Thanks to Jo from My Last Bite, I've been using Trisol lately, and have much to report.

Jo had left a few comments on EatFoo, and I'd followed her links and started reading her blog. In general her posts are about all the delicious eating she does around Los Angeles and elsewhere, but she has also dabbled in some more avant garde cooking. One of those experiments had her trying out a chemical additive she learned about on Chadzilla. She posted about using Trisol here, and ended her post like this:

After trying the three Trisol recipes, I liked the 60/40 combination the best. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I still have half a TUB (four pounds) of Trisol left, and it's taking up space in my small kitchen. I really don't deep-fry too often at home, but I guess I'll have to plan a few more fry-ups in the near future, all in the name of molecular "research" of course!

I deep-fry fairly often, and deep-frying was a big part of my culinary experience while growing up. I definitely wanted to try Trisol, but it only comes in gigantic tubs, which makes it quite a large initial investment. So, I emailed Jo about a possible trade: she had way more Trisol than she needed, and I had no Trisol. I asked if she'd be willing to trade some of her Trisol for one of the many additives I have. I'd previously done such a trade with sygyzy, and it worked out very well.

Jo shocked me by offering to just give me all of her leftover Trisol! I tried to insist that she take something in return, but she refused. She shipped me the entire bucket. Not only is that a pricey quantity of Trisol, but she also paid for the shipping! So, I owe her a huge favor.

I tried out the Trisol a few days after getting it. The first thing I made was buttermilk-fried duck confit, in the style of Southern fried chicken. My next post will be about the full dish.

Here's how I did it. First, how to make duck confit, which I pretty much always keep on hand. I took the leg and thigh portions of a duck, salt-cured overnight, then rinsed, dried, and vacuum-sealed with a bit of duck fat. Poached sous vide for 8 hours @ 82.2C, per TK, then chilled and held in the fridge as long as you want (per USDA, it's only safe for 3-4 weeks, because it isn't cooked at sterilization temps).

When I wanted to use the duck confit, I removed it from the refrigerator a few hours before, and took it out of the vacuum bags. I wiped off as much fat as possible (to help the eventual batter stick), then marinated the duck in buttermilk for a couple hours. Then I dredged in a mix of 60% AP flour and 40% Trisol (plus seasoning), then dipped back into the buttermilk, then coated again in the flour/Trisol mix. Then I deep-fried in 375F oil (as opposed to skillet frying, which doesn't work so well--more on that later), and drained on a rack (drying on a rack, as opposed to paper towels, keeps the fried product slightly more crispy because paper towels trap some moisture, keeping it near the product).

It came out really, intensely delicious. The batter was super crispy, and stayed that way for hours. The duck was extremely moist inside. To up the ante, I could have deep-fried in duck fat, but I just don't have that much duck fat. I also made some onion rings, just for testing purposes. They were also awesome.

Since then, I've used the Trisol twice, and I've learned that while it is excellent for deep-frying, it is crap for pan-frying. Listen well: any product that has been coated with any quantity of Trisol will stick to a pan like nothing I've ever seen before. I tried dredging some skate wing in a trisol mix, and then pan-frying. That was a huge mess. I tried it again with some chicken. Basically, if you can even manage to get the food out of the pan, any batter that was on it will surely not be coming out with it. This held true even when using a very well-seasoned cast iron pan, and even when using a reasonably new non-stick pan (though it was slightly better).

Lessons: Trisol will make your deep-fried foods crispier and the crispiness will be retained for much longer. Even moist foods can be deep-fried with much more success since the Trisol prevents the batter from absorbing moisture even after the deep-frying. But don't expect to pan-fry anything with Trisol.

If anyone has had more success pan-frying with Trisol, please let me know so we can discuss!

Posted by Barzelay on 2009/08/12 @ 2:10 | Comments (7) | Comfort Food, Food Additives

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