January 3, 2015

Fried.

The previous post "The best of vocal fry" has a comment by Ron: "vocal fry...fried cheese curds...what's next jalapeno poppers?" He's noticing that the post before that is "At the Fried-Cheese-Curds-and-Naked-Ambition Café." Now, I have a tag for "this blog has a theme today," but the "At the Fried-Cheese-Curds-and-Naked-Ambition Café" is yesterday's last post, so the tag doesn't fit. What to do? Well, there are clearly 2 things to do: 1. Whip out the old "I'm not making a tag for this" tag, and 2. Go forward with the theme so that "the blog has a theme today" is apt. So:

1. "Fry-oil biofuel businesses suffer as gas prices fall. Plunging oil prices mean lean times for the owners of greasy spoons no longer able to cash in on their excess fats...."

2. "McDonald's to end fry rationing in Japan.... The company has airlifted more fries into Japan to help ease the shortage and added extra shipments from the U.S. East Coast. During the shortage, McDonald's suggested customers add an extra portion of chicken nuggets to their orders and sold them at a special price of 100 yen."

3. "Kenya: Thieves Fry Kenya's Power Grid to Cook Fast Food... A vandal who is selling the toxic oil, drawn from the transformer, to chefs who use it for frying food in roadside stalls. Five liters of the viscous, PCB-laden liquid sells for $60. It looks like cooking oil, but lasts much longer, users say. Kenyans' appetite for fried food and cheap frying oil is stalling the country's urgent efforts to build a modern electrical grid, even as it sews [sic] the seeds of a public health crisis, experts say."

4. "Stephen Fry Shows Us How To Make (And Spill) a Temporary Lava Lamp.... Three parts vegetable oil, one part water, a little food coloring, some alka-seltzer and an empty tennis ball tube is all it takes...."

5. "An Eggless Egg You Can Fry.... An egg produced from plant proteins might gel, but if the gel doesn’t hold any water once it’s in the pan, the egg will evaporate the instant it touches the pan’s hot oils...."

6. "The Fry Up Police is the hilarious – and sweary – cult Facebook page that’s totally judging your attempts at the British brekkie classic. The idea’s pretty simple. You post a pic of your awesome fry up and then the page’s approx. 5000 members will let you know in no uncertain terms what they make of your efforts. It can get pretty brutal."

7. "Just hours after two New York City police officers were gunned down while sitting in their patrol car Saturday, police protesters took to the streets in St. Louis and were videotaped taunting officers there with a phrase the NYPD cop killer reportedly used on an Instagram post prior to the murders: 'I’m putting pigs in a blanket.' Specifically the small crowd chanted, 'Pigs in a blanket! Fry ‘em like bacon!' as officers stood in a line."

8. "Feminist activists in Belgium threw french fries and mayonnaise on the Belgian Prime Minister Monday in protest of what they believe is his chauvinism and promotion of the wrong economic values."

9. "Wisconsin DUI suspect blames beer-battered fish fry in 10th arrest."

10."fry (v.)... late 13c., from Old French frire 'to fry' (13c.), from Latin frigere 'to roast or fry,' from PIE *bher- (4) 'to cook, bake' (cognates: Sanskrit bhrjjati 'roasts,' bharjanah 'roasting;' Persian birishtan 'to roast;' Greek phrygein 'to roast, bake'). Meaning 'execute in the electric chair' is U.S. slang from 1929. To go out of the frying pan into the fire is first attested in Thomas More (1532)."

19 comments:

Guildofcannonballs said...

Pigs In a Blanket Fry Em Like Baconnnn #Ferguson
4:47 PM - 20 Dec 2014. - Bassem Masri

Looks like a potential Harvard or Columbia professor here. But isn't this a micro aggression against my brothers, I can't say our brothers anymore with comments like the above, who are Muslim and don't eat pork (thinking it a "dirty animal")?

I stand with Muslims against pork jokes. I draw the line at the image of bacon frying. There is no place in public discourse for such vulgar calls to ruffianism..

Bob Ellison said...

I made crepes in a frying pan last night. Wrapped them around some chocolate+raspberry Ben & Jerry's ice cream, topped them with whipped cream, and drizzled Grand Marnier on them.

Next time I'll use Chambord.

Bob Ellison said...

Where has Chip Ahoy been all long while, anyway?

Scott said...

Frying in oil is a really efficient way to transfer heat to food. If it's done right, it enhances the taste too. Fat means flavor.

McDonald's uses fast recovery fryers that dump a huge amount of heat into the oil when the temperature drops from the frozen fries plunging in. The only problem is, the intense heat from the recovery process breaks down the oil faster. Which is why they add crap to the oil to make it last longer. McD franchisees filter the oil daily, but sometimes they don't replace the oil frequently enough.

Hence, McDonald's fries often taste of bitter, rancid oil. I hate them. A better way to make fries is to cut room-temperature potatoes into fries shortly before frying them. That way, the fryer doesn't have to work as hard to reheat the oil, and the oil doesn't break down as quickly. This enables them to use simpler oils, like pure peanut oil. This is the way Five Guys and In-N-Out burger makes their fries, and you can taste the difference.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Well Apple decided you don't get to see the url to my google search "Dazed and Confused fry like little piggies" so you don't. This means people both [redacted] and not [redacted] are unable to comment on the hazing of [redacted], a topic many feel extraordinarily strongly about with regards the [redacted], all night [redacted].

Laslo Spatula said...

Futurama Fry:
CHARLES MANSON'S GETTING MARRIED and i'm still single?

Helter Skelter in 2015, people.

I am Laslo.

Ron said...

Calendars divide time into days...but blogs do not really! One post followed by another....maybe minutes apart....maybe months. So Fry On!

Ann Althouse said...

I really feel the mark of the end of the day on the blog.

I think readers don't want to cross the line back into the previous day.

Ann Althouse said...

#3 is the one that gets me.

Fernandinande said...

Kenya: Thieves Fry Kenya's Power Grid to Cook Fast Food

Legacy of slavery.

Bob Ellison said...

Professor, I cross the dateline on your blog when I haven't kept up.

I'm sure you're keenly aware that your commentariat is not your readership, though of course they overlap. Lots of your writings are worth reading even if they don't attract comments. Sometimes I feel as though you've exhausted the subject with your primary post, and that's admirable.

Danno said...

With all the bad news on frying, I think we are toast!

LYNNDH said...

No 8 = Don't ever ever ever call them "French Fries" in Belgium. They are BELGIUM FRIES. The fries originated in Belgium.

FullMoon said...

Scott says: McDonald's uses fast recovery fryers that dump a huge amount of heat into the oil when the temperature drops from the frozen fries plunging in. The only problem is, the intense heat from the recovery process breaks down the oil faster. Which is why they add crap to the oil to make it last longer. McD franchisees filter the oil daily, but sometimes they don't replace the oil frequently enough.
That explains it ! When I worked there as a teen, we peeled and sliced fresh potatoes, "blanched" them in lower temp hot oil, then drained and transfered them to the hotter oil.

boldface said...

What, you egg? Young fry of treachery!

ken in tx said...

Chip ahoy is on Lem's place almost everyday. A number of people who got crossways with Ann are there. Don't know why.

Guildofcannonballs said...

http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22Dazed+and+Confused+fry+like+little+piggies%22&form=OPRTSD&pc=OPER

Guildofcannonballs said...



This is a link that place that was easy but wasn't.

Scott said...

@FullMoon: You must have worked at McD's a very, very long time ago. The blanching process occurs at the factory, not at the restaurant. The fries arrive at McD's restaurants frozen. Everything I wrote on this topic is accurate.