Eli5: why boiling food makes it soggy but deep frying makes it crispy?
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Boiling is typically a slower process and it occurs at a lower temperature than frying, namely 100 degrees celsius. Boiling water cannot reach a higher temperature than 100 degrees (under normal atmospheric pressure) because beyond that it just turns into water vapor. It’s using the energy from the heat to shift from a liquid to a gas so it can’t actually go above that temperature. This is a much lower temperature than most cooking uses. Frying or oven baking typically use temperatures of around 160-190 degrees celsius.
This is important for two reasons, one is that boiling typically takes longer than frying (boiling meat is typically done for at least an hour, or more, which means that the liquid has plenty of time to seep into the food, but more importantly, boiling occurs at a low enough temperature that the Maillard reaction doesn’t occur. The Maillard reaction is the chemical reaction that turns the outside of foods brown when being cooked, whether in a pan or on a grill or in the oven. It typically happens at around 140-160 degrees celsius minimum and this browning on the outer layer forms a protective barrier that prevents liquids from seeping in, because the exterior of the food turns hard and crispy from soft and porous. In order for that reaction to occur, the food has to be heated up quickly to a high enough temperature.
It is possible to make fried foods soggy if improperly fried, usually by dropping the food in the oil when it’s not hot enough, or dropping too much cold food in hot oil so that it lowers its temperature significantly.
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