The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of temperature and reduced pressure on the convective heat transfer coefficient, h, during frying of products with different area/volume ratio. h was determined from surface temperature and moisture loss experimental data during frying of potato cylinders and "churros", at different oil temperatures (100, 120 and 140 degrees C) and moderate vacuum (19.5-25.9 kPa). The results obtained during vacuum frying were compared with those obtained at atmospheric pressure, both for the same oil temperature (140 degrees C) and for the same thermal gradient (40 degrees C). During frying, h changes considerably, reaching a maximum between 700-1600 Wm(-2) K-1 in vacuum frying and 800-2000 Wm(-2) K-1 in atmospheric frying. To quantify the effect of oil temperature, pressure and size of the product on h, a parameter called "bubbling efficiency", BE, was defined. BE relates the bubble departure radius and the area/volume ratio of the product. An equation (the derivative of the Gompertz function) was proposed to estimate the mean heat convective coefficients for each frying condition as a function of BE (R-2 = 0.957). The relation between h and BE shows a maximum corresponding to an optimal bubbling pattern. Most of the vacuum frying settings are outside this optimum, being affected by the insulation effect of bubbles covering the surface. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.