Anybody have a great receipe for breading stuff?

[oliveoil]

I am going through a phase were I am trying to save money by eating at home more. What is the best way to bread seafood. I read and read with not much luck. I cannot ever get great breading like Longjohn Silvers, Hooters or Red Lobster.

Tonite I bought a big bag of shrimp and was planning on breading them with milk/eggs dipping them in peppered flour. Didn't work so hot. By the way I can deep fry or run about 1 inch of Olive oil in the frying pan with a lid. I always spend the money for the better oils it makes me feel like I am keeping the trans fats down.

Olive

[lrprn]

If you are deep-frying the seafood, a dipping batter is definitely the way to go.

Here's a good recipe for beer batter with cornmeal in it - works for veggies too! http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1617,...239207,00.html

And here's another good seafood batter recipe - no cornmeal this time - http://seafood.allrecipes.com/az/BrBttrFishMdGrt.asp

Let us know how the shrimp turn out! YUM!

[SinkingFast]

I'm not so good at the breading thaing either, Olive. But I do have a tip about the oil.

Use regular vegetable oil instead of EVOO, as Rachel Ray calls Olive Oil. Vegetable Oil has a higher smoke temp than Olive Oil does. So you can cook at higher temps for longer periods of time.

A tip I picked up from Emeril that we like is dip your meat, fish, or chicken in buttermilk before breading. It gives the dish a rich flavor that's indescribeable.

Also, to prevent "club hand",........... You know the batter coated fingers you get from going back and forth between the flour and the dip,........ Put all your pieces into the dipping liquid. Have your seasoned flour in a HUGE baggie. Then transfer dipped meat with tongs to your flour in the baggie. Then twist and shake.

For lots of tips, tricks, and consumer rated recipes, check out:

http://www.foodtv.com/

[oliveoil]

Using buttermilk tonite. I forgot about the buttermilk trick. Wonder how long the buttermilk stays in frig?

[Bobby'sGirl]

A little less than a week in fridge.

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/CFS/CFS-424-W.pdf

Here is a link to a storage chart if you are interested in other foods as well. Most of the times are not a spoilage issue (especially with fermented foods) as much as a peak taste and food quality issue. Heck, our ancestors ate moldy foods and bug parts as a matter of course, he he. My grandma was a Kansas farmwife in the dustbowl years and loved to gross out the kiddies with tales of sifting her flour before baking --- the lumps were likely to be flour weevils...and we pay a premium for French bleu cheeses...

[oliveoil]

If you are deep-frying the seafood, a dipping batter is definitely the way to go.

Here's a good recipe for beer batter with cornmeal in it - works for veggies too! http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1617,...239207,00.html

And here's another good seafood batter recipe - no cornmeal this time - http://seafood.allrecipes.com/az/BrBttrFishMdGrt.asp

Let us know how the shrimp turn out! YUM!

The shrimp went over great I used the second receipe without cornmeal. I did notice that the olive oil does start smoking after ten minutes Sinkingfast. That is not a sign of igniting IS IT? I never thought of that but what your saying is different oils will ignite at different temps? I need to get the other oil but the olive oil really does smoke as it gets really hot. I liked the olive oil because It was so thin it didn't stay in the food as much. Although it does give a bit of the olive oil flavor to the food.

[oliveoil]

Okay, I just found this, taken from a cooking website. I never knew this at all.


"Watch out for the smoke point signs as it means you are getting close to the flash point, which is when the oil can erupt into flames. Knowing the smoke point warn you about the flash point and fire points. At the flash point, there are tiny wisps of flame; at the fire point a fire is blazing"


I have heard the word flash point, never smoke point. Many times I will run into the living room while cooking. I have been using olive oil for a while and never payed much attention to it smoking. I could have had a fire. I just thought the oils were safe in a pot I didn't know they could flash over and catch on fire. That is a little disturbing I don't feel real great right now. Has anyone ever had there life flash in front of there eyes. I stood right in front of that pot with it smoking away. Just thought it was natural for olive oil.

This feels like the night ten years ago I started falling asleep while driving crossed the double yellow and felt the gravel on the left side of the road. snapped out of it. No oncoming cars luckly.

[Minnymouth]

Yeah, scary isn't it, some of the things in life that we don't realize can really happen.
I knew about the smoke point and flash point (being from the old school), but lots of the younger folks don't know about it... can be very dangerous.

My mom got burnt real bad on her hands and arms trying to move a skillet from the stove (full of hot burning grease). She was trying to get it outside....... stupid move. She dropped it in the floor and got burned by it...

All she had to do was put a lid on it and smother it out.

[Bobby'sGirl]

Good info site from nutrition school

This talks about smoke point and health risks (minor) from using decomposing oils. Too high a flame is what will invite ignition of oil (or high sugar product) in a pan. Professional chefs need to be trained to handle the intense heat used in open flame cooking styles in high class restaurants. Like Minny said, a pot lid or sprinkle of salt or baking soda to keep out air puts out most fires very quickly in a pan or in the oven. (Water just lets flaming grease float out of pan and all over the place, by the way!)

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2277.html

[SinkingFast]

With oils, as you approach the smoke point, you start converting some chemicals in the oils that will give your foods a funky flavor. Free fatty acids and peroxides. You'll notice it more in foods where you've reused the same oil over and over.

While you could have a flash and a fire, that's not really likely. Not to say it doesn't happen. Just not often in home settings. Most of us see the smoke and get the pan off the stove. Or the smoke detector goes off and drives us crazy. Mostly, tho, we're cooking in smaller amounts. And if you're using an electric cooktop, you don't have an open flame to ignite the flash.

You can boost the smoke point level of the olive oil and still keep using it by mixing. Use 50/50 olive oil and vegetable oil. Or even substitute in Crisco. Fats that are solid at room temp have longer fat chains and are therefore more stable when heated.

[Bobby'sGirl]

You can boost the smoke point level of the olive oil and still keep using it by mixing. Use 50/50 olive oil and vegetable oil. Or even substitute in Crisco. Fats that are solid at room temp have longer fat chains and are therefore more stable when heated.

I like a mix of olive and canola for those few things I can't saute at low temps and pure canola in the fryer. The stability and reuse potential of those solid Crisco type shortenings is why fast food places are having trouble responding to the push to get the unhealthy transfats out of their fried foods. For baked items, shorter chain saturated fats like lard, palm and coconut can be used commercially instead of hydrogenated shortenings (Crisco), but most of us draw the line at using lard mixtures like my grandma used to for her cider doughnuts at harvest time. And lard has a lower smoke point so only worked for that single batch or two. My canola oil in the deep fryer just doesn't give the same taste, sigh...

[tinroofrusted]

Have you maybe thought about going a more nautral approach? Breading and fried foods are sooo bad for you.

I'm sure I am preaching to the choir here, I just wanted to mention it....

[SinkingFast]

I like a mix of olive and canola for those few things I can't saute at low temps and pure canola in the fryer. The stability and reuse potential of those solid Crisco type shortenings is why fast food places are having trouble responding to the push to get the unhealthy transfats out of their fried foods. For baked items, shorter chain saturated fats like lard, palm and coconut can be used commercially instead of hydrogenated shortenings (Crisco), but most of us draw the line at using lard mixtures like my grandma used to for her cider doughnuts at harvest time. And lard has a lower smoke point so only worked for that single batch or two. My canola oil in the deep fryer just doesn't give the same taste, sigh...

I was actually working in the Food Biz when Palm Oil became the big bad guy. Late 1980's, early 1990's.

In R&D, we had to go thru all our products that had palm oil in them and reformulate with a substitute.

Same thing happened at the movie theatres as well. Palm Oil was used hot and heavy to make popcorn commercially. Suppliers had to pull the palm oil out and substitute. Movie theater popcorn hasn't tasted the same since, I don't think.

Tin,........... You are right about frying to a great extent. We don't fry nearly as much as our parents did.

Instead of doing french fries in the deep fryer, I use the oven method and bake them instead. Same with most meats and veggies. Baked, boiled/steamed, or broiled.

But once in a while, you just gotta have it fried.

[brokemommy]

Okay, I just found this, taken from a cooking website. I never knew this at all.


"Watch out for the smoke point signs as it means you are getting close to the flash point, which is when the oil can erupt into flames. Knowing the smoke point warn you about the flash point and fire points. At the flash point, there are tiny wisps of flame; at the fire point a fire is blazing"


I have heard the word flash point, never smoke point. Many times I will run into the living room while cooking. I have been using olive oil for a while and never payed much attention to it smoking. I could have had a fire. I just thought the oils were safe in a pot I didn't know they could flash over and catch on fire. That is a little disturbing I don't feel real great right now. Has anyone ever had there life flash in front of there eyes. I stood right in front of that pot with it smoking away. Just thought it was natural for olive oil.

This feels like the night ten years ago I started falling asleep while driving crossed the double yellow and felt the gravel on the left side of the road. snapped out of it. No oncoming cars luckly.

I never knew this, smoke means close to having a fire?

[brokemommy]

With oils, as you approach the smoke point, you start converting some chemicals in the oils that will give your foods a funky flavor. Free fatty acids and peroxides. You'll notice it more in foods where you've reused the same oil over and over.

While you could have a flash and a fire, that's not really likely. Not to say it doesn't happen. Just not often in home settings. Most of us see the smoke and get the pan off the stove. Or the smoke detector goes off and drives us crazy. Mostly, tho, we're cooking in smaller amounts. And if you're using an electric cooktop, you don't have an open flame to ignite the flash.

You can boost the smoke point level of the olive oil and still keep using it by mixing. Use 50/50 olive oil and vegetable oil. Or even substitute in Crisco. Fats that are solid at room temp have longer fat chains and are therefore more stable when heated.

Is there a probe for cooking oil temp available?