“Boyling in grese”, apparently.
No, that’s specifically the *tempura *frying-in-batter method. There were already deep-fried dishes in existence: [
](Tempura - Wikipedia) That, plus deep-fried dough & tofu dishes are native to the region from way back. Ganmodoki (deep-fried tofu fritters) date back to the 1400s, and are probably of even older Chinese origin.
Doesn’t matter. It’s the same if you deep fry in a 5qt dutch oven. Pan frying is probably quicker.
A 10 inch skillet is not tiny. It is probably the most popular sized skillet made today, and has been popular for centuries. No family would heat anything nearly big enough to be properly termed a cauldron for everyday cooking. Maybe on a plantation.
Nevertheless, it is of little use in true deep frying, where the object being fried is immersed in the oil.
Maybe so, but that has very little to do with the point of the discussion I was having with purplehorseshoe re frying vs. roasting in warmer climates.
Yeah, it kinda does. Your 20 minute/2 batch estimate relied in pan frying, not deep frying, which was purplehorseshoe’s point, and the point of the thread. And it has a lot to do with your reply to pulykamel. You said it didn’t matter, and it does. I can deep fry a 12 pound turkey in 45 minutes; the same turkey roasted would be at least 3 hours.
Nonsense. The time to pan fry vs. deep fry is basically the same when you’re talking about a cut up chicken. Deep frying didn’t evolve as a means to cook something anywhere near as large as a turkey. Know why? Because nobody had that kind of oil on hand. Basically, you’ve made an incredibly useless point.
By the way, your asserion that it would take “at least 3 hours” to roast a 12 pound turkey is so astoundingly ignorant as to be hilarious.
Nobody had 4 gallons of oil? Nobody? Cite?
And we’re still frying for 45 minutes vs. roasting for 3 hours, so yes, it does matter. If time matters. And I assert that it does.
On, give me freaking break. to start with, deep frying was probably done with animal fat, not vegetable oil. Second, yes, at least one person had 4 gallons of fat & the means to heat it up to 400 degrees or so. It most certainly was not common in an average household. That hardly supports the original assertion that frying was developed in hotter cultures.
Besides which, we aren’t talking about 45 minutes vs. 3 hours.
For a 12 pound turkey we are.
You don’t know what you are talking about. You should probably stop before you embarrass yourself further.
Oh, gosh, this wouldn’t hold a candle to how I’ve been known to embarrass myself. But, if you want to provide evidence that I can’t fry a turkey in 45 minutes, and that it doesn’t take 3 hours to roast one, go right ahead.
Tell you what. I’ll give you a one hour head start. I’ll stipulate that the turkey only takes 2 hours to roast (although I doubt I’d want to eat it.) Frying is still much, much faster. Which makes a difference. Which you said didn’t exist.
I can roast a 15 pound bird whole in an hour and a half. I can roast a 12 pound one in about 75 minutes. If I wanted to be economical about it I could cut it up and cook the whole thing in a few minutes more then it takes to fry one, and with considerably less residual heat at the end. You clearly aren’t familiar with high heat roasting, which makes me wonder why you’re bothering to argue the point.
In short, there is no evidence so far that supports purplehorseshoe’s assertion about frying developing in hot climates for the reasons s/he stated. If anything, there is a lot of evidence that people in hot climates enjoyed cooking items for longer periods of time.
Even given those dubious times, frying is still nearly twice as fast. Note I’m comparing whole birds to whole birds. Not really cricket to compare whole to cut up. And that time difference is in fact a significant difference. Which you said did not exist. And it clearly does.
I do agree with one thing. There is little value in arguing the point with someone who refuses to do basic math.
Here’s a high heat method that takes around 2.5 hours for your 15 pound bird.
Here’s one that takes two hours. I think you are fudging the numbers a bit.
That’s inane. People trying to cook economically would cut the bird up. Economy of heat and time is the whole point of the discussion. Otherwise, we can talk about how much faster it is to deep fry an elephant whole.
The stupidity of citing a recipe with a 425 cooking temperature, while calling my math skills into question, is the height of hilarity. Please. Keep digging. I’m sure you can find other recipes that call for longer cooking times. I can match you cite for cite, and put my numerous years in professional kitchens up against the knowledge of a person who thinks it takes “at least 3 hours” to roast a 12 pound bird (your second cite called for a 16 pounder) any day of the week.
I’d be curious to try this. I do a 3-4 pound chicken @ 450 and it takes one hour or just over. A 15 lb bird whole in 90 minutes sounds optimistic, but I don’t know exactly what your method is.
As for 10-inch skillet, well, all I can say it’s too small for me for pan-frying a chicken in batches. I have a 12-inch cast iron. My SO has a 10-inch. With the 12-inch, I could do it with 2 batches, but for the 10 inch, I really think I’d need to cook the chicken in three batches. Maybe four. It just feels really tiny to me, but that could be because I grew up around the larger cast-iron.
Puly, I’m going to measure by cast iron pans to be sure, then get back to you.
The base of my cast iron is just over 10 inches, but it’s sold as a 12-inch (which is the diameter across the rim.) I didn’t realize this when I bought the 10-inch cast-iron online for my SO, and was disappointed to get something with about 8 inches of actual cooking surface. So, measure across the rim, not the bottom to get the advertised size.
edit: It actually does make some sense, since when you buy a lid for a pan, you need to know the rim-to-rim measurement, not the actual cooking surface. Therefore, a 12-inch pan gets a 12-inch lid.
Mine is actually 10 and a half inches. It’s pretty old (made in US, not Lodge) so it may be an odd size. I measured the top, and that confirms that it is 10.5 as stated. Otherwise known as a number 8. I can see how 2 batches would be tight in a 10 inch skillet.
As far as the chicken, I cook mine for one hour straight out if the fridge, and that ends up a bit overcooked - the way my wife likes it. I usually try to bring any meat I cook to room temp first, otherwise.
Yeah, that’s how I do my chicken (I follow Thomas Keller’s roast chicken recipe). My oven probably runs a bit lower than yours, because I take the chicken to room temp and I sometimes will still have red juices at the thigh bone at 50 minutes.
Do you do the turkey at 450? And when you say “whole” you do mean uncut, right? I don’t do a lot of turkey, but it would be nice to try one at a high roast all the way through for a change (I usually smoke my turkey, but I miss the crispy skin you get from higher heat methods. I suppose a blow torch can solve that problem.)