Deep-Fried Food Has Been Around Longer Than You Think

Many people tend to associate deep-fried food with American culture. Take state fairs, for example, what would they be without deep-fried Twinkies, or a greasy funnel cake doused in powdered sugar? But, contrary to popular belief, dunking various ingredients in a vat of oil is not a modern concept, nor is it native to the United States. In fact, deep-fried foods have origins all over the world that date back not just centuries, but millennia.

The earliest evidence of frying comes from the Middle East between 8000 B.C. and 5500 B.C. after the invention of pottery created a vessel for oil to be heated up in. There, they would fry up dough, also known as Zalabiyeh — perhaps an early cousin of the donut. But the first published recipes for something deep-fried showed up in cookbooks from modern day Spain and Portugal during the 13th century. Fishing was a common trade along the Iberian Peninsula, thus they would dish up deep-fried fish — long before the Brits would claim fish and chips as their own. From there, deep-frying seemed to spread like wildfire across the globe. The next several centuries would take the increasingly popular cooking practice from Europe to Asia, back to Europe again, until it finally crossed the pond to the Americas.

By the 16th century, the Portuguese were eating batter-fried fish and vegetables during important holidays. Merchants from Portugal would soon take this idea overseas to Asia while trading with Japan. This led to the invention of tempura, which consists of deep-frying lightly battered fish and vegetables — a staple that remains popular in Japanese cuisine today.

Not too long after, the Spanish brought potatoes over to Europe, specifically to Belgium, and with that, the idea of frying them up in oil. Little did anyone know, this would become a universally loved delicacy, the french fry. Although, there's some argument as to whether or not they originated in France (thus the name) — many agree Belgium was the first to make them, as Spain owned what is now a portion of Belgium, then called the Spanish Netherlands. And by the 19th century, Brits were dining on a marriage of the two spectacular fried food innovations — fish and chips, of course.

With fried food spreading fast across Europe and Asia, and with more and more people immigrating west, it's really no surprise that America was next on the docket. European immigrants seeking out the "American dream" were hauling their fried delicacies over with them. Historians believe that Austrian immigrants who settled in Texas introduced Wiener schnitzel to the south, adapting their recipe by using southern spices and serving it with gravy. Thus, chicken fried steak was born.

By 1930, Colonel Sanders — yes, that Colonel Sanders — had adopted recipes featuring chicken fried in pork fat that had been slowly growing in popularity among Scots and West Africans who also settled in the south. And, as they say, the rest is history. From hot dogs coated in cornmeal to Thanksgiving turkeys, candy bars, pasta dishes, and even the ever-confusing — yet beloved in some parts — rocky mountain oysters (deep-fried bulls' testicles), it looks like the practice of cooking food in hot oil is definitely here to stay.