I usually avoid deep fried foods for obvious reasons, but lately I have been intrigued by such delicacies as Japanese fried karaage chicken. Im a bit of a foody and wouldn’t mind attempting making this at home myself. Making it at home also makes it easier to control ingredients and portions.
I was wondering what the best option is for deep frying in one of the deep frying machines? Obviously I want to avoid a increase in intake of the bad oils. Research has so far directed me towards peanut oil.
Lard: would be ideal, but it solidifies at room temperature, hence I could not use it for the deep frying machine.
Coconut oil: don’t like the taste and aroma. Solidifies at lower room temperatures. Also gives me a stomach ache.
Olive oil: I love olive oil and often to use it for greasing my pan for eggs and when shallow frying fish. Also great to use over salads. But the taste is too strong, smoking point is too low and it would be too expensive to use for deep frying.
@strongmangoals : how often do you deep fry? I’m only planning to deep fry some chicken once every week or two, and this will be on my “cheat night” meal.
NOT lard. Most lard (speaking about pig fat here) comes from pigs that are fed high linoleic diets, so their fat ends up being high in linoleic acid as well. Also, store bought lard has so much linoleic acid that they have to hydrogenate it to make it solid enough and keep it from going rancid-turning the linoleic acid into saturated fat (which is fine) but also creating trans fatty acids in the process.
Beef Tallow is not hydrogenated, and has almost zero linoleic acid. You order it online. It is fine. Coconut is fine. Avocado, olive and macadamia are OK but may have residues that burn at high temps. They are also very expensive, but high oleic safflower and high oleic sunflower have basically the same fatty acid profile as avocado and olive. They have to be high oleic. High oleic safflower with a small amount of vitamin D added (in the product) is almost all mono-unsaturated, wont burn or rancidify, and holds up to high temps.
Yes. I bought a couple 5 pound pales and it makes great french fries. I gave some to a friend who is a head chef in a fairly high end restaurant and he used it to fry items on his menu.
I bought some large pieces of fat from a local ranch and rendered about 10 lbs myself, but a little softer than the one I bought online. Not sure it I can link to the source that sells the tallow? Or mention their name? Both sources were golden colored.
Beef tallow is about 1/3 saturated and 2/3 monounsatured, with only about 2-4% omega 6. Omega 6 is not only inflammatory, but the main cause of oxidative damage to blood vessels leading to coronary artery disease. Saturated fat is not capable of causing oxidative damage the leads to heart disease and monounsaturated have a very low capacity for oxidative damage.
Peanut oil is not good IMO. It is about 1/3 omega 6 and has a high rancidity rate. Similar to soybean and corn oil, but they take higher heat because they have high vitamin E levels.
The fat around the kidneys is typically softer and greasier tasting than the hard fat throughout the body, kinda like the fat on head. I don’t care for it.
Here you can buy non hydrogenated lard. It’s more expensive but is available.
If I can catch the lil bastards that keep tearing up my mom’s yard, I will have some real free range lard!
Is omega 6 worse than other forms of polyunsaturated fat? I’m just looking this up to compare, it appears that peanut and canola both have similar amount of polyunsaturated fat.
I rarely fry foods, but when I do it’s in the cast iron pan with canola oil or vegetable oil making jaegerschnitzel. I used to think I was celebrating my German heritage, but thanks to my sister’s recent DNA test, I’m now just celebrating my love of schnitzel.
The best fried anything I had was fried in duck fat.
If you’re not planning to make frying foods a lifestyle, definitely go for taste! Who cares if it’s a once a month treat?