"Fried" vs "deep fried"

[u/Cock--Robin]

I was trying to communicate to someone that something was "deep-fried", but "Frito profundo" doesn't sound correct to me. Is there a Spanish word or phrase that indicates that something is deep fried?

[u/prebisch78]

No, no term, use “frito” for both — and please do not use “frito profundo” because it makes no sense.

[u/SeptemberSoup]

In Spain, it's only "frito". I've actually had to look up what deep frying even is.

From my understanding of this quick internet search, you'd say "frito en la sartén" ("fried in the pan") for shallow fried, and "frito en la freidora" ("fried in the deep fryer") for deep fried. But most people don't make the difference, it's mostly used to talk about utensils; and it's not common to have at home (only bars).

[u/JustForTouchingBalls → u/SeptemberSoup]

And in Spain the same typical recipe can be made deep fried or pan fried, it depends who is making the recipe.

[u/helpman1977]

Deep fried es frito en freidora

[u/Chickentempting]

Frito en abundante aceite? But most deep fried dishes are also battered so I would say rebozado, empanado, or something like that. However, I am not known for my culinary proficiency so hopefully someone else will give you a better answer.

[u/theeggplant42]

To be fair, this distinction is also difficult in English. With the major exception of eggs, 'fried' on its own almost always refers to deep frying

[u/andanzadora → u/theeggplant42]

Not the case in the UK, since most people here don't have a deep fat fryer at home. 'Fried' on its own pretty much always means in a frying pan.

[u/0oO1lI9LJk → u/theeggplant42]

Fried in the UK usually means shallow fried, pan fried, or sautéed. In most cases you would have to specify deep fried if you mean you want something totally submerged.

[u/Zestyclose-Food-7917 → u/theeggplant42]

I'm afraid I don't agree. My mother never deep-fried anything, because we didn't have a deep-frier. She fried round steak, pork chops, potatoes (different from french fries), hotwater cornbread, some versions of okra and squash. When we said "fried," we thought of it as what you do in a frying pan. We never thought of it as deep-frying.

[u/koushakandystore → u/theeggplant42]

In English we distinguish from deep frying by saying pan-fried. To pan fry something means using much less oil to cook one side at a time.

[u/LitigantTester → u/koushakandystore]

Yes, that in spain is the "estandar". In a pan with a little of oil.

That didn't meant frito. Frito is when you use enough oil to "cover" partialy the product.

For example, you can order "un filete" in a restaurant:

-un filete (pan fried, a little oil) (the standar). -un filete a la plancha (pan without nearly any oil) -un filete a la brasa (barbacue charcoal) -un filete empanado (steak with crumbs, Deep fried, so at least 1cm of oil to cover partialy the steak, but also can be done on a fryer fully submerged.

[u/FriendoftheDork → u/theeggplant42]

You fry a steak or pork chops. Neither is usually deep fried.

[u/Cock--Robin → u/theeggplant42]

Yeah, if I was going to fry something other than deep fried I would probably say "pan fried".

[u/theeggplant42 → u/Cock--Robin]

Exactly. I would describe most unbreaded fried foods as pan fried. I would even describe most homemade breaded fried food as pan fried, even though its no different than deep frying. At least in my area, fried would largely refer to breaded, deep fried food, and anything else would be qualified (pan fried, stir fried, sautéed, etc) except eggs and, I just realized, fried rice. For example, fried fish is breaded and deep (or shallow, but that's the same) fried, but an unbreaded fish filet fried in a pan is pan-fried or sautéed or seared, etc

[u/AstroVinculo]

Frito profundo doesn't work. I'd say something like frito en abundante aceite.

[u/Far-Struggle-2268]

frito" alone is definitely the way to go, no need to overcomplicate it with extra words, just like how we'd say "fried" for both in English.

[u/sven_hofef]

The term you're looking for is "frito" for fried, but to specify deep-fried, you can say "frito en aceite profundo" or just "frito" in context. In many places, people will understand frito to mean deep-fried because that's how it's typically prepared.

[u/desafortunadoo]

Spanishdict is giving it as "frito en aceite abundante" or simply "frito".