Breading food question

GotGarlic

New member
I didn't know that either. I didn't know a tomato could be green, yet ripe. I always assumed fried green tomatoes were made from unripened ones, which is probably why my one attempt at making them failed miserably...

Fried green tomatoes *are* made from unripe red tomatoes, in general. Unripe tomatoes are much firmer and so will hold together better during frying.

There are hundreds if not thousands of varieties of ripe tomatoes - heirloom tomatoes come in red, purple, green, yellow, orange, and combinations of all those - spotty, striped, etc.
 

chowhound

New member
Hey chow!! So how did you do your zucchini?? flour, egg, crumbs? or crumbs, egg, crumbs? Did it work well for you?

I used your method, crumbs egg wash, crumbs, one less bowl :wink:
And as you saw, it worked pretty darn well. That was my best ever fried zucchini where the breading stayed on :chef:

Fried green tomatoes *are* made from unripe red tomatoes, in general. Unripe tomatoes are much firmer and so will hold together better during frying.

There are hundreds if not thousands of varieties of ripe tomatoes - heirloom tomatoes come in red, purple, green, yellow, orange, and combinations of all those - spotty, striped, etc.

Maybe I misread Joe's post. I thought he said the only requirement was that they be ripe. When I made them (long ago) I used unripe tomoatoes. Maybe I just don't have a taste for them...
 

RobsanX

Potato peeler
Super Site Supporter
The layers, when it comes to fried chicken, are for layers of flakiness. When I do 100 pounds of fried chicken (well, actually, I make someone else do all the work...) I let the chicken sit for a day in seasoned buttermilk. Then, dip it in highly seasoned flour, set on a pan. Shortly, the flour will turn to a paste like substance on the chicken, making it wet again. Dip it again into the seasoned flour, and then fry.

The multiple layers you're talking about, flour egg, flour, etc...are simply to make a thicker coating. It's preference in most cases. In others, dredging in flour first gives the egg something to cling to, which gives the bread crumbs something to cling to.

This is what I've always learned too.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
Tomatoes like jalapeños or bell peppers are ripe once green but will turn red if left on the vine longer. Now the taste is basically the same other than the red will be a bit more to the sweet side than the bitter side.
 

chowhound

New member
I must have missed something when it came to breading veggies, my problem area of breading food.
The other night I cooked 3 nice slices of breaded zucchini. No problem getting the breading to stick.
Tonight I wanted to make some zucchini croutons and I just chucked them into the garbage. The breading wasn't sticking to any of the small cubes except a little here or there. And I even let them set up, then started over, thinking the extra coating of eggwash and bread crumbs would adhere... no go. They were a slimy mess.

So now I don't think it is the order of the dipping, rolling, (whatever), but rather being able to keep small pieces of food; dry, then wet, then dry again, and without "cross-contaminating" the bowls you are using. Tonight I saw the same problem I was always faced with when trying to bread small pieces of zucch, or even breading shrimp.
Because I was trying to bread a larger number of small pieces, I did not use a fork and let the eggwash (mostly) drip off before placing it into the crumbs and pressing the crumbs onto both sides. I used my fingers and tried to "gang" dry, wet, dry the pieces.

So what is the secret to breading large amounts of small food? THAT is where I am having a problem.
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
I can help with breading and frying shrimp, but the zucchini....I don't know.
 

homecook

New member
I don't know what to tell you Fred. I don't know that I've breaded a large amount of small items like that. I'll have to try it and see what happens. Maybe in this case the flour should have been used first.
 

chowhound

New member
What happened was, try as I was patient enough to do, I had a bunch of drippy egg stuff messing up my bread crumbs. Then when I redid the pieces, first I tried simply putting the cubes into fresh crumbs, because I had that "paste" on them Vera talked of, but nothing was sticking at all, so I redid from wash to crumbs... it was a fiasco.

I am destined to only bread larger pieces of food (lol).
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I'm a bit confused as to what you did. I never had a problem with breading sticking. Perhaps too much moister in the vegetable in which case I recommend flour/cornstarch first then egg wash followed by bread crumbs.
 

Keltin

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I must have missed something when it came to breading veggies, my problem area of breading food.
The other night I cooked 3 nice slices of breaded zucchini. No problem getting the breading to stick.
Tonight I wanted to make some zucchini croutons and I just chucked them into the garbage. The breading wasn't sticking to any of the small cubes except a little here or there. And I even let them set up, then started over, thinking the extra coating of eggwash and bread crumbs would adhere... no go. They were a slimy mess.

So now I don't think it is the order of the dipping, rolling, (whatever), but rather being able to keep small pieces of food; dry, then wet, then dry again, and without "cross-contaminating" the bowls you are using. Tonight I saw the same problem I was always faced with when trying to bread small pieces of zucch, or even breading shrimp.
Because I was trying to bread a larger number of small pieces, I did not use a fork and let the eggwash (mostly) drip off before placing it into the crumbs and pressing the crumbs onto both sides. I used my fingers and tried to "gang" dry, wet, dry the pieces.

So what is the secret to breading large amounts of small food? THAT is where I am having a problem.


Your zucchini was “sweating”. Natural juice coming out as it came to temp. Chill the heck out of it, even put it in the blast freezer if necessary after cutting, and you’ll be fine.
 

chowhound

New member
Your zucchini was “sweating”. Natural juice coming out as it came to temp. Chill the heck out of it, even put it in the blast freezer if necessary after cutting, and you’ll be fine.

That is a real possibilty. I had the pieces cut and laying on the cutting board for a good thirty minutes, whereas a couple nights ago I started breading my larger slices as soon as I cut them. Maybe this "sweat", or excess moisture, prevented the first coating of dry from sticking like it should have.
Good call, Keltin and Joe. I'm going to give this a try tonight.
 

AllenOK

New member
I have to agree with Vera on this.

Fried chicken (I have my recipe on here somewhere, it's from where I work) - we brine out chicken. We use a seasoned flour. Usually we just dredge the chicken in flour once, and let it sit in the flour to get "gummy". This, when placed in the fryer, makes a thicker crust.

For other breaded items, it's dry/wet/dry. We start with a seasoned flour, then an egg wash (for me it's usually about a dozen eggs, and a few cups of buttermilk) which is usually seasoned as well. Then, depending on the item being breaded, either back into the seasoned flour, or into a panko crumb mixed with ground pecans.

The initial dry dusting can be flour, or cornstarch. Cornstarch is typically used in Oriental recipes, from my experience.

The wet mixture usually contains eggs, and something else "wet", like water, milk, cream, buttermilk, etc. I will admit that you don't want a really "thick" wet mixture. I probably use way to many eggs. For home use, probably 3 eggs and a cup or so of milk will be adequate.

The final dry breading coat can be all sorts of things. Flour, cracker crumbs, bread crumbs (panko, homemade, boxed, etc.), nuts, cornflakes, crushed chex cereal, and others, or a mix of any of these.

I've only see Soda Water/Club Soda used to make a batter out of for Tempura batter for veggies.

I've found that for a good beer batter, you want a medium-dark beer (I usually use Shiner Bock), and enough flour to make a batter of the consisitency that you like. Seasoning the mix is up to you. I like to add a little malt powder to the flour and stir before adding the beer. This helps by adding an extra "malt" flavor.

The proper order for breading is flour/egg wash/final breading product, as I was taught in college. To help with the mess, use one hand when dealing with the dry products (first dredging, final dredging), and the other hand for the wet (initially grabbing the product, then pulling out of the egg wash). I tend to do an assembly-line process, like someone else posted. I will actually flour one item, dip it into the egg wash, then flour something else. Lift the first item from the wash, into the final breading product, move the second item from the initial dredging into the egg wash, then flour something else. Keep at this, moving items down the line, until you're done. I like doing this, as it's "multi-tasking", and keeps the items being breading into the three stages for a few minutes, allowing a good coating.
 

chowhound

New member
"For home use, probably 3 eggs and a cup or so of milk will be adequate."

Hmmm, I wonder if this is my problem. I use about 1TBS water/egg. That's why doing these smaller pieces becomes a contaminated, drippy mess.

BTW, I did try again by leaving the zucch in the fridge until right before cutting and breading. The breading didn't stick at all then either... maybe on one out of four sides of my cubes.

What happens I noticed, was that as I am lifting the pieces out of the wash, all the egg wash is dripping off/half clinging and that's when the mess starts. That doesn't happen if I am only breadin a couple large pieces and using a fork to move them.
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
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i have no problem with any of my breaded chicken, veal, eggplant or cauliflower using the flour/egg with milk or water (i only use a couple Tbsp of milk or water not cups)/seasoned crumbs with grated parm. but my rings were a disaster!! :sad: thats ok it gives me a reason to go to perkins. i love their onion rings and chicken fingers every now and then.
 

homecook

New member
"For home use, probably 3 eggs and a cup or so of milk will be adequate."

I use 2-3 eggs and maybe 1/4 cup milk/water. I know everyone is saying use the flour first. I've never done that for 40 years (ok, maybe once or twice) and I have no problems with my breading sticking whether it's pork chops, vegetables, city chicken, etc.

I did say I don't do fried chicken so maybe in that instance the flour would work better.........just sayin. lol
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I've actually done it like you HC as well as the other way. It really depends on what I'm making, the batter finish I want etc. A lot of tempura type batters start with liquid followed by the breading you want be it beer, soda, eggs what ever for the liquid part. Only some things I refrigerate before the fryer but not all. Crab cakes comes to mind as the one I do refrigerate before frying however shrimp rarely. As for chicken as most know I won't touch the stuff so I've only had a few pieces cooked by my wife for over 30 years for me. Not a fan of foul fowl.
 

homecook

New member
I agree with what you're saying Joe.

If I'm doing a tempura or a batter for say onion rings it's a completely different method.
 

joec

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The bloomin onion is different that rings too a bit or the maui onions which when I can find them I do a only petals.
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
Site Supporter
"For home use, probably 3 eggs and a cup or so of milk will be adequate."

I use 2-3 eggs and maybe 1/4 cup milk/water. I know everyone is saying use the flour first. I've never done that for 40 years (ok, maybe once or twice) and I have no problems with my breading sticking whether it's pork chops, vegetables, city chicken, etc.

I did say I don't do fried chicken so maybe in that instance the flour would work better.........just sayin. lol
did i read somewhere that you do crumbs/egg/crumbs? so you only use 2 bowls right? sorry if i got that wrong.
but i was think i will try that way for my cauliflower next time. i think it will give the cauliflower more flavor than the flour/egg/crumb i usually do.
 

homecook

New member
did i read somewhere that you do crumbs/egg/crumbs? so you only use 2 bowls right? sorry if i got that wrong.
but i was think i will try that way for my cauliflower next time. i think it will give the cauliflower more flavor than the flour/egg/crumb i usually do.

Yes, Peeps, that's how I do it. Two bowls, easy! Try it and see what you think.....
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
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Yes, Peeps, that's how I do it. Two bowls, easy! Try it and see what you think.....
i will and thank you for the idea!! i just wanted to be sure that you use the dry/wet/dry method but the FIRST dry is crumbs. how do you think flour and cornmeal would work for the first dry then egg then crumbs? i think your crumb instead of flour first would give extra flavor and crunch to most veggies. what do you think of cornmeal and flour to start for say a fish fillet? maybe flour and cornmeal/egg/flour and cornmeal? i am not big on fish but i do like it fried and crisp sometimes.
 

homecook

New member
i will and thank you for the idea!! i just wanted to be sure that you use the dry/wet/dry method but the FIRST dry is crumbs. how do you think flour and cornmeal would work for the first dry then egg then crumbs? i think your crumb instead of flour first would give extra flavor and crunch to most veggies. what do you think of cornmeal and flour to start for say a fish fillet? maybe flour and cornmeal/egg/flour and cornmeal? i am not big on fish but i do like it fried and crisp sometimes.

You got it!

The only time I've used flour and cornmeal is when I do catfish. Other fish I use a beer batter.
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
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You got it!

The only time I've used flour and cornmeal is when I do catfish. Other fish I use a beer batter.
ok great.


the beer batter didn't work for me for some reason, btw did you only dip in the batter? nothing first? i wonder why it didn't work for me. oh well its probably healthier that it DIDN'T work for me, if it had they would want it all the time. :lol:
 

homecook

New member
Actually I use a different beer batter for fish............


The onion ring batter I didn't dip the onions into anything, just the batter.
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
Site Supporter
Actually I use a different beer batter for fish............


The onion ring batter I didn't dip the onions into anything, just the batter.
hmmmmmmmmmmm next time i feel like going for a long ride i would love your fried catfish (which i have had at cracker barrel and it wasn't to bad) and onion rings. :whistling:
 

AllenOK

New member
I put the "or so" comment in to give the user leeway for a thicker/thinner egg wash. You can go with less liquid if the liquid is really thin, like water or milk. If you are using heavy cream or buttermilk, you may want to add a little water or be very careful of the amount of liquid you are adding.

When I do a beer batter, I always flour first, then batter. I typically try to let my fish rest in the flour for few minutes, to get kind of tacky, then drop it into the batter and let it sit in that for a few minutes, before dropping into the fryer.

TIP: If you're battering fish, don't just drop the whole thing into the oil. It will sink to the bottom, where the batter will adhere to whatever is on the bottom, either a wire basket, layer of burnt breading, or the bottom of the pan. This usually means the batter will rip off the fish when you remove it. I "swim" the item in the oil, where the bulk of the food is in the oil, but I have a little bit out so that I can hold it. I "swim" this for a few seconds, to get the batter to seal before I drop it in. It will stick, a bit, but you can easily remove it from the basket without ripping the batter apart.

If you use DRAFT beer, with live yeast (refrigerated kegs only, no cans!), make the batter, and let it sit for several days, you get a cross between sourdough and beer batter. I've found that the battered fish, when I do my "swimming" method, usually floats within seconds, as the gas produced by the batter increases in volume from the heat. Tastes pretty good, as well.

PLEASE NOTE! I work as a cook. Doing my method, YOU WILL GET SPLATTERED WITH HOT OIL! I try to wear rubber gloves (easier to clean my hands afterwards), which affords a little splatter protection. Many times, though, I'm dropping the fish in bare-handed. Yes, I get burned. A lot. I'm used to it. But, many folks aren't, and when they get splattered, can quickly drop the food, which will splash more hot oil around, possibly creating a bigger burn, or even starting a fire if it hits open flame from a burner.
 

homecook

New member
Good tip about the "swimming" Allen. I do that also. Makes for better battered fish.

I use tongs when I lower the fish in, I still get splattered a little.
 
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