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Fort Worth's Star-Telegram ran a story this week about butter. Deep-fried butter, that is. Apparently, it's the next big thing at the Texas state fair this year, and it's on the list of finalists for something called the Big Tex Choice Awards. Judging by last year's champion for Best Taste--chicken fried bacon--it seems like butter's worth betting on. While we wait for the winners to be announced on Monday, we thought we'd take a moment to ponder fried food.
The concept is hardly a new one. In fact, the mozzarella stick, that ubiquitous bar favorite, is thought to date back to the 14th century. A medieval housekeeping tome called Le Menagier de Paris includes a lengthy chapter on food, a section of which is devoted to all things fried. This excerpt (translated by Janet Hinson), describes what may well have been the first recipe for deep-fried cheese, known then as pipefarces (or stuffed straws):
PIPEFARCES: Take egg yolks and flour and salt, and a little wine, and beat together strongly, and cheese chopped in thin slices, and then roll the slices of cheese in the batter, and then fry in an iron skillet with oil in it. This can also be made using beef marrow.
But getting back to butter. Does it really need to be frozen (sometimes mixed with cream cheese), coated in crumbs, and dunked in boiling oil? We at Pop Omnivore tend to think not. However, the concept of frying anything got us thinking: What other foods shouldn't we deep-fry but do in this country? Bacon comes to my mind. I had it in a DC pub last winter, battered and fried for an appetizer, and I'm pretty sure I won't eat it again. Deep-frying pickles doesn't make much sense to me, but I know that some southerners love them. Anybody care to weigh in?
And if you had to choose, what you would nominate for Best Unlikely Deep-Fried Food of All Time? What about the worst? Share your greasy tidbits in the comments!
—Catherine L. Barker
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Comments
Sep 3, 2009 5PM #
Here in the UK deep fried fish is very commonly sold in the traditional fish and chip shops, but some places (especially in Scotland) are known to deep fry sweet things like chocolate bars as requested by the customer! Never had them myself, but I can hardly imagine how horrible a oozing hot chocolate would be when encased in greasy batter!
Sep 3, 2009 5PM #
Had a deep fried oreo once. It was probably the best and worst thing I've ever eaten. It tasted amazing until it hit my stomach in which it felt like I had eaten a whole package of oreo's.
Sep 3, 2009 5PM #
Wow...!!!I love this one.Seems to be very yummy.Thanks for sharing.I'll must try it very soon
Sep 3, 2009 5PM #
The Texas State Fair is THE place to find fried foods varying from strange, but wonderful to just the thought makes me feel sick, but tasting it makes me feel sicker. From what I've been told, though I've never tried it, fried butter is by far in the latter category. This past year (2010) the winner (as far as my friends/family/acquaintances said) was either the fried frito pie - often described as mini drops of fried heaven with a side of sour cream and salsa - or the fried peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich - like the most elegant donut ever invented. Surprisingly, many of the fried dessert options were huge winners, though corn dogs were always considered a necessity. And now, you must be picturing me and all of the people I know in gallon-sized Cowboy hats, spitting tobacco while rubbing our over-sized guts and just moments away from a coronary (not even close, but I get why that's a stereotypical view of Texans now).
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