otherwise it is liable to stick to the bottom and burn. Do not put in the fish until the fat is tested, and found to be quite hot. If the fat were not hot enough, the fish would absorb some of it, making it greasy and unwholesome. If it is hot enough, the fish will absorb nothing at all.
To prepare fish for frying, dredge them first with flour; then brush them with beaten egg, and roll them in fine or sifted bread, or cracker crumbs. ”

“ In frying, a blue smoke must arise from the fat before it is hot enough to fry even things which require a comparatively low temperature. Cold things to be fired must be added to the fat gradually, to avoid reducing the temperature too suddenly. The fat must always be re-heated to a proper temperature before putting in a second set of things to be fried. ”

“ Well-educated cooks understand this distinctly, and use a deeper vessel than our common frying-pan, charge this with a quantity of fat sufficient to cover the fish, which is simply laid upon a wire support, or frying-basket, and left in the hot fat until the browning of its surface, or of the flour or bread-crumbs with which it is coated, indicates the sufficiency of the cookery. ”

“ It is evident that many domestic cooks (not hotel or restaurant cooks) have a vague idea that the metal plate forming the bottom of the frying-pan should directly convey the heat of the fire to the fried substance, and that the bit of butter or lard or dripping put into the pan is used to prevent the fish from sticking to it or to add to the richness of the fish by smearing its surface.
The theory which I have propounded above is that the melted fat cooks by convection of heat, just as water does in the so-called boiling of meat. ”

“ Are nice fried, or boiled and pickled like oysters, for frying, they should be previously boiled, and taken out of the shells, and all but the hearts thrown away, as the rest is very unhealthy, dip the hearts, into flour, and fry them till brown in lard. The hearts are also good stewed with a little water, butter, pepper, and salt. ”

“ A frying-pan is worth anything to a campaigner; fish, flesh, or fowl are all equally well cooked in it. Coffee can be roasted, pancakes made, stews prepared, and a whole host of useful offices performed. Do not forget your frying-pan. It is a good plan to have a “parasol joint,” as it is called, made in the handle close to the pan, this will, by bending the handle a little, admit of its being folded across the pan, and thus more easily stowed away. ”

“ A little dripping rubbed on a hot frying-pan or gridiron, after cleaning it, will greatly remove the smell and taste of fish; but some persons rub a little salt well about the inside of a hot frying-pan, with a piece of clean paper, which also removes the taste of fish or onions. ”

“ It appears that the terminology of frigo and that of asso in the next formula, has not been clearly defined. As a matter of fact, not many modern cooks today are able to give a clear definition of such terms as frying, broiling, roasting, braising, baking, which are thus subject to various interpretations. ”