Food Frying

3Frying and Culture

3.1 Introduction

Generally, a cuisine is characterized by specific and distinctive ingredients, techniques, or dishes. The ingredients are the principal factor differentiating between different cultures. For example, Jewish dietary laws prohibit the ingestion of certain animals, such as pork, insects, molluscs, and crustaceans, while requiring that other animals be slaughtered according to a specific process known as Shechita. Other religions, such as Christianity and Islam, have their own restrictions. Several excellent books are available regarding the intersection of religions, cultures, and foods (Adamson 2004; Kittler et al. 2011; Brown 2018). Civitello (2011) discusses how different cultures adopted different cuisines across history, up to the present day.

Ingredients such as spices, plant extracts, and batters may be added before or after frying foods. These ingredients have a significant effect on the taste, colour, and quality of the final food. Salvador et al. (2005) studied the effects of wheat starch, modified corn starch, dextrin, dried egg, and gluten on the pick‐up and flow properties, colour, and texture of fried coatings for squid rings. They found that gluten‐added batters had the highest pick‐up values, while there was no significant difference in colour due to the presence of the different ingredients. Dextrin showed high crispness, whereas gluten significantly lowered the oil content. Brannan et al. (2014) showed that batter ingredients have ...