For as much as 90% of the time a French fry spends in the deep fryer, the physics inside it amounts to a vacuum pulling oil into the potato. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign think microwaves can flip that pressure, and their lab data suggest it works.
The team, led by food engineering professor Pawan Singh Takhar with doctoral student Yash Shah, reported results in two papers: one in the Journal of Food Science and a companion modeling study in Current Research in Food Science. The work was funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
