Frying baskets should be used for all delicate frying (see p. 302) so as to do away with the need for much handling, and to lift all the things out at the same moment. Failing a basket, an iron spoon or slice may be used, but not of tin or Britannia metal, as they would melt. Baskets should not be used for fritters, which stick to the wires. As the basket always expands with heat, it should not be a very tight fit for the pan.
Dry Frying is so called because of the small amount of fat used, not because of the dryness of what is fried, for things fried this way are very apt to be greasy. Sometimes the frying is so "dry" that only just fat enough is used to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan, just as the bars of a gridiron are greased. The iron pan is heated, and the meat is cooked by heat directly communicated from the hot iron. Such frying, in fact, is an imitation of broiling, and usually an unsuccessful imitation. There should always be at least enough fat to cover the surface of the pan, and it always should be made as hot as possible without burning, before beginning to fry. To put cold fat and cold pan and cold chop on the stove and let them all heat together is always a mistake sure to result in a greasy, juiceless chop with burnt fat. Whatever and however you fry, first heat the fat.
Fat for Frying.—Melted suet or fat can be used for French frying, and mutton is less likely to burn than beef, but either or both together will do. Lard should never be used, for it always leaves an unpleasant flavour and costs more than beef or mutton fat. Oil is to be preferred to, and can, without burning, be made hotter than any fat. Olive oil is often recommended, but it is costly, and much of the oil sold as olive is largely adulterated with cotton-seed oil, which is far cheaper than any fat used as food. Unfortunately, though a great deal is sold, not much is sold under its right name or at a fair price, except to cookshops or to the vendors of fried fish. Many specially prepared fats are now on the market; they vary greatly. Some are merely beef fat, freed from skin and blood, and melted into cakes; these can be used like suet. Others are solidified cotton seed oil, purified nut oil, etc. These are sold plain or as blends. Some of them are excellent for frying purposes, and are economical where much frying is required. Animal fats, with the exception of refined lard, burn quicker than vegetable fats. Butter is the soonest spoilt by high temperatures.
To clarify fat or suet for frying, it should be cut up into small pieces, put into a saucepan with just enough water to prevent burning, heated over a slow fire until the liquid fat is quite clear and then strained. The pieces strained out are an economical substitute for suet for short cakes, puddings, etc. After using several times, the fat can be purified by pouring it whilst hot into a pan of water and well stirring; the pieces and impurities settle at the bottom of the cake of fat or sink into the water. The fat should be also occasionally strained when cool; if it be strained directly after frying it will
