Fun with Frying

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Against most everyone’s advice (especially my doctor’s), I still like to fry food. OH sure, using less oil in the pan is better for you, but can you possibly get a decent crispy brown pork chop without much oil? Mebe.


A month ago, give or take, I purchased some fancy Calphalon commerical 11″ fry pan (non-stick). I figured I should have at least 1 or 2 non-stick rigs in my arsenal. Well, I was wrong. My pork chops looked as though they’d been microwaved. Nasty to say the least. So I gave it to my uncle, he’s not a snob.
Since I feel right at home cooking with cast iron, I had no problem going back to using it for my chops. I can also say that my cast iron is pretty damned well seasoned, by that I mean I can fry an egg with no added fat and NOT have it stick. Anyhoo, I’ve been playing with getting an even brown crust on my chops with very little fat. And by taking a look at the picture above, you’ll see it’s pretty darned close. I melted just a little bit of Lard in the pre-heated cast iron and wiped it with a paper towel. Truly, not much fat in pan. I turned up the heat a bit more, tossed in the chop with a bacon press on top. I left the press on top for the full cooking time, maybe 6 minutes a side or so. Look! That’s nice lookin’ and not all greasy!
Not enough leavenings for gravy, but this is supposed to be somewhat healthier for you, eh? This and a vegie or salad is well worth the price of admission.

4 thoughts on “Fun with Frying”

  1. I was told that browning or searing is all about *carmelization* of sugars in food – not fat. You can get one helluva crispy brown crust with any fat added to a well seasoned pan *if* the pan is hot enough. Another weird thing I picked up from working in kitchens is the “hot pan cold oil” trick. That is, you can even keep stuff from even sticking to an unseasoned pan if the pan is nice and hot before you add the oil, which should be nice and cool. Kitchen science – freaky, but tasty!

  2. Well, yeah. But a shallow fry usually produces a superior browning compared to searing without any fat. I wanted to impart some flavor from the lard and some crispy yummies and use the bacon press for something other than … bacon. FUN WITH FRYING !!!

  3. AND I noticed that without the press and a little fat the browning is uneven at best. This way, with the press, you get max browning! That means, MAX flavor! And we all know max pork flavor is the main reason to get up in the morning.