OCCURRENCE OF RUPTURES ON THE SURFACE OF FOODS DURING FRYING

An attempt was made to clarify the mechanism of ruptures on the surface of foods occurring during frying. Two different products were fried in a corn oil bath at a temperature of 160C or 180C. One of the products was ellipsoidal croquettes coated by the crust with different thicknesses ranging from 1 mm to 4 mm, while the other was ring doughnuts consisting of the three different compositions of a fixed size. The type of ruptures on the crust of croquette samples could roughly be divided into two categories according to the results obtained by the precise observations during the process of frying, i.e., a small hole and a crack. The small hole, like a pinhole, occurred in the crust of the croquette with 1 mm thickness early in the procedure, while the cracks could be observed with the crusts of croquettes more than 2 mm thicknesses after 120 s or more of frying time. The cracks also occurred on the curved surface of all the doughnut samples tested, although the location of cracks on the three surfaces, i.e., upper, outer and inner, was much influenced by the composition of the samples. A variety of measurements were made to obtain information on the changes in mechanical properties of the core region and crusted surfaces of the samples in the frying process so as to confirm generalized simple considerations assumed for the occurrence of ruptures.