Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1872-05-07
Philosophy of Frying.

lhe Christian Union says that the uO
Ject OF all cooking is TO bring about those
chemical changes in the articles OF TODD
which nature everywhere produces in
vegetable and animal substances, when
exposed 10 the influence oil heat Bak.
ing. frying. boiling or roasting, are all
only 80 many different methods OF app
plying heat. The commonest, the most
convenient, the cheapest and quickest of
these methods is frying, which can be
applied 10 almost all articles of food, ,
which requires The least apparatus and
the smallest fire; yet of all methods it is
one least understood, the one which dcs.
troys the most food, and is the cause of
more indigestion and dyspepsia than all
The other methods combined. The rca-
sou oil this is that in many substances the
admixlurc of tat prevents the chemical
processes Dt cooking from having their
proper development. The perfection ol
frying would be To- have tho food fried
without coming into contact with the lat
ut all. But rs this is, of course, soif.
evident impossibility, the next best thing
is TO have the food come into contact
with the tat us little rs possible This is
accomplished simply by having the fat
hot; grease of any description is capable
of being heated TO very much higher
temperature than water, in fact, il can
be made almost three times as hot as
boiling water. Whan fat is at its boiling
point ii is so hot that any article OF TODD
brought into contact with it is actually
burnt, and this is precisely the reason
why. for purposes Of frying, iat should
always be boiling hot. For any article
of TODD, doughnut, for example, Dip
ped into boiling tat, is Immediately cov-
cred all over with a thin crust of burnt
doughnut, which prevents the fat from
penetrating further in. and enables the
rest OF the doughtnut to be exposed TO q
geater degree OF heat than can be applied
to it by any other process, without COM
ing in contact with the fat, and the nat
ural chemical process goes on inside with
greater vivacity and to u greater de-
gree of perfection than can be obtained
by any other method. Perfect frying is
the perfection OF cooking, but so soon as
the fat is not sufficiently hot to create the
burnt crust around the article fried, then
the fat penetrates it and absolutely pre-
vents cooking from taking place at all.
If the ia, is not boiling, bubbling hot,
the process that takes place is not cook
ing. but simply drenching the food with
tepid fat, aud rendering it totally indi.
gestibe. II makes no difference how
hot the fat is made afterwards, the mis-
chief is done the moment the fat pene-
trates inside. All perfectly fried food
has thin, crisp, brown outside crust,
which has in itself pleasant, relishing
taste. and is perfectly free from even the
suspicion of fat inside, except what was
Intentionally put there by the cook. All
housekeepers know that to fry well their
fat should be hot. But they do not at.
tend to it half as scrupulously rs they
would if they understood the true philos'
ophy OF It, Boiling, bubbling, hot laI
cannot penetrate anything. and cooks
10 perfection; tepid fat penetrates every
where and does not cook at all, but actu-
ally prevents cooking. Any housekeeper
who reads this, and chooses to profit by
it, need never put any greasy, fried,
hali.cooked and indigestible food upon
her table. The whole secret consists