On Food and Cooking

oil has several roles to play: it brings the
uneven surface of the food into uniform
contact with the heat source, it lubricates and
prevents sticking, and it supplies some flavor.
As is true in broiling, the trick in frying is to
prevent the outside from overcooking before
the inside is done. The surface is quickly
dehydrated by the high temperatures — odd as
it sounds, frying in oil is a “dry” technique —
while the interior remains largely water and
never exceeds 212ºF/100ºC. In order to reduce
the disparity between outer and inner cooking
times, we generally fry only thin cuts of food.
It’s also common practice to fry meats at a
high initial temperature — to sear them — in
order to accomplish the browning, and then to
reduce the heat while the interior heats
through. Yet another way to avoid
overcooking the outer portions of the food is
to coat it in another material that develops
pleasant flavors when fried, and acts as a kind
of insulation to protect the inner food from