Why is a second batch of fried foods always better? Swetha Sivakumar explains

The quality of oil — how many times it has been used — has an impact, but it’s not as straightforward a cause-and-effect relationship as one would think.

Experienced cooks will recognise that foods take longer to cook in really fresh oil, and do not brown as well. This is because pure fats don’t want to be near the surface of moisture-filled foods.

As the oil is used, the oil molecules react with the moisture released from foods and break down into natural emulsifiers, making them adhere better to the surface of new foods better. Food cooked in oil where this emulsified effect has occurred browns better, cook faster. The emulsified effect is the primary reason a second batch of fried foods always looks better than the first.

Don’t take the reheating and reusing too far, though. Too much reheating (seven cook times or more) will make oil foamy, it will smoke more easily, and it will begin to lend a burnt flavour to foods. Most vitally, reusing oil too many times sparks a process that creates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds, and trans fats, both of which have terrible effects on long-term health. An intermediate compromise would be to add just a small amount of previously used oil into the new batch of oil to help it stick to foods faster.

And as always, fry only when you must. There is no way around it – fried foods are delicious; but this is not a healthy way to cook.