Contents
I think I’ve already mentioned that Kenji Lopez-Alta’s Food Lab is one of my favorite cookbooks of late. It is fat – I have been reading it for more than a year, and I will probably finish it by the time Kenji releases the second book – and very informative: this is not a collection of recipes, but a manual written in a simple and understandable language for those who have already mastered the basics of cooking and wants to understand it at the level of an advanced user. Kenji posted an excerpt from the book in his column on the Serious Eats website the other day, and I decided to translate it for you.
Why do you need batter
I think I’ve already mentioned that Kenji Lopez-Alta’s Food Lab is one of my favorite cookbooks of late. It is fat – I have been reading it for several years now, and I will probably finish it by the time Kenji releases the second book – and very informative: this is not a collection of recipes, but a manual written in a simple and understandable language for those who have already mastered the basics of cooking and wants to understand it at the level of an advanced user. Kenji posted an excerpt from the book in his column on Serious Eats the other day, and I decided to translate it for you. Have you ever deep-fried skinless chicken breasts without breading? I highly recommend not doing this. The moment the chicken enters a container with oil heated to 200 degrees, two things begin to happen. First, the water in the meat quickly turns into steam, bursting out like a geyser, and the outer tissues of the chicken become dry.
How to make batter or breading
The batter is made by combining flour – usually wheat flour, although cornstarch and rice flour are also used – with liquid and optional ingredients to make the dough thicker or hold better, such as eggs or baking powder. The batter envelops the food in a thick, viscous layer. The breading consists of many layers. Usually the food is first doused in flour to make the surface dry and uneven, and then the second layer – the liquid binder – will adhere as it should. This layer usually consists of beaten eggs or dairy products of some kind. The last layer gives the food texture. It can consist of ground grains (flour or corn grits, which are usually breaded for chicken), ground nuts, or a mixture of toasted and ground bread, and similar foods such as crackers, crackers, or breakfast cereals. It doesn’t matter what your breading is made of. or batter, they still serve the same function: add a “protective layer” to the product, which will not be so easy for the oil to penetrate during frying, so that it will take on most of the heat. All the heat energy that is transferred to the food must pass through a thick coating riddled with microscopic air bubbles. Just as the air gap in the walls of your home smooths out the influence of cold air outside, batter and breading help the foods hidden under them cook more delicately and evenly, without scalding or drying out under the influence of hot oil.
What does the batter do during frying?
Of course, while food is cooked slowly and delicately, the opposite happens with batter or breading: they dry out, become harder. Frying is essentially a drying process. The batter is designed to dry in a particularly pleasant way. Instead of burning or turning into rubber, it turns into a crispy, dense foam filled with lots of air bubbles that gives both taste and texture. Breading works in a similar way, but, unlike frothy batter, it has a brittle, crunchy texture. The dimples and unevenness of good bread crumbs increase the surface area of the product, which gives us more crunch in every bite. In an ideal world, the batter or breading becomes perfectly crispy, while the food underneath, be it onion rings or a piece of fish, is perfectly cooked. Achieving this balance is the hallmark of a good cook.
5 varieties of batter and breading: pros and cons
Flour breading
Behind: Properly cooked flour breading turns into a very crispy, dark brown crust.
Against: Gets dirty (by the end of frying, your fingers will also be breaded). The oil deteriorates very quickly.
Classic recipes: Southern style fried chicken, breaded schnitzel
Crunchiness level (1 to 10): 8
Breadcrumbs
Behind: Very easy to cook, although you need a few pots. The result is a very crispy, hard, dense crust that goes well with sauces.
Against: Breadcrumbs sometimes taste too strong, overpowering the flavor of the food itself. Ordinary crackers soften pretty quickly. The oil deteriorates relatively quickly.
Classic recipes: Chicken in parmesa breading, schnitzel in breadcrumbs.
Crunchiness level (1 to 10): 5
Behind: Panko crackers have a very large surface area, which creates an incredibly crispy crust.
Against: Sometimes panko crackers can be hard to find. A thick crust means the food underneath should have a strong flavor.
Classic recipes: Tonkatsu – Japanese pork or chicken chops.
Crunchiness level (1 to 10): 9
Beer batter
Behind: Great taste. The beer batter is thick and therefore protects delicate foods such as fish well. Easy to prepare, does not delaminate after mixing. Without additional breading in the flour, the butter deteriorates very slowly.
Against: Doesn’t give the same crunch as other batter. Quite a few ingredients are needed. Having prepared the batter, you need to use it quickly. Without additional breading in the flour, the crust softens quickly. If breaded in flour, the butter quickly deteriorates.
Classic recipes: Fried fish in batter, onion rings.
Crunchiness level (1 to 10): 5
Thin batter tempura
Behind: Very crispy batter, large surface area encourages crunchy chunks. Due to its low protein content, the batter does not fry as much and does not hide the taste of more delicate foods such as shrimp or vegetables. Oil deteriorates relatively slowly.
Against: It is difficult to prepare the batter correctly (easy to over- or under-beat). Prepared tempura batter should be used immediately.
Classic recipes: Tempura vegetables and shrimps, Korean fried chicken.
Crunchiness level (1 to 10): 8