A few thoughts on safety and deep
frying a turkey from my personal experience. A number of years ago my cousin was the rotational host for our annual Thanksgiving get together. He decided to test drive his new deep frying kit with a 16 lb. turkey (his first experience). In addition to the over sized turkey, the following is a list of the REALLY DUMB things he (we) did:
1. Started the day with few Bloody Marys followed by the traditional neighborhood flag football game, then followed by a few drinks at a local tap purchased by the losing team (tradition again).
2. Set up deep fryer on his newly laid concrete driveway with no protection beneath (originally wanted to do it on his newly built wooden deck but his wife vetoed doing that).
3. It was an uncommonly warm day so he chose shorts and flip flops as his preferred cooking wardrobe.
4. Opened another beer, overfilled fryer and overheated oil.
5. Inserted very, very cold turkey into the deep fryer. Oil immediately erupted and overflowed from the fryer. Cousin jumped and knocked over fryer with remaining oil.
6. Very minor result - New driveway cosmetically shot - Cousin had it ripped out and relaid a year later.
7. Very major result - Cousin had 2nd and 3rd degree burns from the knees down on both legs. He was in the hospital for a couple weeks then disabled from work for 4 months. Went through a series of skin grafts over a 2 year period. Still has problems with occasional pain or numbness in his legs.
As a PS, my wife had purchased a deep frying kit as a Christmas gift for me a couple of months before the incident. It was still in the box and she returned it to the store the day after Thanksgiving.
Good luck and be extremely careful, especially if it is your first time deep
frying a turkey.
