I'm Just Here for the Food_ Version 2.0 - Alton Brown [47]
Using this device, I have gotten the cost of cooking a large bag’s worth of potato chips down to approximately 22 cents. The only craft to using this device is knowing how much food to put in at one time. This simple frying device comes with a big snap-on plastic lid; the implication is that you store your cooking oil in the device itself, but this is not a good idea since the more oil/air air contact you have the faster the oil will oxidize and go rancid.
If this occurs just once on a chain, the fatty acid is referred to as monounsaturated, meaning that there is a vacancy, but only one. If there are more vacancies along the chain, it is polyunsaturated.
All fats contain all three types of fatty acids. What decides how a fat is to be classified depends on how many of each kind there are (see illustration).
Folks in lab coats are still duking out whether mono- or polyunsaturates are better for us. Culinarily speaking, things are a little more cut and dry. But there are still choices and trade-offs.
FRYING: THE WRAPAROUND PAN
Frying works so well because it conducts high heat to the entire surface of whatever it is you’re cooking. It’s as if you had a pan that could wrap itself around the food. And when done right, very little of the fat is actually absorbed into the food being fried. The trick is to choose your fat wisely.
Fat Saturations
Fats high in saturated fatty acids create wonderfully crisp fried foods, but saturated fats have relatively low smoke points so you don’t get much use out of them and they’re not very good for you. Saturated fats come from animal sources and can hold their shape at room temperature. The most commonly used saturated fats are butter, lard, and suet.
FAT FACTS
• All oils are fats, but not all fats are oils.
• If a fat comes from an animal, it’s considered a fat. If it’s a liquid at room temperature, it’s considered an oil.
• All animal fats are solid at room temperature, which is why we say “chicken fat” rather than “chicken oil.”
• All vegetable fats (except coconut and palm) are liquids and therefore oils.
• Since cooking fats degrade steadily once they cross about 140° F, I add the fat to a hot pan rather than heating it along with the pan.
• Shortening is great for frying. Since it’s used as a baking ingredient, it’s very refined. That results in a nice, golden-brown skin on chicken and, more important, no frying odor in the air.
• Lard is rendered or clarified pork fat, the quality of which depends on the area the fat came from and the method of rendering. Lard is richer than many other fats. When substituting lard for butter in baking, reduce the amount by 20 to 25 percent.
• Suet is a solid fat found around the kidneys and loins of beef, sheep, and other animals.
• The Belgians are even more into pommes frites than we are and they swear by horse fat. I’ve been to Belgium, I’ve had the frites, and my money’s on Mr. Ed. Horse fat is, however, oddly absent from the American supermarket shelf.
Unsaturated fats don’t fry up quite as nicely as oils high in saturated fats, but they have high smoke points so they can be used more than once (if you’re careful with them). Unsaturated fats are primarily derived from plants and are usually in the form of an oil. Monounsaturated fats include olive oil and peanut oil. These fats are known to aid in the reduction of LDL cholesterol levels. Fats high in monounsaturates are ten times less shelf-stable than saturated fats and have low smoke points.
Polyunsaturated fats include safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, and sesame oils. These fats are also better for your health but because their carbon chains have empty hands on them, nasty molecules (oxygen, for instance) can dock with the fat, making it go rancid