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If I placed bread crumbs in a pot of oil to deep fry and then take it out, it comes out crispy and not 'wet', although they are drenched in oil initially?

But if I place bread crumbs in boiling water, they just stay soaked?

Trogdor
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    The answer to this related question more or less answers your question: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/34326/why-breadcrumb-is-necessary-for-deep-frying?rq=1 – Ross Ridge Feb 23 '15 at 07:40
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    Because water makes things wet and oil is not water. – GdD Feb 23 '15 at 09:08
  • Cheers Ross. And GdD, a counter example to your explanation is ethanol. It is not water, but if I throw bread crumbs in there, it will come out 'wet'. – Trogdor Feb 23 '15 at 09:54
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    Yes but what happens if you try and heat ethanol to 180c the usual temperature used when cooking in oil? I'm sure if you put bread crumbs into 100c oil they would also come out soggy. – Doug Feb 23 '15 at 10:10
  • I shouldn't have to say this, but heating ethanol (pure alcohol) to 180c is dangerous, please don't try it unless you know what you are doing! – GdD Feb 23 '15 at 12:42
  • @Trogdor Your ethanol example has nothing to do with oil != water. At least ethanol mixes with water where oil does not – Huangism Feb 23 '15 at 14:13
  • Hah, I wasnt for one second suggesting anyone actually tried heating ethanol. – Doug Feb 23 '15 at 14:29

1 Answers1

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Firstly I think you're having trouble making a distinguishment between water and oil absorption. Even though placing food in (room temp) oil may at first seem as if it had gotten it 'wet' it's a very different kind of soaked compared to doing the same thing with water, as the two liquids have profoundly different properties.

Oil when heated, however, behaves even more differently. The immense heat of the oil (160-270 ºC, 320-520 ºF depending on the type of oil you are using) actually vaporises moisture (water) contained inside of whatever it may be you are deep frying, which is why food thermally processed in this way is oily but not wet, and can even be dry if overcooked.

The key thing to remember here is that oils, being hydrophobic and lipophilic, are exceptionally different to water and should not and cannot be expected to behave even remotely similarly.

dijkstra
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