Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-02-18
CRYING.
The Philosophy oft.

The object of cooking (says J. B,
Hodgkins in the Housekeeper) is to
bring about mere chemical changes in
articles of food when exposed to the
influence of heat Baking, frying,
boiling or roasting are all so many
different methods of applying heat
The commonest, the most convenient,
the cheapest and quickest of thess
methods is frying. which can be APP
piled to almost all articles of food,
which requires the least apparatus and
the smallest fire, yet of all methods is
the least understood, the one which
destroys most food, and is the cause of
more indigestion and dyspepsia than
all other methods combined. The
reason of this is, that in many sub
stances the admixture of fat prevents
chemical processes of cooking from
having their proper development The
perfection of frying would be to have
food fried without coming in contact
with the fist at all. But as this is, of
course,a selfevident possibility, the
next best thing is to have the food
come in contact with the fat as little
as possible.
This is accomplished simply by hav-
ing the fat hot. Grease of every de-
scription is capable of being heated to
very much higher temperature than
water; in fact, it can be made almost
three times as hot as boiling water.
When fat is at its boiling point it is so
hot that any article of food brought
in contact with it is actually burnt,
and this is precisely the reason why,
for purposes of frying, fat should al
ways be boiling hot. For any article
of food, doug hnut for example, dip
ped into boiling fat, is Immediately
covered all over by a thin crust of
burnt dough which prevents the fat
from penetrating farther in, and en-
abIes the rest of the doughnut to be
exposed to a greater degree of heat
than can be applied to it by any other
process without coming in contact
with the fat, and the natural chemical
processes 60 on inside with greater
degree of perfection than can be OBJ
tanned by any other method. Perfect
frying is the perfection of cooking,
but so soon as the fat is not sufficient
ly hot to create the burnt crusts around
the article fried, the fat penetrates it
and absolutely prevents cooking from
taking place at all. If the fat is not
boiling, bubbling hot, the process that
takes place is not cooking, but SIM
ply drenching the food with a tepid
fat and rendering it totally indigest-
IDLE. It makes no difference how hot
the fat is afterwards, the mischief is
done the moment the fat penetrates
inside.
All perfectly fried food has thin,
in itself a relishing taste), and is per-
fectly free from even the suspicion of
fat inside, except what was intention
ally put there by the cook. ALI house
keepers know that to fry well, their fat
should be hot. But they do not at
tend to it half as scrupulously as they
would if they understood the true phi
losophy Of it. Boiling, bubling, hot
fat cannot penetrate anything, and
cook to perfection tepid fat penesrates
everywhere and does not cook at all,
but actually prevents cooking. Any
hoasekeeper who reads this, and
chooses to profit by it need never put
any greasy, fried, half-cooked and in
digestibie food upon her table. The
hotel secret is to have the fat boiling
hot before the things are put in. There
is one other condition which follows
naturally from this first one, bat
which is almost invariably lost sight
of even by goad cooks, and that is the
fat should entirely cover the article
to be fried. The reason of this is,
that the part not at once covered by
the fat remains cold, cools off the
fat near it and then absorbs the tepid
fat just the same as if it had never
been hot. Frying pans should be
deep, well filled and heated to the
boiling point, and then it is easy to
turn out fried food, crisp, brown and
dry on the outside, and perfectly soft
moist and well cooked within, It is a
popularity of the outside crust of
things fried In boiling fat that the fat
itself drips off from it as readily
as water; hence, well fried
articles are neither greasy in appear
ance nor very greasy in reality. Fry
ing ought to be as easy as boiling.