Fried Food Helpers

The Struggle:

Look I’ll just say it, fried foods are delicious. Just about anything covered in a batter or breading and cooked in hot oil will generally put a smile on my face. But with all the good things that come out of those vats of oil, there is equally as much bad. Empty pockets of batter, ballooned around a small piece of chicken. Food that becomes soggy mere seconds after being removed from the fryer. These are the things that true sadness is made of. As with any problem there is always a solution. But, how exactly do we fix these nagging issues to make our favorite food the best it can be.

“How can you fix soggy fried foods?” 

Crispy For Days

So how do these issues happen when we place food in hot oil? How is it possible that something can come out of a fryer filled with hot oil and be soggy? The base of almost all breading is flour. Flour contains protein that we all know very well by this point, gluten. Gluten just so happens to love water. As the batter or breading is fried some of the moisture is evaporated and becomes crispy. Almost all the time the fried foods will be crispy right out of the fryer. But if the batter or breading have too much moisture, the water will redistribute to the exterior and make it soggy. We know the culprit of sogginess is protein, so in order to remove some of the protein we will need to find something that will mix in easily and not retain the moisture. We have two ingredients that work perfect for this, EverCrisp and Crisp Coat.

People often ask what the difference is between EverCrisp and Crisp Coat. EverCrisp is a soluble fiber from wheat dextrin that replaces 20-30% of the total weight of the flour in a recipe. Crisp Coat is also a soluble fiber but it is made from high amylose cornstarch. Crisp Coat can replace up to 100% of the flour in a recipe. With Evercrisp you cannot replace 100% of the flour in a recipe. Each of these ingredients will provide a long lasting crispy texture, although EverCrisp remains the reigning champ of lasting crispiness. 

The other issue with fried foods is adhesion. Most fried foods are naturally high in moisture, let’s use chicken for example. As the chicken is heated the moisture will start to seep out as the proteins tighten and constrict. This moisture will create a barrier between the batter and the food. Sometimes we coat the chicken in flour to make the rest of the breading stick, but this doesn’t always work as intended. Batter Bind S is an ingredient made specifically to adhere batter to foods. A simple slurry to replace the egg wash in a breading or adding it directly to the batter will keep the breading on the food. Gone are the days of ballooned up fried pockets of nothing which are all too common. So whether your issue is sogginess or adhesion you can use one of or multiple ingredients to nail down the perfect fried food. 

Do you have a recipe you just can’t seem to figure out? Shoot us an email or drop us a line and we will do our best to guide you to the right option.