when im heating up a small amount of oil, it jumps and “burns” me a little. how does a huge pan of oil not do this?
In: Chemistry
The splattering comes from moisture on whatever it is you’re frying turning into steam, and that steam ejecting a small amount of oil with it. If you fry something very dry or without surface moisture it won’t splatter
With enough oil, its surface tension will tend towards keeping it together. This means that a bigger pot of oil will splatter less than a smaller pan covering of oil.
Of course, this is just a relative amount. Deep frying *will* still splatter, especially if there’s enough water in the food (it’s why there’s a meme out there about deep frying a bunch of ice as a way to aggressively quit a restaurant job). So deep frying establishments will have safety measures, such as keeping people further from the oil or having a mesh of some sorts protecting people when there’s extra risk of splatter.
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