Frying Fats & Oils

The fats and oils used most frequently for deep fat frying are:

Oil (olive, cottonseed, or a mixture of both); Lard; Butter; Beef or mutton fat; Bacon dripping.

Olive oil can be heated to 6080 before it will burn. Lard burns at 3920 and butter at 2660. Butter is therefore a poor material for frying and olive oil is the best. A combination of butter and lard, or lard and mutton fat, is used by many people who do not like the taste of oil.

The nature of the food to be fried must be taken into consideration. Cold or watery articles lower the temperature of the fat very quickly, and therefore only a small amount should be fried at one time and the fat should be allowed to heat again before another "batch" is put in.