Do you need to add water when stir-frying sugar color? When and what kind of water should you add when stir-frying sugar color?

We all know that frying sugar color is a common cooking step. Many people fry sugar color when making braised pork or braised fish. Stir-frying sugar color requires certain skills and particularities, especially the use of ingredients and condiments. So do you need to add water when frying sugar color? Let's take a closer look!

Do you need to add water when frying sugar color?

You need to add water when frying sugar color.

Generally, a small amount of water should be added once when the sugar is dissolved. This step is mainly an optimization technique recommended to novice friends. Since the boiling point of oil is around 400 degrees and it has excellent heat locking ability, it can cause even if you keep the whole process of slowly frying the sugar color on low heat, but if you fry for a long time, the temperature of the oil alone will continue to rise gradually. So if you don’t pay attention to this, you may fry the sugar black and burn it halfway. Therefore, when the sugar is dissolved halfway, the main purpose of adding a little boiling water immediately is to use the water temperature to neutralize and lower the oil temperature, so that the oil’s heat locking ability is reduced, thereby ensuring that the sugar can be smoothly transitioned to the subsequent bubbling and color change stage. This technique is also very critical and is highly recommended for novice users to try. However, don’t add too much water, otherwise the oil temperature will be completely dispersed and lowered, which will also lead to too low efficiency in frying the sugar color.

When and what water should be added when frying sugar color?

Before and after frying sugar color, water should be added twice. It is recommended to use boiling water. Of course, slightly hotter water is also acceptable, but never use cold water. Why? The reason is very simple. First, the first time you add water, since the sugar is just melted at this time, if you add cold water instead of boiling water, the sugar solution will immediately crystallize and agglomerate due to the instantaneous cold, which will cause the sugar frying and sugar dissolving steps to be completely wasted, and more time will be wasted before the sugar can be fry again to enter the next stage, so boiling water must be added here to ensure that the temperature does not change; secondly, the second time you add water, since the temperature of the sugar color just fried is very high, there are two obvious disadvantages if you add cold water directly at this time. First, the sugar color will splash due to the instantaneous cold, which is easy to cause burns. Second, the sugar color itself contains a little oil, which will fly out at the same time due to the splashing of water droplets, which will affect the color of the fried sugar color and make it not bright; based on the above two points, it is best to use boiling water for the whole process of frying sugar color, which is the basic key to ensure good frying of sugar color.

How to make fried sugar color

Main ingredients: white sugar, rock sugar or soft sugar (white sugar or crushed soft sugar is recommended for beginners)

Ingredients: Boiled water, cooking oil (note: use boiled water as much as possible, warm water with slightly higher temperature is also OK, but never cold water)

Start making:

①Put a small amount of cooking oil in the pan. Note that it should be a small amount, just enough to moisten the pan. Shake the pan to let the oil moisten the bottom area. —— (Note that since water frying is slower, here we mainly teach you the most commonly used oil frying and water-oil frying methods. Pay attention to the details).

② Then add granulated sugar or shredded sugar, turn on the heat, or add granulated sugar while the heat is on. —— (Note, do not wait until the oil temperature rises before adding sugar, pay special attention to this).

③After turning on the fire, you should start to stir-fry the sugar. Keep the fire low and try not to stop during the whole process. Stir-fry slowly to dissolve the sugar. —— (Note that you should stir-fry over low heat and try not to stop).

④ When the sugar is almost completely melted, add a little boiling water to neutralize the temperature, that is, stir-fry with water and oil. Of course, if you are an experienced cook, you can ignore this step. If you are a novice, add water. Of course, you should also pay attention to the amount of water added. It should be based on the amount of sugar. You only need to add a small amount. —— (Note that the water must be boiled water, and the amount added should be small).

⑤ Keep the heat low and stir fry continuously. At the beginning, small bubbles will appear evenly, and then large bubbles will appear. If you are coloring braised pork, pig's trotters, etc., you can add the ingredients and start frying immediately. If you add them later, the remaining high temperature will easily make the sugar color stick to the pan. —— (Note that when frying sugar color, you must always pay attention to the bubbles and color changes of the sugar color, which is the key to frying sugar color well).

⑥ Of course, if you just want to stir-fry the sugar color, you need to continue to stir-fry for a while. When the big bubbles disappear and the sugar color gradually turns red, add boiling water. The amount of boiling water is about 3 times the sugar oil in the pot. After adding, continue to stir-fry for a few times to mix the sugar color and boiling water evenly. Turn off the heat and remove from the pot. The stir-fried sugar color is ready. —— (Note that the water added here must also be boiling water, and the amount added cannot be too much. It can be controlled at about 3 times the sugar oil in the pot, otherwise it will reduce the coloring effect of the sugar color).