Frying of food

Frying, especially deep frying has become the most popular food preparation technology during the last five decades.

The frying technology is important to many sectors of the food industry, including suppliers of oils and ingredients, food service operators, food industries and manufacturers of frying equipment.

Fried food is food that has been cooked in a large amount of fat (as in deep frying) or a small amount of fat. 

The fat is absorbed into the surface of the food, and the heat of the changes the character of the food, shrinking it slightly and changing its color.

Shallow frying is a dry heat method of cooking, where prepared food is cooked in a pre-heated pan or metal surface with a small quantity of fat or oil.

Shallow frying is a fast method of cooking because heat is conducted from the hot surface of the cooking pan directly to the food.

Deep frying is a dry heat method of cooking, where prepared food is cooked in preheated fat or oil. It is a very important method of cooking because it is fast, convenient and deep fried foods are generally liked for flavor and texture.

The fats used for frying gradually undergo certain chemical changes during use. The most important changes are:
Color formation
Oxidation
Polymerization
Hydrolysis

The main change in the food composition during frying is the loss of water and its replacement with frying oil. In contact with hot frying oil, water is rapidly covered into steam at least in the surface layer of fried material.
Frying of food