It's Important To Maintain Oil Temperature When Double Frying Food

One of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when frying food is getting the temperature wrong. Overheating the fry oil will result in smoke and a bitter, burnt taste. What's worse, as several scientists explained in The Deccan Chronicle, it might even be carcinogenic. Underheating, meanwhile, leaves your food soggy and possibly undercooked. Maintaining the right frying temperature is important not only for taste but for health and safety. If you're sending food back into the oil for a double fry — or frying a second batch — you'll need to check the temperature again between sessions.

Inconvenient as it is, adding food to the frying oil will always bring the temperature down. Not only that, but a lot of double-fry recipes and tips will recommend letting the food rest between frying sessions, giving your oil plenty of time to cool down. While you don't have to keep your oil heated up for the entirety of the wait time between frying, it's essential to re-check the temperature before dropping your food back in. Double-frying food in underheated oil is a recipe for disaster; you'll most likely ruin the crisp finish of the first fry with soggy results, ultimately defeating the point of double-frying for extra crispiness.

From Korean fried chicken to the crispiest of french fries, double-frying is the ultimate secret to the perfect moist-to-crunchy balance found in the most coveted fried foods. An important thing to keep in mind is that not all of them call for the same amount of resting time between fry sessions. Korean fried chicken, for example, can be rested just slightly before being dipped back into the oil. 

On the other hand, some professional and home chefs alike swear by putting your fries in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before the second fry. Maintaining oil temperature while waiting is downright impractical in that second scenario: You'll probably just want to turn the heat off entirely and then take the extra 10 minutes or so to heat the oil back up when it's time. If you don't have a thermometer to check the temperature, you can use the wooden spoon trick to make sure your oil is hot enough for the second fry.