Poll of the Day > How did people fry food before electric stoves?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I tried Googling it, but all I get is an example of the foods they ate.

Pot of boiling oil over fire or wood stove.

So basically oil instead of water.

WarGreymon77 posted...

So basically oil instead of water.

Well. yeah. Why would you use water to fry?

All I knew about old cooking is that they boiled things in a big pot.

Good talk. You can't fry stuff in water
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WarGreymon77 posted...

All I knew about old cooking is that they boiled things in a big pot.

Hold on. When you said "How did people fry food before electric stoves" were you talking about frying, as in, fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried onion rings, etc? In this case, you would use oil or hot fat for frying as you would not be able to fry foods in water.

The only time anyone would ever use water for boiling, is when purifying the water, heating it up to cook rice, soups, vegetables, etc.

Wood burning stove. I knew people that used them when I was a kid.

WastelandCowboy posted...

WarGreymon77 posted...

All I knew about old cooking is that they boiled things in a big pot.

Hold on. When you said "How did people fry food before electric stoves" were you talking about frying, as in, fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried onion rings, etc? In this case, you would use oil or hot fat for frying as you would not be able to fry foods in water.

The only time anyone would ever use water for boiling, is when purifying the water, heating it up to cook rice, soups, vegetables, etc.

I never said anything about frying in water. That's an oxymoron. What I was asking about was pan frying and/or deep frying.

myghostisdead posted...

Wood burning stove. I knew people that used them when I was a kid.

Not to be confused with a Food-Burning Stove (one of my all-time favorite Wheel of Fortune fails)
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I imagine frying was not widespread and I'm not in the place to do some research. But all it takes is heating oil in a pot with whatever method of heating the have.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_frying

The English expression deep-fried is attested from the early 20th century;[4] "fried chicken" is from 1832.[5]

Frying food in olive oil is attested in Classical Greece from about the 5th century BCE.[6] The late Roman cookbook of Apicius (c. 400), appears to list the ancient Romans' first use of deep frying to prepare Pullum Frontonianum, a chicken dish.[7] The practice of deep frying spread to other parts of Europe and Arabia in the following centuries. Deep-fried foods such as funnel cakes arrived in northern Europe by the 13th century,[8] and deep-fried fish recipes have been found in cookbooks in Spain and Portugal at around the same time.[9] Falafel arrived in the Middle East from population migrations from Egypt as soon as the 14th century.[10][11][12] The deep frying of food in Japan was likely introduced by Portuguese the 16th century.[13][14] Evidence of potato frying can be found as early as the late 17th century in Europe.[9]

Modern deep frying began in the 19th century with the growing popularity of cast iron, particularly around the American South which led to the development of many modern deep-fried dishes.[13] French fries, invented in the late 18th century, became popular in the early 19th century western Europe.[15] Doughnuts were invented in the mid-19th century,[16] with foods such as onion rings,[17] deep-fried turkey,[18] and corn dogs[19] all being invented in the early 20th century. In recent years, the growth of fast food has expanded the reach of deep-fried foods,[20] especially French fries.

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Gas stove like a neanderthal
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how did people get around before cars?
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WarGreymon77 posted...

So basically oil instead of water.

WarGreymon77 posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

WarGreymon77 posted...

All I knew about old cooking is that they boiled things in a big pot.

Hold on. When you said "How did people fry food before electric stoves" were you talking about frying, as in, fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried onion rings, etc? In this case, you would use oil or hot fat for frying as you would not be able to fry foods in water.

The only time anyone would ever use water for boiling, is when purifying the water, heating it up to cook rice, soups, vegetables, etc.

I never said anything about frying in water. That's an oxymoron. What I was asking about was pan frying and/or deep frying.

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WarGreymon77 posted...

I never said anything about frying in water. That's an oxymoron. What I was asking about was pan frying and/or deep frying.

Not always.
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