[Sca-cooks] crunch

[Mark.S Harris]

Anne said:
> Crunch is important. I'm sure everyone here has suffered through soggy
> fried food, when the major reason for deep frying is the crisp outside,
> and the tender inside. So contrast matters, too.

I assume you are mostly talking about having the fried food when
originally presented being crunchy rather than soggy, but what about
re-heating fried foods? Maybe its the original food, or the particular
breading or maybe the reheating technique. I've not seem much trouble
re-heating chicken fried steak or fried chicken. But some things like
onion rings, always seem to end up soggy for me. On Monday, we went
out to eat and had one of those "onion blossums". The whole onion
(yep, whole. I noticed they left on some skin last night) which is
sliced almost through from the polar region downward so it falls
outward in a flower shape. Then it is breaded and deep fried. Nice
and hot and crunchy on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside.
However, I took the remainder home and reheated it last night. The
crust was rather limp. Just not the same. :-(  I used the oven to
reheat it. In the past, I've done these and onion rings in the
microwave, which also didn't work.

Although not breaded, I think I've seen similar problems with
"French" fries.

Is there some technique to reheating such fried foods that works?

> Texture is probably one of the things most easily ruined in bulk
> cooking, as I think about it. At least, it's the part most often ruined
> in cafeterias, lunch counters, fast food places, etc. And sometimes even
> good restaurants...

Apparently this problem can occur at all levels, although I guess the
amount of loss of "crunch" that is bearable may vary. I watched my
first Iron Chef show this past weekend since we just got cable TV.
One of the reasons the losing chef lost on this show was that he
cooked his rice too soon and there were complaints about its texture.
The rice was probably steamed, rather than fried, though.

Stefan li Rous