Tips and Tools For Crisp Fried Food
One of the quickest ways to alter the taste of the food that you’re frying is to allow sediment to collect in the oil. Not only does the sediment impart the flavors and smells of the food it came from, but it can cause other issues as well. Here are some tips and tools to keep sediment out of your oil and help improve your business’s frying practices.
When frying food, crumbs can come off of the food, especially with free-floating products. Those crumbs that settle into the oil can cause it to smoke, which will give all of the food that is being fried a burnt taste. This burnt taste will last until the oil is changed, which means that oil will have to be changed more frequently than if there wasn’t any sediment in the oil. Another risk of having sediment in oil is that it will take longer for your oil to come to the necessary temperature, slowing down the frying process. What’s the best way to combat having sediment in your frying oil? Using the right tools with your fryer to help keep the oil clean longer.
KEEP CRUMBS OUT
Crumb trays are used when frying free-floating products and placed to help drain the food of oil all the other pieces are cooking. The draining also allows for catching crumbs that otherwise would float to the bottom of the oil.
Another tool to help keep your oil clean is tank racks and screens. Also referred to as tube screens, these filters sit below the product baskets to help prevent sediment from falling where it shouldn’t. The screens come in different sizes, from larger to fine mesh, depending on what products you’re frying. The screen helps, especially with foods that you fry using a double coating of dry and wet ingredients. Using a traditional frying basket for double coating can cause the batter to slide off, which allows it to wrap around the basket or get stuck to the fryer heating element or tubes, which ruins the fried layer and requires additional cleaning.
GOOD FRYING PRACTICES
In addition to using the right tools when frying, there are a few tips for good practices to help your fried food taste fresh and crisp:
- Keep your oil clean. An easy way to do that is to use a Pitco fryer with a built-in filtration system. Changing the oil can be as easy as pulling a handle, pushing a button, or on some models, having it be fully automated.
- Get in the habit of using a skimmer tool between frying batches. Using the skimmer regularly will help keep larger pieces out of the oil for extended periods. Making cleaning the oil easier and the oil fresher.
- Don’t pour frozen product from the bag into the fryer basket directly over oil. This can cause splatter from ice crystals and adds crumbs into the oil, causing sediment. Instead, put the fryer basket on a table and pour the contents of the bag in there. This allows you to shake out ice and crumbs and then lower into the oil.
Get the right accessories for your fryer.
Equip your commercial fryers with the right tools to help manage the life of your oil and continue to produce the best quality fried foods.
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