Information about Frying

For other uses of "fry" or "frying", see .

Frying is the cooking of food in oil or fat. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g. palm oil and coconut oil, which are solid at room temperature.

Fats can reach much higher temperatures than water at normal atmospheric pressure. Through frying, one can sear or even carbonize the surface of foods while caramelizing sugars. The food is cooked much more quickly and has a special crispness and texture. Depending on the food, the fat will penetrate it to varying degrees, contributing richness, lubricity, and its own flavour.

Frying techniques vary in the amount of fat required, the cooking time, the type of cooking vessel required, and the manipulation of the food. Sautéing, stir frying, pan frying, shallow frying, and deep frying are all standard frying techniques.

Sautéing and stir-frying involve cooking foods in a thin layer of fat on a hot surface, such as a frying pan, griddle, wok, or sauteuse. Stir frying involves frying quickly at very high temperatures, requiring that the food be stirred continuously to prevent it from adhering to the cooking surface and burning.

Shallow frying is a type of pan frying using only enough fat to immerse approximately one-third to one-half of each piece of food; fat used in this technique is typically only used once. Deep-frying, on the other hand, involves totally immersing the food in hot oil, which is normally topped up and used several times before being disposed. Deep-frying is typically a much more involved process, and may require specialized oils for optimal results.

Deep frying is now the basis of a very large and expanding world-wide industry. Fried products have great consumer appeal in all age groups, and the process is quick, can easily be made continuous for mass production, and the food emerges sterile and dry, with a relatively long shelf life. The end products can then be easily packaged for storage and distribution. Examples are potato chips, french fries, nuts, doughnuts, instant noodles, etc.

There is some criticism of fried foods for their low nutritional value. Frying, especially deep frying, imbues the food with fat from the oil, lowering their nutrient density. But in deep frying, more oil means less grease.

• • [ e] Cooking Techniques
Cooking under heat	Baking Frying Deep-frying Boiling Braising Grilling/Broiling Roasting Sauting Stir frying Poaching Parboiling Steaming Pressure cooking Pressure frying Simmering
Cooking without heat	Smoking Marination
Food preservation	Canning Drying Pickling Refrigeration Salting Smoking
Par-cook	Blanching
Other Techniques	Creaming Fermenting Outdoor cooking Scalding Tempering

Fat

Fat may refer to:

Fat, a group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water
Adipose tissue, an anatomical term for loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes

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The melting point of a crystalline solid is the temperature range at which it changes state from solid to liquid. Although the phrase would suggest a specific temperature and is commonly and incorrectly used as such in most textbooks and literature, most crystalline compounds
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Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree. Previously the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil, 28 million metric tons were produced worldwide in 2004^[1].
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Coconut oil, also known as coconut butter, is a tropical oil with many applications. It is extracted from copra (derived from Malayalam word "kopra" which means dried coconut).
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Room temperature (also referred to as ambient temperature) is a common term to denote a certain temperature within enclosed space at which human beings are accustomed.
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Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature. Temperature is one of the principal parameters of thermodynamics.
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Atmospheric pressure is the pressure at any point in the Earth's atmosphere. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point.
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For the porting of Macintosh software, see .

Carbonization or Carbonisation is the term for the conversion of an organic substance into carbon or a carbon-containing residue through pyrolysis or destructive distillation.
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Caramelization or caramelisation (see spelling differences) is the oxidation of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color.

Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning.
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Sautéing is a method of cooking food that uses a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Sauter means "to jump" in French. It most likely gets the name for one of two reasons, because the food is cooked until it "jumps".
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Stir frying is an English umbrella term used to describe two fast Chinese cooking techniques: chǎo () and bào (). The term stir-fry was introduced into the English language by Buwei Yang Chao, in her book How to Cook and Eat in Chinese
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Pan frying is a form of frying characterized by the use of less cooking oil than deep frying; enough oil to, at most, cover the food to be cooked only half way. As a form of frying, pan frying relies on oil as the heat transfer medium and on correct temperature to retain the
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Deep-frying is a cooking method whereby food is submerged in hot oil or fat. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan; industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer may be used.
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frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically an 8 to 12 inch (20 to 30 cm) diameter flat pan with flared sides and no lid. In contrast, a pan of similar size with straight sides and a lid is called a sauté pan.
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griddle is a piece of cooking equipment. It is a round sheet of metal of appropriate thickness in flat or curved shape fitted with a handle. It is used for cooking pancakes, unleavened breads (roti or chapati), dosa and Welsh cakes.
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The wok/ is a versatile round-bottomed cooking vessel originating in China. It is used especially in East and Southeast Asia. The word "wok" comes from the Cantonese Chinese word for the item: "wok" (鑊).
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The term "nutrient density" has several meanings.

Firstly, nutrient density is defined as a ratio of nutrient content (in grams) to the total energy content (in kilocalories or joules). Nutrient-dense food is opposite to energy-dense food (also called "empty calorie" food).
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Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by conduction, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones.^[1] It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, and quiches.
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Boiling, a type of phase transition, is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding environmental
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For the solder-like joining process, see brazing.

Braising (from the French “braiser”) is cooking with moist heat, typically in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavour.
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Grilling is a form of cooking that involves direct heat. Devices that grill are called grills. The definition varies widely by region and culture.

British English

In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries (except Canada), grilling generally refers to cooking food
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Roasting is a cooking method that utilizes dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting usually causes caramelization of the surface of the food, which is considered a flavor enhancement. Meats and most root and bulb vegetables can be roasted.
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Poaching is the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally water, stock or wine.

Poaching is particularly suitable for fragile food, such as eggs, poultry, fish and fruit, which might easily fall apart or dry out.
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Parboil is an action which refers to partially boiling food in water before it is finished cooking using another method. When something has been parboiled it has been partially cooked; that is, subjected to boiling for a brief period of time.
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Steaming is a method of cooking using steam.

Steaming is a preferred cooking method for health conscious individuals because no cooking oil is needed, thus resulting in a lower fat content.
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Frying

See also

Fat

British English