I saw Good Eats episode where Mr. Brown sticks fish into some hot oil and pops it in the oven. He called it oil blanching. Isn’t this the same exact thing as just deep frying the fish but maybe at lower temperatures?
I understand that water and oils are polar opposites. So basically oil blanching is mainly for flavor while frying is mainly just to cook the food?
In my experience oil burns more…a hell of alot more.
I’ve been researching and chinese use oil blanching as a key method of making their meats super soft juicy and tender with almost a creamy consistency. How does this work at a chemical level compared to frying at high temperatures?
DEVON
Comments
Blanching is most of the time used to describe partially cooking something. So basically he was deep frying but didn’t cook the fish all the way, then finished it off in the oven.
No, because oil blanching just makes the fish crisp on the outside, but does not cook it all the way through. After blanching, you can deep fry it to cook it all the way through, and have nice and crispy on the outside.
this is a debate that has been going on for years. Is cooking with oil a wet process( boiling/steaming) or a dry process( ovens/grills). actually it is both.
When the oil is above 325 degrees it is closer to dry cooking.Reason: the water evaporates so fast, pushing out the vapors at a super fast rate that the oil has no chance of getting inside the food product. hence dry cooking.
When the oils is below 200. the oil seeps in the food and flavor is exchanges, and water will somtimes esxcape but will just rise to the top this is how flavored oils are made( rosemary and herb oils) the herbs has some what of a water content but since the tempouture is low only the essences get extracted.
Now what Alton was doing was the same as the low temperture. except he was not going to soak the fish in a gallon of oil. the oil on the fish will not be constantly hot enought to “fry” but will put a coating a heat protection to the fish.
now this is getting complicated…are you ready for the science of foods. To understand fully, you have to understand the chemical make up of oils and how it reacts to heat/ maintaisn heat.
when your ready you can ask…but in the mean time figure this out….Which will burn you more. oil at 200 degrees F or water at 200 degrees F? the answer is……
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Oil blanching is used to seal in the flavor. The hot oil causes the meat or what ever you are blanching to form a skin around the surface to seal in the goodness. I oil blanche my home hade french fries. By doing so I am guarenteed a nice golden crunchy frie that is still soft in the center. This concept is used in chineese cooking. The oil at the bottom of the wok holds intense heat. The food is only in the oil for a short time and pushed up and out of the oil to finish cooking on the sides of the wok where the heat disapates very rapidly. This is how they keep thier veggies crisp and the meat juicy and suculent.
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