The Vegetable That Might Help You Avoid Burning Food On The Stove

Maintaining oil temperature and keeping food from burning while deep-frying is tricky. Certain dishes, like latkes, require a special touch that's learned over time, but even then, hot oil can be fickle. If you're seeking a nice, golden fry without dirtying your oil with burnt particles, you might want to try this old-school hack. The secret ingredient is something you might currently have in your vegetable drawer: a carrot.

Just add a whole, unpeeled carrot to heated oil and let it sit there while you cook your french fries, breaded fish, or tempura veggies. Your oil will stay clean and clear longer, and its temperature won't fluctuate as much. You'll end up with beautifully fried dishes without having to constantly micromanage the pan. Because it's still clean, you can reuse the frying oil for future culinary endeavors. Once you're done, toss the carrot instead of eating it, as it won't taste very good.

Numerous Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit users have tried out this hack, only to find that it works spectacularly. As one Reddit user wrote, "It absolutely works! Your food tastes better, too. I do it every year when I make latkes." Some people, however, are still left wondering how a simple carrot can perform such magic.

Even if you've never thought to use carrots this way before, the method is hardly new. Early 1900s cookbooks mention using vegetables to keep oil clean, meaning this technique has been around for at least 100 years. And it's not just an old wives' tale — there are science-backed reasons why a carrot helps you get the perfect fry.

It starts with something called the "Cheerios effect." Small things floating in liquid, like Cheerios, tend to be attracted to one another to form clumps along the surface. During frying, small particles detach from whatever you're cooking, and after a while, those bits tend to burn. The carrot changes the oil's surface tension, drawing in those bits and keeping them from immediately burning. Theoretically, you could use anything dense for this hack as long as it still floats, like rutabagas or potatoes. The carrot's density also prevents the temperature from changing as items are added or removed from the oil. It acts as a kind of thermal mass, so electric stoves that cycle their heating won't impact your frying temp as drastically.

To successfully try this hack, cut off the leafy parts of the carrot to avoid extra mess. If the vegetable is too long to fit into your pan, feel free to break it in half. Lastly, make sure to check your oil's temperature (with or without a thermometer) to make sure it's sufficiently hot before adding your carrot.