Weird foods and drinks to deep-fry
If you’re craving indulgent fair food, you can actually make some of these deep-fried creations at home.
Butter
Inventor and frymaster Abel Gonzales Jr., nicknamed “Fried Jesus,” first debuted deep-fried butter at the State Fair of Texas in 2006. The dish migrated to fairs and expos across the U.S. and Canada and has even been served at pubs and restaurants. You can make an at-home version by taking chilled or frozen pieces of butter, rolling them in batter and deep-frying until golden and puffy for a French toast-like buttery treat.
Beer
Most folks have used beer in their batter for other fried foods, but what about making beer the star of the show? Invented by chef Mark Zable for the 2010 Texas State Fair, his recipe for fried beer uses pretzel-like dough in a ravioli shape that creates a pocket for the beer. When deep-fried at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds, the beer’s alcohol doesn’t cook off, making for a treat that’s part snack, part drink. Unlike some other fried concoctions, fried beer is made without freezing the liquid core.
Spam
Pan-frying Spam is a common way of heating up the canned meat, but Spam also does well deep-fried. Dredged in flour and coated in Panko or bread crumbs, Spam can shine as a thick-cut country-fried entree or as a deep-fried side of thin-cut fries.
Twinkies
While Twinkies are an American icon, the idea to fry them came from a British chef. Christopher Sell invented the deep-fried Twinkie at his Brooklyn restaurant in 2002. He told the New York Times the idea was inspired by working in a chip shop as a teen, where it was common to experiment by tossing things like candy bars in the deep fryer. The key to making them at home is to freeze them for a few hours or overnight to ensure the cake endures the heat of the fryer.
Cadbury Creme Egg
If you’ve had a deep-fried candy bar, you know what a gooey treat it can be. Well, intrepid Brits started frying up a seasonal chocolate treat, and the rich result will make you stock on up the Easter candy for all year long. Battering and frying a Cadbury Creme Egg creates a molten cake effect, turning the chocolate gooey and the creme inside into a lava-like sauce. “The confectionery has melted but remains entombed in its shell,” writer Harry Wallop described in The Telegraph. “Eating it is messy business, however. Once you bite, you shatter the fragile creation, causing an explosion of fat and sugar, and I can feel my arteries clogging almost instantaneously.”
Mayonnaise
After decades of being a condiment, mayonnaise worked its way up to being used in deep-fried batters until finally becoming the main ingredient when folks figured out that you can deep-fry mayonnaise all on its own. Chef Wylie Dufresne first invented the dish at his New York City restaurant and made it using some serious molecular gastronomy. You can make it at home by freezing mayonnaise, then working it into a ball coated with cornstarch before rolling it in bread crumbs. Another option is combining the frozen mayo and bread crumbs first, then coating a ball of that mixture in batter and frying it.
Coke
Another invention of the Texas State Fair’s Abel Gonzales Jr., fried coke is made with frozen Coca-Cola-flavored batter that, when fried, turns out a bit like a doughnut hole. You can choose most any soda to reduce down and add to your mixture, but Coke’s caramel sweetness and strong flavor make it the reigning choice.
Watermelon
Deep-frying doesn’t just work with artery-clogging sweetness. Frying also works with fruit, such as strawberries, bananas and even watermelon. Because watermelon is so moist, frying won’t dry it out, but you definitely have to make sure it’s cool before taking a bite. If you truly want to be frugal, you can even deep-fry and eat the rinds of a watermelon and dip them in something salty like ranch dressing or salsa.
Lasagna
A deep-fried take on this Italian classic involves dredging squares of prepared lasagna in flour, egg and then bread crumbs before deep-frying to a golden brown. Another option is making lasagna rolls. Take a cooked lasagna noodle, fill with meat, cheese and sauce and roll it up. Coat the roll with flour, egg and bread crumbs and then fry it up and serve with dipping sauce.
Pizza
Move aside Hot Pockets, pizza rolls and calzones, because deep-fried pizza has arrived. You can fry up leftover or frozen slices; fresh doesn’t quite work because the cheese is already melted. Simply coat the slice in batter and fry, though you can also crisp up a slice without battering it. Chip shops in Scotland will famously deep-fry an entire pizza with no breading, making it more crispy and less doughy.
Mashed potatoes
Creamy mashed potatoes might not seem like an obvious choice for making deep-fried fare, but the result of frying up leftover mashed potatoes is a crispy, fluffy potato puff. You can even make a ball of loaded mashed potatoes by adding cheese, bacon and chives to your chilled potatoes before coating and frying.
Oreos
The crispy chocolate cookie turns soft while the cream center melts when Oreos are deep-fried. This fair staple is easy to make at home using pancake mix to make a fluffy batter.
Cheese curds
While you can find fried cheese like mozzarella sticks at chain restaurants coast to coast, you can up your at-home game with a Midwestern classic: fried cheese curds. Squeaky curds turn gooey and stringy when fried, and these bite-sized bits are perfect for dunking in sauce. Other fried cheeses to try deep-frying include brie and goat cheese.
Egg yolks
Many people are familiar with Scotch eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs rolled in sausage and bread crumbs and deep-fried, but an elevated, more gourmet spin is a deep-fried egg yolk made with a sous vide immersion circulator. This results in yolks that ooze after frying but are still malleable when chilled, according to Food Republic. After cooking an egg sous vide, you can separate the yolk from the white, chill it, roll it in flour mixture and fry it. A simpler eggy option is bringing a poached egg to room temperature and then coating and frying it.
Corn on the cob
Instead of boiling, baking or grilling your corn on the cob, why not drop it in a deep fryer? A corn-dog-like buttermilk and cornmeal batter will provide a crunchy dough blanket for the cob inside. An easy way to coat a whole cob is to pour the batter inside a tall glass or jar and dunk the cob inside.
Mac 'n' cheese
Everyone from Alton Brown to Martha Stewart has a fried mac 'n’ cheese recipe, perhaps because the cheesy pasta dish fries up so wonderfully, whether you’re using leftovers or freshly made filling. Either way, the macaroni and cheese should be chilled in a pan, then cut into squares or shaped into balls before being refrigerated.
Tofu
For deep-fried food fans who might be apprehensive about tofu, tossing squares of this soybean curd into hot oil alters the texture and flavor, making it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, much like familiar croquettes or fritters. Fried tofu is the perfect vessel for your favorite Asian sauce.
Cookie dough
If you want the warmth and crisp of a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie but the texture of cookie dough, the solution is deep-fried cookie dough. The outside batter gives a golden crunch while the chilled cookie dough inside gets warm and gooey without cooking all the way through. The cookie dough can be made with or without eggs, if that’s a concern.
Cheesecake
Whether in bite, bar or roll form, cheesecake that’s battered and then deep-fried becomes a new, delightful treat. The chilled cream cheese center turns into a warm cream with a puff pastry-like exterior. Paula Deen’s recipe uses spring roll wrappers filled with cheesecake, so the result is perfectly dippable in whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, or all three.
Snickers
While different fair vendors will deep-fry just about every candy bar under the sun from Milky Ways to Twix, one candy bar rises above the rest. The composition of a Snickers — chocolate, caramel, peanuts and nougat — ensures it survives the heat of the deep fryer while getting nice and gooey. Cake batter, pancake batter or a simple flour mixture all work as coatings for an at-home deep-fried Snickers.
Ravioli
Whether it’s ravioli or spaghetti, pasta holds up well in a deep fryer, turning crispy and chewy. Leftover spaghetti noodles can get a second life by being fried, either breaded in a ball with sauce and cheese or frozen in bunches in a muffin tin and fried sans coating. Jazz up pre-made ravioli by breading it with Italian bread crumbs and frying.
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