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Yesterday, I had to prepare some croquettes and transport them. I thought there would be no problem to reheat them in a toaster oven. However, the croquettes turned out soggy. The flavor was alright, but the texture was off.

I thought that would happen in the microwave, not in a toaster.

Any suggestions on how to reheat a fried food item?

Cheers.

Edit: Such a lot of questions, and good ones. I guess the problem really was that the toaster was closed so moist couldn't escape.

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    What time & temp did you reheat at? Also, did you crowd them while reheating and/or on a wire rack to allow good air circulation (to allow any moisture to evaporate)?
    – Joe
    Nov 20, 2010 at 14:21
  • And also ... what was the starting temp. Was the food cold, or ambient temp when you started reheating?
    – Dr. belisarius
    Nov 20, 2010 at 15:29
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    And a third question... did you transport the croquettes warm or cold? If cold, how did you let them cool down? I would think that if you let them cool down on a wire rack, they're much less likely to get soggy in the first place than, say, if you put them in a container while they're still warm and steaming.
    – Erik P.
    Nov 20, 2010 at 15:58
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    I'm more concerned about what the croquette actually was, since the term can mean so many different things. Would help a lot with tagging too.
    – Aaronut
    Nov 20, 2010 at 17:52
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    @Aaronut, I'm talking about the dutch croquette whee the crunch is extra important. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquette#Netherlands
    – BaffledCook
    Nov 20, 2010 at 18:39

2 Answers 2

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As this basically got answered through questions in the comments, I'll collect up all of the various problems that might help prevent the sogginess:

  1. After frying, allow the croquettes to cool on a wire rack, so they don't get moist as they give off steam.
  2. Reheat first at a lower temperature to heat through, then turn it up the temperature to regain the crunch & get any extra browning.
  3. Make sure when reheating that they aren't packed too tightly, and if possible, heat on a wire rack rather than a pan.
  4. If reheating in a small but tightly-sealing oven, try cracking the door slightly so as to prevent humidity buildup.

(anyone who has any other suggestions, feel free to add 'em)

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  • Very clear and to the point!
    – Dr. belisarius
    Nov 23, 2010 at 3:47
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You can just refry them. Keep a close look on them, since they can become too dark quite easily because they were already fully fried once. Time and temperature obviously depend on the size of the item, but usually something around 180° C (350° F) will do for 2-3 minutes.

However, in your case, I wouldn't have fried them in the first place in advance. But perhaps there wasn't a fryer available.

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    The available heater was a small grill oven. Everybody survived :-)
    – BaffledCook
    Nov 21, 2013 at 10:51

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