On 1/5/2010 5:15 PM, aem wrote:
> On Jan 3, 7:21 pm, "Steve > wrote:
>> Just cooked some chicken wings, but they don't come out as brown as those at
>> restaurants. Battered some, some not. If you cook them for a while, you
>> can use them to throw at stray cats in the alley, they are that tough.
>>
> If I interpret this correctly, your wings were overcooked and yet not
> as darkly colored as you'd like. That sounds like too low a temp for
> the oil and too long cooking in it. You don't say what temp you
> tried, but I'd expect you want the oil to be at least 360F, if not
> 375F. The most common mistake is to overload the fryer so the oil
> temp plunges immediately, even if it was at the right temp when you
> put the food in, and then also takes too long to recover. Try cooking
> in more, smaller, batches. There should be plenty of room for all the
> pieces to move around freely without crowding. Hint: if the food
> just fits in the container, you've almost certainly overloaded it.

Oddly enough, this is the technique used for Kentucky Fried Chicken. A
whole bunch of chicken is dumped into the fry oil at once which lowers
the temperature and the fryer is then sealed and allowed to fry under
pressure. The sudden drop in temperature makes the frying process more
like boiling the chicken. Well, that's the way they did it in the old
days. The chicken they have now days doesn't seem to be as juicy or
tasty. Sorry Colonel.

>
>> What's the secret to good wings, and what's the thing about "if it floats,
>> it's done" on other deep fried foods?
>>
> Ignore 'if it floats.' Although there may be items for which that's
> true (at a certain temp) it's not a general rule nor a good guide.
> Doneness and color are the product of time and temp. The smart thing
> to do is measure them.
>
>> Or should I chuck the Fry Daddy, and use a shallower pan and turn them?
>>
> You can, but it's a different product. Which do you want? The Fry
> Daddy, as I recall, has a thermostat, you have a watch or clock, those
> are what you want to gain experience with. -aem
>
>