browning and toughening of the main ingredient being fried (that would be the onions or the cod) while simultaneously adding textural contrast and flavor to the exterior It’s always difficult to decide whether to get onion rings or fries (get a combo if they’ll let you!) Proper beer-battered onion rings, with a substantial crisp crust covering a sweet, tender, thick ring of onion, are one of life’s three greatest pleasures (and the only one that can be enjoyed legally, incidentally), but how often do you get perfect rings? These are the four most common ways that a good beer-battered onion ring turns into a bad one: • Not enough batter When there’s too little batter, the onion is exposed to the full ravaging power of the oil Its sugars rapidly caramelize and then burn, while tissues dry out, turning papery and tough • Too much batter This is almost worse than having batter that’s too thin Instead of staying light and crisp, an onion ring with too much batter will retain too much internal moisture, and as soon as it comes out of the oil, the batter starts getting soggy ...• Not enough batter When there’s too little batter, the onion is exposed to the full ravaging power of the oil Its sugars rapidly caramelize and then burn, while tissues dry out, turning papery and tough... with too much batter will retain too much internal moisture, and as soon as it comes out of the oil, the batter starts getting soggy