Pressucookers

This page claims pressure-fried food absorbs less grease than food
fried at ambient pressure.
http://www.hennypenny.com/documents/pd_20050830140230.pdf

Maybe it varies by type of food?

(Let's see, did anyone mention the pressure microwave?)

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Alexander Roderick
wrote:
>
> Pressure fryers do exist and are in use in many places. It's the
boiling
> point of the water inside the food inside the fryer that is the
important
> thing. A piece of food being cooked in a deep-fry is dependent on
the water
> within boiling and pushing out against the fat it is floating in.
Without
> that effect, the food becomes grease-logged.
>
> Pressure fryers are used on Earth for much the same reason as
pressure
> cookers. If the boiling point of water is raised, food can be
cooked at
> higher temperatures, and therefore reach a safe internal
temperature
> faster. Some commercial kitchens use hyperbaric steaming chambers
to cook
> vegetables and rice, with steam in excess of the 100C standard
pressure
> limit applied to food in perforated trays.
>
> The problem with pressure fryers is they increase the amount of
fat absorbed
> by the food cooked. A properly made batch of battered fish and
chips cooked
> in an open-air deep fryer absorbs about a tablespoon of oil,
total. That's
> about 150 Kcals worth. Fast food operations that fry meat
products, like
> Kentucky Fried Chicken and Long John Silvers, like the pressure
fryer since
> it gets the temperature up to the safe zone quicker. Places that
only use
> their fryers to cook potatoes (and maybe cheese sticks and
jalepeno poppers,
> like a typical diner, fast food joint or bowling alley) use the
open-air
> type, as it is much simpler to use.
>
> My personal favorite new cooking technology is the hot air deep-
fry, using
> ultra-heated air applied from all sides, like the ultimate
convection oven.
> From what I've seen, it's mostly indistinguishable from properly
fried (i.e.
> non-greasy) fat-fried foods, but I have yet to sample any of these
items for
> myself. Along with the acoustic refrigerator, we're getting
closer to a
> solid-state kitchen.
>
> On 12/10/05, Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> >
> > On 12/10/05, Dan Wylie-Sears wrote:
> > (...)
> > > I think in most households here no one really does all that
much
> > > cooking, and even when we do we have instant everything.
> >
> > Same here (at least for middle class people), but personally I am
> > old-fashioned and try to eat at home as much as I can. "Instant
> > everything" invariably has crappy flavor and I am rather picky
with
> > restaurants.
> >
> > (...)
> > > I had come up with the idea of pressure deep-fat fryers not
too long
> > > ago. I wondered whether they exist, but I wasn't at the
computer at
> > > the time to google it. It turns out they do, and have for
over forty
> > > years. But as for pressure skillets ...
> > (...)
> >
> > I wonder though if pressure fryers will be needed, because the
> > temperature curve for animal and vegetable oils is certainly much
> > different from that of the water. Indeed, olive or soy oil for
> > instance can be heated to very high temperatures without
boiling -
> > though eventually they catch fire producing a huge explosion-like
> > flame. (So never forget frying pans on the fire...) I think that
even
> > with one-fifth of the pressure the temperature of the oil in a
frying
> > pan could be high enough to fry eggs and steaks (but I would
have to