The most difficult holiday tradition is deep-frying a turkey. The wrong way a 16-pound butterball is fried in hot oil can lead to disastrous results.
Deep-frying on a stovetop is dangerous. Save yourself and your local fire department some stress this year. Scientists have discovered a new way to master deep-frying.
No expensive equipment is necessary—in fact, you likely have two of these tools with you right now.
Finding The Sweet Spot
Your oil can make your food greasy and chewy if it is too cold. Your oil should not be too hot. If it is too hot, oil can cause food to burn and oil can ignite.DefinitelyIt is not good.
Deep-frying requires that you maintain the perfect temperature. Japanese chefs know how to find the perfect temperature. We will use a damp chopstick. They listen for the sizzle of the chopstick to determine the oil’s temperature.
Scientists at many universities were intrigued by this trick and began to wonder how it works. That work?
Sizzling, Singing or Silence
That was the question that fluid dynamic researchers set out to answer. They found that hot oil creates water bubbles when a wet chopstick is struck by hot oil.
“Now that water bubble and those air bubbles would be different in shape and size,” Rafsan Rabbi Submitted NPR, “and that would dictate the amount of noise that you’re actually hearing. [It would also] dictate the frequency of the noise that you’re hearing.”
Tadd Truscott is another scientist involved in the project. “if you hear really loud popping or crackling, it’s probably too hot. If you don’t hear anything, then it’s usually too cold.”
“Then, there’s sort of this nice bubbling sound,” Truscott continues. “It almost feels like a song to some people, as it was described to me once.”
Fried to Perfection
Let’s be very clear. there’s a reasonPSAs about deep-frying turkeys make an appearance every November. It is quite different to drop a 16-pound turkey into a 30-qt pot than to fry dumplings on the stove.
If you’re planning on frying your bird, then invest in a temperature gauge. You’ll want something a little more precise than a chopstick for this project.
And unless you’re deep-frying turkeys year-round, it’s best to brush up on this cooking technique before you’re three beers in on Thanksgiving Day. The ManualOffers an Guide aptly named, “How to Deep Fry a Turkey Without Killing Yourself.”
However, if you’re frying things in the kitchen—dumplings, pastry shells, and so on—the chopstick trick is perfect.
You can finally use those Chinese takeout chopsticks from your junk drawer. Have fun frying!