How do you make batter stick?
Photo courtesy Benimoto/Flickr
One of my colleagues is on a mission to make fried pickles at home, but she isn’t having much success. The biggest problem she’s had is finding a way to bread them so the coating will turn out crispy and not slide off the pickles. She sent me the following description of her efforts so far:
“I’ve been putting oil in a pot and heating it on the stove. I frazzled the heck out of my first batch. That used a wet batter, and that did stick pretty well, it was just flabby, not crispy; the second was a dry one and involved dipping the pickles in buttermilk. The batter was crispy, but it slid right off the pickles (so much for those little grooves holding anything in place).”
I am looking for some advice from folks who have some experience deep-fat frying foods. Do you think my friend is having trouble because the pickles are too wet to begin with? Is a wet batter better or should she be dipping them in cornstarch, then egg, then cornmeal or bread crumbs? Knowing how complex the science of food can be, I’m also wondering if there is some trick such as freezing the pickles beforehand or chilling the batter.
She is determined to make this work so I’m determined to help her out. What do you all know about turning out foods with a nice, crispy coating that wants to stick around?
January 8, 2013 - 6:09 AM
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Have you tried flouring the pickles before you apply the batter?
We do gluten-free stuff, so the batter consistency is a bit different…but what we’ve found works best is using paper towels to pat dry whatever we’re frying, dredge it through dry flour, then run it through the wet batter, and then fry. The batter seems to stick pretty well that way during the frying process. It’s worked well for onion rings, chicken, squash, and zucchini.
Try removing a little of the external moisture with a paper towel and then giving a light dredge in Wondra before dipping in the batter. You might also try giving it a double dip: Wondra, batter, Wondra again, batter again. The granulated Wondra is more efficient at holding moisture and helps the batter cling.
I would chill the batter. That keeps the glutens from forming and the batter from getting too “bready.” It also keeps it from absorbing too much grease. Whenever I make tempura, I keep the batter in a bowl sitting in a larger bowl full of ice water (a trick I learned from Alton Brown).
My recommendation would be cold pickles, totally dry. Refrigerator chilled overnight kind of cold, for example. Dry before chilling, if the emphasis is on crunchiness. Then use either cornmeal or panko bread crumbs. It needs to be something finely grained, but textured, like those two. Forget the cornstarch. If you’re doing the egg/breading strategy, use as light and minimal of an egg coating as possible. Immediately after coating the slices with meal/breading, put them into the oil. Also, make sure the oil is a minimum of 350 degrees. 375 is better, to compensate for the cooling factor, and use peanut oil, nothing else. Correction – 100% peanut oil, not the blended stuff. If you’re frying, always use 100% peanut oil.
Maybe my eyes deceive me, but the picture looks like she is not frying whole pickles, but instead pickles quartered? If so, then I’d suggest cross slices instead of long slices, to improve the crunch factor. You get more surface texture that way.
Best of luck…
These are great tips. Thanks, everybody.
I just pulled that photo from Flickr to illustrate this topic. I think my friend has been frying chips, not spears. In restaurants, I usually see spears though. Another thing we talked about was where to get good fried pickles at restaurants around here. I have had them at Blues BBQ and they were tasty.
Lindsey, personally, I’d prefer trying the meal/bread crumbs without the batter. Some people are really, really hooked on doing the wet factor, though. I have a lot of success using wet(egg wash).
I’ve absolutely never liked the wet/dry/wet method. I most prefer dry only, but if I must wet/dry and immediately into the oil. I mean – dip into egg (whole egg whisked, not just egg white or yolk), let drip off for twice as long as you think you should, then put into flour/bread & press crumbs into the item. Lift, do not shake off excess but instead put immediately into hot oil.
That’s just me. I think the less filler the better.
I’ve never seen any fried pickles that weren’t spears, either. I would do as I do with oysters, jalapeños, eggplant, and any other food to deep fry: coat in flour, dip in beaten egg, then coat in any seasoned crumb or flour mixture again, then fry in hot oil. Peanut oil is over-priced, has a tendency to smoke at high temps, and only adds minimal flavor. A good-quality vegetable oil is all that’s needed to fry foods nice and crisp.
Pure peanut oil has one of the highest smoke points of any oil, thus proving that it is the best oil for deep frying. ‘Vegetable oil’ has a much lower smoke point. Why? Because it is a combination of several of the inferior smoke point oils to peanut oil. It’s cheaper, but inferior. Peanut oil is the accepted oil to use by all experts except those afraid of being sued by folks eager for litigation excuses.
It’s easy to look up the stats, folks. Pure Peanut oil has a very high smoke point. ‘Vegetable’ oil does not compare, especially considering the huge range of difference in interpretation of so-called ‘vegetable’ oil. Want a quick answer? Pure peanut oil has a smoke point of 350-375 degrees. ‘Blended peanut oil’ – meaning pure peanut oil blended with ‘vegetable’ oil has a smoke point of 300-325 degrees. Do the math…
The only time I have luck breading and frying is when I heat the oil so hot that I’m panicked the whole time I’ll burn myself. I’ve also found that premixed batter things at Kroger hold on well.
I think my sister is the queen of deep fried pickles! She cuts them into thin slices and uses a boxed dry batter (add water for preferred consistency) that is mainly used for onion rings. I actually think the box says Onion Rings on it. I don’t know the brand, but will have to ask her. My kids are hooked and request them every time we visit her. They are alwasy crispy and full flavored.
Fried pickle chips are fantastic! I’ve loved them since I tried them for the first time at a restaurant in Charlotte. I would love to try to make them at home, but have been intimidated by the batter issue.
Hi, everyone, I’m Lindsey’s friend and co-worker who was asking about the pickles. Thank you all for weighing in with tips! I have left the pickle chips between paper towels to absorb some of the moisture. I’ve also been using canola oil just because that’s what I have, but I see vegetable and peanut oils seem to be the way to go. The last recipe I used called for buttermilk to bind the breading to the pickle, which did not work at all (but it bound the breading to my fingers quite nicely).
It sounds like next time I should blot the pickles with paper towels to absorb moisture, then dip them in flour, then egg, then breading. Mr. Suzanne likes them with really crispy exteriors, so I hope that does it.
Also, if you have a favourite spot to get fried pickles, I’d love to know. Mr. Suzanne and I had them at Beamer 25 over the weekend and they were pretty good. We’ll try Blues BBQ on Lindsey’s recommendation.
Thank you again!
The Village Grill in the Grandin area has really good fried pickles.
I’ve had both spears and pickle chips and think the spears hold up much better. All of the fried pickle chips I’ve had have a bit of a soggy texture.
I used to work at a restaurant that served fried pickle spears that had a bread crumb based crust, similar to the photo above. Maybe that’s the way to go?
I’d love for a place here to try fried jalapeño chips.
Rebecca, sounds like you need to place a call and solve the supposed mystery…
Also, Suzanne, to make it clear – the lighter the batter, the crunchier. The simpler the better. Stop ‘over wetting’ the batter. Please, people, get OVER ‘battering’ the entree with so much heavy batter. The less the better. NOT the batter.
Totally pat dry the pickles. TOTALLY. Leave them overnight in the fridge. Do not touch them for a minimum of 12 hours. Do NOT touch them for a minimum of 12 hours.
Dip them in whipped egg mixture – NOT solely egg whites or egg yolks only. Let the egg coating drip off as much as possible.
After that, cover heavily with the meal/breadcrumbs. Press them into the item. IMMEDIATELY – as in a matter of milliseconds – put the item into 350-plus degree pure peanut oil. Vegetable oil is ‘junk’ to be kind and to not use the word ‘crap’.
Slice the pickles thin & use as little breading – which equals softened crust – as possible.
I could go on, but these few statements already made will cause everyone to spew venom at all my comments, so have at it.
Rebecca, that’s interesting. I wonder if there’s a scientific reason as to way pickle chips might be soggier than spears?
Chips have, proportionally, a lot more surface area than chips and a lot less skin to block the grease. That would be my unscientific thought.
I meant chips have more surface area than spears. My duh.
I emailed a few chefs about this. I’ll pass along their advice when I hear back from them.
It’s been a while since I’ve had fried pickles of any kind, but from what I remember it seemed like the pickle chips just weren’t hefty enough to go through the batter/frying process.
Maybe if you sliced the pickles thicker before frying (as opposed to using the pre-sliced chips) they would cooperate better? The thin slices tend to be so flimsy.
I’m not a fried pickle fan, but my daughter-in-law and granddaughter love them. They always order them at Hooter’s, where they’re chips, not spears. I don’t know if they make them from scratch or if it’s a frozen item, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.