The usual custom among professional cooks is to entirely immerse the
article to be cooked in boiling fat, but from inconvenience most
households use the half-frying method of frying in a small amount of
fat in a frying pan. For the first method a shallow iron frying
kettle, large at the top and small at the bottom, is best to use. The
fat should half fill the kettle, or an amount sufficient to float
whatever is to be fried; the heat of the fat should get to such a
degree that, when a piece of bread or a teaspoonful of the batter is
dropped in it, it will become brown almost instantly, but should not
be so hot as to burn the fat. Some cooks say that the fat should be
smoking, but my experience is, that is a mistake, as that soon ruins
the fat. As soon as it begins to smoke it should be removed a little
to one side, and still be kept at the boiling point. If fritters,
crullers, croquettes, etc., are dropped into fat that is too hot, it
crusts over the outside before the inside has fully risen, making a
heavy, hard article, and also ruining the fat, giving it a burnt
flavor.
Many French cooks prefer beef fat or suet to lard for frying purposes,
considering it more wholesome and digestible, does not impart as much
flavor, or adhere or soak into the article cooked as pork fat.
In families of any size, where there is much cooking required, there
are enough drippings and fat remnants from roasts of beef, skimmings
from the soup kettle, with the addition of occasionally a pound of
suet from the market, to amply supply the need. All such remnants and
skimmings should be clarified about twice a week, by boiling them all
together in water. When the fat is all melted, it should be strained
with the water and set aside to cool. After the fat on the top has
hardened, lift the cake from the water on which it lies, scrape off
all the dark particles from the bottom, then melt over again the fat;
while hot strain into a small clean stone jar or bright tin pail, and
then it is ready for use. Always after frying anything, the fat should
stand until it settles and has cooled somewhat; then turn off
carefully so as to leave it clear from the sediment that settles at
the bottom.
Refined cotton-seed oil is now being adopted by most professional
cooks in hotels, restaurants and many private households for culinary
purposes, and will doubtless in future supersede animal fats,
especially for frying, it being quite as delicate a medium as frying
with olive oil. It is now sold by leading grocers, put up in packages
of two and four quarts.
The second mode of frying, using a frying pan with a small quantity of
fat or grease, to be done properly, should, in the first place, have
the frying pan hot over the fire, and the fat in it actually boiling
before the article to be cooked is placed in it, the intense heat
quickly searing up the pores of the article and forming a brown crust
on the lower side, then turning over and browning the other the same
way.
Still, there is another mode of frying; the process is somewhat
similar to broiling, the hot frying pan or spider replacing the hot
fire. To do this correctly, a thick bottomed frying pan should be
used. Place it over the fire, and when it is so hot that it will siss,
oil over the bottom of the pan with a piece of suet, that is if the
meat is all lean; if not, it is not necessary to grease the bottom of
the pan. Lay in the meat quite flat, and brown it quickly, first on
one side, then on the other; when sufficiently cooked, dish on a hot
platter and season the same as broiled meats.