Failed: deep fried onion ring for the first time

[Dawgluver]

This^^^

Even having some experience, I still prefer to use my thermometer.

 

[CraigC]

OK, horse, water, but............

 

[roadfix]

However, I kept the fire low once the oil was heated up

Heated up is not good enough! Get a cheap thermometer and report back!
And this time I want some good onion rings!

Sorry, I'm cranky tonight because I'm hungry!

 

[CWS4322]

Have you tried slicing the onions the day before, holding them in water overnight, patting them dry and then applying the breading?

 

[blissful]

Yesterday I wasn't busy, so I cut up two patterson onions, 1/2 inch slices, 3 slices per onion, medium sized hard yellow onion. I took the slices apart and froze them.

Then last night, I thought I'd try to make the serious eats recipe. First I ran the onions under warm water. Peeling the thin, almost invisible skin that is on the inside of each ring, isn't easy. I just gave them a good scrape with my thumbnail, and pulled, and this almost invisible, cellophane (but thinner) part of the onion came off and I rinsed it down the drain. I drained the onion rings on a clean towel.

I turned on the stove, let it heat while I worked on the onions and the batter. The batter was flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda, salt and instead of beer I used sparkling water/club soda. The smell of the hot oil was in the background, so I turned it down.

To test for hotness of the oil, I put in one onion ring. If it sinks to the bottom and stays there, the oil is not hot enough. If it goes under the oil and immediately pops back up to the top, the batter expanded, then it is ready. If it immediately browns, the oil is too hot, turn it down and let it cool a bit before proceeding. Use your thermometer if you aren't sure. As the onion rings go in, the oil will lose temperature so turn it up on high as you commit to cook them. After 4 minutes, turn the onion rings over and as they are lightly brown on both sides, remove them to drain on a paper towel or napkin on a plate. Salt immediately after removing from the oil.

I did this twice, once for myself and once for my son when he got home from work. As he always says, "Mom, that was REALLY GOOD", I had told him previously, he doesn't have to compliment my cooking, really. He said that on a scale of 1 to 10, this was an 11, no question the best puffed, crispiest, best tasting onion rings he's ever had. I thought it would make a good batter for the next time we made fried fish. He decided he would use this batter to make sweet sour chicken, to get the chicken battered and crisp and 'just right'.

Would I go through the trouble of freezing the onion rings in advance, then peeling the almost invisible skin from the inside of each ring? Yes. More importantly, we found out that this batter is really amazing.

 

[kenny1999]

Have you tried slicing the onions the day before, holding them in water overnight, patting them dry and then applying the breading?

no. Never done that before... it makes the breadcrumb more sticky to the onion/???

 

[kenny1999]

Heated up is not good enough! Get a cheap thermometer and report back!
And this time I want some good onion rings!

Sorry, I'm cranky tonight because I'm hungry!

IMO it was not the problem of temperature. It was that the breadcrumb fell a lot from the onion

 

[msmofet]

IMO it was not the problem of temperature. It was that the breadcrumb fell a lot from the onion

You came here for advice but won't listen to what people are telling you. It is ALL about the temperature of the oil ... end of story. The bread crumbs fell off because the oil was not hot enough.
When the oil is not hot enough the oil will be absorbed into the crumbs and fall off instead of quick frying.
People are trying to help you but you won't accept what they are saying.
Get a thermometer, use it to get the oil hot enough 350F - 375F. Try it then come back and tell us the results. Until you eliminate this variable we can't move on.

 

[CraigC]

You came here for advice but won't listen to what people are telling you. It is ALL about the temperature of the oil ... end of story. The bread crumbs fell off because the oil was not hot enough.
When the oil is not hot enough the oil will be absorbed into the crumbs and fall off instead of quick frying.
People are trying to help you but you won't accept what they are saying.
Get a thermometer, use it to get the oil hot enough 350F - 375F. Try it then come back and tell us the results. Until you eliminate this variable we can't move on.

AKA, really doesn't want help.

 

[medtran49]

IMO it was not the problem of temperature. It was that the breadcrumb fell a lot from the onion

And you've been told that too low of an oil temp can cause that. It's obvious you don't really want help since you won't take the advice that's been given to you by multiple people.

 

[Addie]

AKA, really doesn't want help.

Ditto here. Doesn't he realize that when the low temp oil is absorbed into the coating, the coating becomes heavy with the oil and falls off due to the added weight?

 

[jennyema]

IMO it was not the problem of temperature. It was that the breadcrumb fell a lot from the onion

No. Your inadequate oil temperature was the main if not the only cause of your failure. It's why your coating fell off.

You come here asking for advice because you don't know what's going wrong with your onion rings.

People tell you that it's your oil temperature (which is pretty obvious to anyone who fries food) but then all of a sudden you know better?

You don't understand how to use oil for frying. So you can either learn how to cook with it successfully or continue to fail ... or use a different cooking method.

 

[msmofet]

Failed again for the 3rd time of deep frying onion rings

It's the third 3rd time ever I tried to deep fry onion rings. Still failed. I feel so frustrated.

Ingredients: Flour, Eggs, Milk, Bread crumbers, cooking oil

I followed exactly this tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33cAqNLcYjc&t=18s

Steps highlight
1. eggs mixed with some flour, milk, salt and used as the "sticking agent"

2. mix the cut onion rings with the sticking agent and then with flour and then again with the sticking agent.

3. mix it with the bread crumbers and then put into oil for few minutes





In fact, I've decided to give it up and never deep fried again


Reasons and problems of deep frying I've encountered

1. Look easy but practically VERY messy dealing with the flour, eggs mixture etc, no matter how careful and sophisticated you are.

2. The smell of burning oil during deep frying is very unpleasant and I believe it's very unhealthy to health. I've turned on my kitchen ventilator to the maximum but it still took long time for the smell to go

3. The product is still very oily even after I've already used the paper tissue to filter the oil

4. It's really a big waste of oil. If you re-use the oil it has to be used again in short time or it will be oxidized. Re-used oil is also bad to health and smell even worse

5. Unhealthy no matter what.

P.S. I don't think you followed the tutorial EXACTLY because he states in the video "be sure you use a candy thermometer so you get the proper temperature of oil..." And if you go under the video and READ the recipe (which I do and I am sure others do as well, so I can copy ingredient list and method) it clearly states "Be sure to use a thermometer to get to the proper temperature."

 

[kenny1999]

Ditto here. Doesn't he realize that when the low temp oil is absorbed into the coating, the coating becomes heavy with the oil and falls off due to the added weight?

No. Your inadequate oil temperature was the main if not the only cause of your failure. It's why your coating fell off.

You come here asking for advice because you don't know what's going wrong with your onion rings.

People tell you that it's your oil temperature (which is pretty obvious to anyone who fries food) but then all of a sudden you know better?

You don't understand how to use oil for frying. So you can either learn how to cook with it successfully or continue to fail ... or use a different cooking method.

The breadcrumbs did not fall during the deep frying in the oil, but it already had fallen a lot before I put those rings into the oil. Many breadcrumbs were not sticky to the onion rings at the first time. It was unrelated to the temperature of deep frying at all.

 

[jennyema]

 

[buckytom]

I think you are looking for a smooth coated onion ring versus a granular breading type.

If so, then you need to male a really smooth batter, a lot like tempura or flour beer batter, rather than a breadcrumb-ing.

 

[GotGarlic]

Ingredient I used

1.Flour
2.Eggs
3.Bread crumbs
4.Oil

Steps I performed

Mix the cut onion well with flour and then stirred eggs and then bread crumbs, after all done, put into the hot oil for few minutes

Kenny, did you mix the eggs and flour with milk, like the video says to do?

Also, the video says to mix the onions with the egg-flour-milk mixture first, not just flour. Then into the flour, then into the egg mixture again, then into the breadcrumbs, then egg mixture, then breadcrumbs again. Then let them sit for 20 minutes before flying. Did you do all of that?

 

[GotGarlic]

I think you are looking for a smooth coated onion ring versus a granular breading type.

If so, then you need to male a really smooth batter, a lot like tempura or flour beer batter, rather than a breadcrumb-ing.

The video says to process breadcrumbs in a food processor so they're really fine.

 

[roadfix]

With all this time and money wasted you could have bought yourself a thermometer.

 

[msmofet]

With all this time and money wasted you could have bought yourself a thermometer.

+1000%