Deep fried chemistry: outreach at the Minnesota State Fair
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (8/29/2025) – What do Pronto Pups, funnel cake, and fresh french fries all have in common? They’re all deep fried, of course! And while deep frying is a time-honored method for turning just about anything into a delicious treat-on-a-stick, it’s also a great example of chemistry at work in our everyday lives.
The University of Minnesota Department of Chemistry joined more than 110,000 attendees at the Minnesota State Fair on August 27th for a day of outreach education. Chemistry Lecture Demonstration Coordinator Harrison Frisk, along with four Chemistry students and staff, spent the day chatting with attendees about the chemistry of deep frying. Their discussions explored how different kinds of non-enzymatic browning – the chemical processes that happen when food is heat treated – affect the way foods taste. For example, the flavor of a perfectly toasted marshmallow comes from the non-enzymatic browning reaction called caramelization. Deep fried food often has multiple kinds of non-enzymatic browning happening at once, including caramelization, the Maillard reaction, and dextrinization. It’s the combination of all of these processes that give us that classic deep-fried flavor.
Through live demonstrations, Frisk showed fairgoers how the fryer temperature impacts the cooking of tater tots. A bag of Ore-Ida tater tots recommends a 340° fryer. Lower temperatures? Soggier, less-browned tots. Higher temperatures? Crisper tots that spark a lot of debate. (Are they burnt? Are they perfect? State Fair enjoyers had a lot of opinions on this.) The demonstration aims to help the audience understand the tricky relationship between time and temperature, but as it turns out, is also a great way to get the conversation flowing. “I actually really get a kick out of finding out what everyone’s tater tot preferences are,” Frisk says. “The middle one is the “right” way by the directions, but most people prefer one of the options on either end.”
“Outreach is just fun for everyone – the people that do it and the people who get to experience it – and that’s one of the most important parts of learning,” Frisk says. “I also think it’s interesting to interact with folks who don’t think they really like chemistry, but after you talk with them, they realize chemistry is just tater tots. That’s not the whole story, but it plays a part in getting people thinking about chemistry and how it’s ingrained in our everyday lives.”
The Minnesota State Fair is just one of more than a dozen ways the Department of Chemistry engages in outreach with the community every year. Through a variety of activities, the department aims to provide meaningful science experiences, grant access to hands-on learning opportunities, and get people excited about chemistry. “I think outreach is a really nice way to connect with people who aren’t in the department, and to practice thinking about how I speak about chemistry with non-scientists,” PhD student Eledon Beyene says. “It helps me think about how to be an effective science communicator.” No matter the program format, Chemistry outreach programs work to translate science and foster connections between UMN scientists and the general public. Every event is a new chance to inspire, educate, and spark curiosity.