Always buy good quality oil. Vegetable, safflower or a good blended vegetable oil are best. They impart little or no other flavour to the food and in the main are very light. Olive and peanut oils do add an additional flavour to foods and it is worth bearing this in mind before using them. Read the rest of this entry »
When buying a deep fryer try to choose a meshed wire frying basket as opposed to a perforated aluminium basket. Food does tend to stick to the aluminium ones but almost never to the meshed variety. It is not really possible to sucessfully deep fry in a shallow pan because the larger surface area means a greater heat loss and it is not possible to maintain the very high temperatures necessary for sucessful deep frying. Food fried at too low a temperature is soggy and oily. Read the rest of this entry »
These temperature controls maintain the variation of heat required, from very slow simmer to very high. They are thermostatically controlled and once set will do the job for you without further adjustment. The heat controls are graded in various ways :
These lids are usually designed to be a self basting aid for meats as well as to carry any excess moisture away from baked foods.
If your pan has a vent, as opposed to a glass lid, use the pan with the vent closed when preheating, casseroling or when the pan is being used as a bain marie for custards, puddings or keeping foods hot. Open the vent for browning roasts, crisping baked foods and when drying pastry cases or meringues.
Most pans have a small attachment on the side of the lid which enables it to be clipped over the side of the pan to act as spatter shield when frying or browning.
Some pans have a tilt leg, some do not. However, it is easy enough to tilt any pan slightly and this does make for easy basting or draining of excess oil or liquid.
Choose an electric frying pan which has the element cast in the base. This gives a very even heat distribution over the whole cooking surface and you will avoid the problem of “hot spots” which occur when the element is more or less stuck on afterwards. The weight of the pan is also important, as a thicker base and sides means less heat loss.
