FRYING. Frying is cooking by immersion in hot fat at a temperature from 350° to 3S0° F. The upper limit of temperature answers in the case of croquettes or cecils that are covered with beaten egg; the gentler heat is best adapted to such delicate articles as batters, fritters, crul lers, bouchees. and potato or rice croquettes. If the temperature of 3S0° is not exceeded, the fat does not boil, nor does it smoke, i.e. decompose. It is perhaps chiefly on account of overheating fat that fried foods are but too often unsightly and indigestible. The temperature cannot, of course, be properly regulated without the use of a thermometer. The following test, however, may serve to indicate that the proper frying tem perature is nearly reached: a crumb of bread dropped into hot fat will turn brown in ten sec onds if the temperature has reached 340° F. The frying-pan should be deep enough to permit of covering the cooking article completely. The high temperature of the fat will then cause the° formation, on the surface of the article, of a complete covering, through which neither grease can enter nor juice escape. Without this
impermeable covering, the outside of the fried article will be greasy and the inside flavored with the frying material, while if properly fried, the article should be as free from fat as if it had been cooked in water. After remov ing the article from the hot fat, it should be drained on brown paper, to remove all traces of fat. Croquettes and other made dishes should be covered with beaten egg and rolled in dry bread crumbs before frying. The albumin of the egg will coagulate as soon as it comes in contact with the hot fat and thus make a perfect grease proof covering. As to the frying material, oil, either olive or cotton-seed. is probably the best form of fat. A mixture of oil and suet is also very good. Further, while neither suet nor lard is suitable to be used isolated, a mixture of the two is found to be well adapted for frying. But ter is unfit for frying, because it decomposes at too low a temperature. Nor should butter be cooked in making sauces.