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I often hear people say that food fried at too low a temperature tastes greasy because it absorbs more oil as it fries. This is incorrect. The vast majority of oil absorption occurs not during frying, but during the first 15 seconds of cooling immediately after food is...
...removed from the oil. Open pores in the food experience a sudden drop in pressure, while oil experiences an increase in surface tension. This causes oil to rapidly flow into open spaces. The amount of open spaces in the food is directly related to the evaporation of water...
...from within it. Given identical fry times, the higher the temp you fry at, the more water gets driven away, and consequently the more oil is absorbed. (Corrolary: the longer you fry at a given temp, the more oil will be absorbed). This doesn't jibe with experience because...
...food fried at lower temperatures sure *tastes* greasier. This is for two reasons: with less room for oil absorption, more oil is left on the surface of foods that are not fried hot enough, making them feel greasy. They taste greasy in your mouth because of the combination...
...of oil adhering to the surface mixing with moist, not-fully-dehydrated batter or breading underneath.
(Also: fresh oil is more readily absorbed into foods than old oil, which also means fresh oil makes food taste less greasy than old oil)...
(Also: fresh oil is more readily absorbed into foods than old oil, which also means fresh oil makes food taste less greasy than old oil)...
...Note that this doesn't significantly affect total oil added to fried foods, just the distribution of the oil. Greasy foods taste greasy not because they have more oil in them, but because of where that oil is and how it interacts with the stuff underneath.
(This fun fact brought to you by ~80M strong Coalition of People Who Voted to Let us Not Think About Politics for at Least a Small Fraction of Each Day.)
