To fry, you require a stewpan or iron kettle; those called Scotch kettles are best, as they set into the range readily. A frying-pan is only useful for sautéing in little fat. Articles to be fried must be immersed in fat, and no frying-pan is deep enough to do this safely. Put two to three pounds of clarified dripping or lard into the kettle, and let it get very hot. This will be after it ceases to sputter--some time after, perhaps; but you must now begin to watch for smoke to rise from the _centre_. Have near you some little squares of bread crumb; drop one in from time to time; only when it colors _immediately_ is the fat hot enough. At this point no time must be lost, and your frying begins.
Of course you will have the articles you intend to fry right at hand. You will also need a large dish, in which you lay common butcher's wrapping-paper (often called "kitchen paper") and a perforated skimmer--some like a frying-basket, and for very small things it is an assistance; but for croquettes, cutlets, etc., it is not necessary: they can be laid on the skimmer and dropped in the fat.
The easiest and safest way to fry is to use a cooking thermometer (pyrometers or frimometers they are sometimes called), and let the fat be 380° for croquettes, oysters, and articles that only require two minutes' cooking; 360° for cutlets and heavier articles.
The time required for articles to cook in the frying-kettle seems astonishingly short. For instance, a breaded chop will be cooked to a medium degree in two and a half minutes, well done in three minutes; but it must be remembered the heat is intense. Croquettes must never be left longer than two minutes, while whitebait (which, however, require special instruction to fry without getting them into a cake) need less than a minute. Potatoes require longer than most things; but the fat need not be cooler at first, as would seem necessary, because they are so full of water, even when well dried, that they cool the fat rapidly.
_Sautéing_ (a word that would be expressive of the process in English would be a boon to writers on cooking).--The process generally meant by "frying" is really sautéing; yet so general has been the misconception among all but professed cooks, that one has to take the precaution in giving directions for frying to say, "Fry _in deep_ fat." It ought to be understood that to fry is to _immerse_ in hot fat. If some term suitable for kitchen use could be found, half the difficulty would be over. In old English books a very fair translation was used; they told you to "toss the article in butter," but though it rendered sauté "jump" fairly, it did not express the process. There is neither tossing nor jumping about it, unless an occasional shake to the pan be called so; and as "flat frying," "dry frying," are awkward, the sooner we boldly take sauté into common use, and let it become a kitchen word as familiar as fricassee (which surely must have been very unfamiliar once), the better.