One of my main food loves is Chinese dumplings, especially the ones served during the Chinese New Year. I could easily eat a million of them and still not get sick of them, especially the ones that are crispy and pan fried. Yet these little half moon beauties go by another name: pot stickers and there is a very good reason for that: often if you are doing it wrong, they will stick to the pan and then you will get a yummy torn apart mess, but a mess all the same. We were dealing with that mess last Chinese New Year when my boyfriend went to look up how to prevent food from sticking and figured out how to do it. At one point, he looked at me and went “You should make a blog post on this” and I agree, improving frying techniques and knowing how to trouble shoot issues is something I'm sure plenty of people would love to know. So, let's look into how frying works and how to fix the main issues of frying.
Now, there are technically three different types of frying and they are all based on the amount of oil you use. Sauteing involves having only a little bit of oil in the pan, just to grease it lightly, like walking on the beach just where the waves lightly touch your toes. It often is good for fatty fried foods like bacon, because its already greasy enough and you don't want to add much more to the pan unless you like heart attacks at an early age. Shallow frying (sometimes known as pan frying but it depends on the source you have) is when the oil is enough so the food has some oil up to the sides. Think of it as wading in the hot oil while it cooks. This is what you do with pot stickers, fried chicken, and other standard fried foods. Finally, there is deep frying which requires you to cover the food in oil or to continue our metaphor: it's swimming in oil. This is where you get that deep fried turkey on thanksgiving or onion rings and french fries from fast food places.
In each of these, the reaction is the same: hot oil dehydrates the food and starts to break down the sugars and proteins in what is known as a Maillard reaction. This breakdown helps the food to heat up, causing browning and the dehydration causes a crust to be formed that keeps any more oil from seeping into the food. The key to making this reaction work is to keep the oil at a hot enough temperature to allow what is called a steam effect, where the dehydration causes steam to form as the water leaves the food, making those lovely bubbles you see around the food. This keeps the food floating on top of the oil. As you can guess, it is this steam effect that allows for fried foods to not stick to the pan but there is a little more to it than that. When oil covers a pan, it is also filling up any imperfections that the pan might have that you and I cannot see. By keeping a coating, it will keep any food from entering those imperfections and reacting to the metal there, causing it to stick.
Alright, that's all well and good but how do we know what temperature is “hot enough” and what is too hot (which can cause burning of food and sadness all around)? For the first question, the answer is roughly 350 to 370 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 177-187 C) is a good temperature to fry in, but make sure it is that temperature with the food inside it. See, as we learned in my de-thawing entry, thermal equilibrium forces both items to become the same temperature, the cool object heating up and the hot one cooling down. If you put too much food in after heating up your oil to a decent temperature, it's going to drop again and then your oil will be too cold. Keep an eye on the temperatures while you are cooking and don't crowd the pan to avoid this.
Yet what about too hot? That depends on the oil you are using and what is called its smoke point, or the point at which the oil will start to smoke in the pan. This is also the point where the oil starts to break down and become useless for cooking, causing not only burning but off-flavors and a horrible smell (not to mention your fire alarms to go off!). Each oil has its own smoke point and here is a handy chart of smoke points for various types of common oils:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (low quality): 320 F/160 C
Butter: 350 F/177 C
Coconut Oil: 350 F/177 C
Vegetable Shortening: 360 F/182 C
Lard: 370 F/182 C
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (high quality/low acidity): 405 F/207 C
Sesame Oil: 410 F/210 C
Grapeseed Oil: 420 F/216 C
Virgin Olive Oil: 420 F/216 C
Peanut Oil: 440 F/227 C
As you can tell, there is a high variety when it comes to oils and smoke points, so don't just grab the first oil you can find. Needless to say, the extra virgin olive oil should be saved for salads and other cold applications, while peanut oil is perfect to fry with unless you have an allergy. These are all things to consider when frying, not to mention flavor and what you are frying to begin with.
I hope these tips helped and if you have any comments or tips on how to fry things, let me know below. Also, above all, monitor your food when frying with care, grease fires can easily happen in a kitchen and no one needs to have their dinner attempt to kill them or burn down their house. Put a lid on any grease fire to kill it, do not use water! Be safe everyone!