Circulating the oil

[gfweb]

Frying some julienned potatoes (not quite a latke) in a little oil. The center just wasn't cooking at a rate comparable to the edges. I used a laser thermometer to take the temp of the slow-cooking center and the edge. Edge was 400 deg and the center was 290!

I know that this is not news, but I was impressed at the magnitude of the temperature drop.

Gently sloshing the oil back and forth raised the temp of the center to 350 and frying sped up nicely. If only using a little oil, clearly sloshing is in order

[Broken English]

I assume you were cooking on gas and the flame was deflecting up the edges of the pan, heating the extremities more readily. I would think cooking over a lower set flame would fix this.

[gfweb]

You assume incorrectly.

Evaporation of water from the frying potatoes cools the oil. In a small amount of oil this can have a large effect.

[dcarch]

Measuring liquid with an IR thermometer is tricky. You should try to measure without liquid.

Also, if you are using a cast iron pan, cast iron thickness is not very uniform and temperature distribution varies.

dcarch

[gfweb]

Hard to measure the oil temperature "without liquid". There wasn't enough oil for a probe thermometer. The pan was steel.

[HungryC]

Rather than sloshing the pan, why wouldn't you just push the tangle of potatoes over to one side? Would accomplish the same thing without an attempt to stir boiling oil.

[gfweb]

You could that. I just gently tilted the pan up and down. Perhaps slosh was an overstatement.

[TheCulinaryLibrary]

assuming your pan distributes heat evenly and excess moisture drained from the mix its probably just uneven density but if you rectify this too much you wont get the super crispy edges

[TheCulinaryLibrary]

You also don't mention what type of oil you used. Trying a higher smoke point oil, like rice bran safflower or peanut will give you extra time to heat the middle and not burn the edges.

Edited March 18, 2013 by TheCulinaryLibrary (log)

[Broken English]

You assume incorrectly.

Evaporation of water from the frying potatoes cools the oil. In a small amount of oil this can have a large effect.

Well there you go. I really should explore Modernist Cuisine a little more.