Deep Frying

[emtee]

I got a real nice turkey frier for Christmas, and just what I needed- a whole new hobby!

Anyway, does anyone know of a good forum site for using these things. I want to do more than just an occasional turkey. Need recipes and techniques for deep fat friers.

Here I go again!

 

[glued2it]

SAFETY! SAFETY! SAFETY!

Turkey fryers can be VERY dangerous.

Turkey Fryers

A longtime food favorite in the southern United States, the delicious deep-fried turkey has quickly grown in popularity thanks to celebrity chefs such as Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse. While some people rave about this tasty creation, Underwriters Laboratories Inc.'s (UL) safety experts are concerned that backyard chefs may be sacrificing safety for good taste.
"We're worried by the increasing reports of fires related with turkey fryer use," says John Drengenberg, UL consumer affairs manager. "Based on our test findings, the fryers used to produce those great-tasting birds are not worth the risks. And, as a result of these tests, UL has decided not to certify any turkey fryers with our trusted UL Mark."
Here's why using a deep-fryer can be dangerous:

• Many units easily tip over, spilling the hot oil within the cooking pot.
• If the cooking pot is overfilled with oil, the oil may spill out of the unit when the turkey is placed into the cooking pot. Oil may hit the burner/flames causing a fire to engulf the entire unit.
• Partially frozen turkeys placed into the fryer can cause a spillover effect. This too, may result in an extensive fire.
• With no thermostat controls, the units also have the potential to overheat the oil to the point of combustion.
• The sides of the cooking pot, lid and pot handles get dangerously hot, posing severe burn hazards.

If you absolutely must use a turkey fryer, here are some tips for safer use:

• Turkey fryers should always be used outdoors a safe distance from buildings and any other material that can burn.
• Never use turkey fryers on wooden decks or in garages.
• Make sure the fryers are used on a flat surface to reduce accidental tipping.
• Never leave the fryer unattended. Most units do not have thermostat controls. If you don't watch the fryer carefully, the oil will continue to heat until it catches fire.
• Never let children or pets near the fryer when in use. Even after use, never allow children or pets near the turkey fryer. The oil inside the cooking pot can remain dangerously hot, hours after use.
• To avoid oil spillover, do not overfill the fryer.
• Use well-insulated potholders or oven mitts when touching pot or lid handles. If possible, wear safety goggles to protect your eyes from oil splatter.
• Make sure the turkey is completely thawed and be careful with marinades. Oil and water don't mix, and water causes oil to spill over, causing a fire or even an explosion hazard.
• The National Turkey Federation recommends refrigerator thawing and to allow approximately 24 hours for every five pounds of bird thawed in the refrigerator.
• Keep an all-purpose fire extinguisher nearby. Never use water to extinguish a grease fire. Remember to use your best judgement when attempting to fight a fire. If the fire is manageable, use an all-purpose fire extinguisher. If the fire increases, immediately call 9-1-1 for help.
• Even after use, never allow children or pets near the turkey fryer. The oil inside the cooking pots remains dangerously hot, hours after use.

 

[emtee]

The manual that came with the unit is about 20 pages safety and three pages on how to use it. While I agree that these things can be dangerous, they don't have to be killers. One needs to take the time and make the effort to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. I do many things that are dangerous- motorcycle riding, rappeling, climbing, shooting, hunting, etc... but I manage them to acceptable levels and have never been hurt. For this gizmo I have already constructed a tripod to facilitate the turkey lowering phase- by far the most dangerous task. I will be nowhere near the fire and oil, and I use all my toys, including the smoker, on a flat, level concrete area.

But I'm actually not nearly as interested in doing the big bird in hot oil exclusively. I may do one once in a while, but I think there can be much more to this thing. I am far more interested in seafood steams or gumbo recipes for a crowd. This thing came with not only the turkey hardware, but steaming baskets and seafood collanders as well. I think a big pot of gumbo using smoked sausages would be to die for. I also think it would be fun to make half a dozen cornish game hens for an alternative dinner for friends. Helll, I can't keep feeding the troops smoked meat- they might get tired of it... NOT!

Thanks for your safety post Glued2it. Never hurts to reiterate the dangers of a product, and I'll keep that in mind. Now come up with a good seafood gumbo recipe!

 

[glued2it]

I don't have any gumbo recipes Sorry.
I copied and pasted that info and saved it due to all the turkey frying this time of year.

They do have allot of uses, I wanted to use one to steam seafood.
Unfortunatly I didn't get one for Christmas so I have to go buy one myself.
Any excuse to buy new toys!

 

[bossman]

I dont know of any turkey fryer forums, but I can tell you from my own experience of frying turkeys for years that you can pretty much fry anything you want in them.Ive done chicken ,hot wings, roasts, french fries you name it.
The key is to always measure the amount of oil you will use by placing the item to be fried in the kettle first and add water to measure the amount of oil you will need. As long as you do this and ensure that the tempeture remains where you need it, and that your meat is TOTALLY DEFROSTED you should have a positve experience!

THis year I added a gift from Char-Broil to my arsenal, The Big Easy Turkey Fryer! This is a turkey fryer that uses infrared to cook the turkey and uses NO OIL! I did a video of it on youtube that you can watch here:
The turkey got a little dark because of the rub we had on it, lots of brown sugar, but other then that it fried the turkey perfect and the taste was out of this world. Hope this helps, have fun and post some pictures of your first fry

 

[dutch25]

Wish I had a good recipe for ya...All I can say is that you'll love it if use it..we do lots of deep frying but also great for fish boils, shrimp, crab...anything at all, man now you got me thinking food

 

[cowgirl]

I do a lot of shrimp/crawdad boils with mine....

This one was while camping........I didn't have newspapers to cover the table, but of course there were plenty of cardboard beer boxes and some grey tape.

I also use it for fish frys and calf frys (mountain oysters).

 

[teacup13]

here a tip:

put your turkey into your empty fryer pot,...next fill with water until the turkey is submersed, now take out the turkey, this will tell you how much oil you need to fry your turkey

oh yah and inject that baby..lol

 

[bluegillman]

I have never fried a turkey in mine. I fry fish etc. I use mine for low country boils (Find on line) and New England boiled dinners. I use the base and other pots including my dutch oven. You can cook anything on it that you would cook in a pot in the stove. Works great. I make up alot of my own recipes or modify ones I find. It is a great tool for big gatherings.

Ron

 

[bbqman]

google- turkey frying .com, there are many sites with information.only problem with frying a turkey is the amount of oil you need.
it is better to do more than one if you are going to do it, you can get about 3 or 4 turkeys from 1 batch of oil if you are lucky.

 

[zapper]

Yaaaahhhh Hoooo!

You go Cowgirl!

But didn't you make any for the other guest?

I do way more low country boils and crab legs in my fryer than I do turkeys. I am not a big mudbug fan but they do blend in nicely don't they?

 

[bustedluckbarbq]

This past friday night we fired up my fryer at the Busted Luck Hangout.... put about 15lbs of potatoes thru a press made lots of fries... some old bay/vinegar some with Gramason's buffalo garlic sauce did a bunch of wings too!! The fryers are dangerous... must use caution while using them... we use them with the basket a lot to STEAM crabs and shrimp and corn on the cob....

Cowgirl... that spread looks great!!

 

[reents]

Check Out Alton Brown Ricipie On Deep Frying Turkey Unde Food Network Home Page Also Place Aluminum Foil Over The Plastic Hose Going From Tank To Fryer In Case You Spill Hot Oil On It.

 

[emtee]

OMG Patty, THAT'S what I'm talkin about!!!! I'm there!

Just another update- We did a couple of cornish game hens last night just to play with the thing. Peanut oil, 7 minutes, 180F internal. Damm, they was good!

Please don't revoke my membership here, but I'm gonna do more and more stuff in the frier (steamer) as well as my smoker. Jeeze, I'm gettin fatter just writing this!

 

[Dutch]

Bossman, Thanks for sharing that video with us. Very informative- how easy was the pot clean afterwards?

 

[richoso1]

Cowgirl, that pic took me back to when I was working in Lafayette, Louisianna! Mighty tasty pic there, my lady friend!

 

[cowgirl]

Thank you Zapper, when I have a crawdad/shrimp boil at my house, I use my homegrown shrimp....since I was camping out of state, these were store bought ones. They still tasted good along with a few cold beers.

Busted, your feast sounds great! Did you folks take any pictures?

Thanks emtee! I'm going to have to try some game hens....they sound good!!

rich, I bet there was some good eating going on in Lafayette!
I have a few relatives from Louisianna..........their food is to die for!

 

[cowgirl]

Great video Bossman, very informative!

 

[glued2it]

I got OUTDOOR GOURMET 11-PIECE COMBO FRYER SET for my birthday!

http://www.academy.com/index.php?pag...267-02367-2517

I wonder if I could cold smoke it then fry it hmmm?

 

[devolutionist]

Here's the turkey frying advice I give out to folks - it's getting asked more and more lately...

-------------------------
Golden rule is three and a half minutes per pound - for larger turkeys
(over 20 lbs) make it three.

Maintain oil at 350, no more than 370. Use ONLY 100% peanut oil. Don't
use anything that says "Blend" on it. Fresh 100% peanut oil won't flash
(flash = burnt oil, turns brown, smells nasty) until right at 400
degrees. Blends and other types of oil don't. Don't push it. Nothing
will screw up your turkey more than burnt oil.

Use an analog thermometer with a long (probably 8 inches) probe to read
your oil temp. Only use a digital probe if you know what you're doing.
If you get 350 degree oil on the braid of a digital probe, it'll melt it
and short the probe, leaving you guessing at the temps, which is bad.
You can usually set digitals to alarm if the temp exceeds a set
threshhold. Set the threshhold to 360-362 and start to lower the flame
once it goes over 355. Same rule applies to analogs.

You can use rubs or injectible marinades if you want, but I strongly
discourage it because the loose spices just screw up your oil. For your
first time, just make sure the turkey is 100% thawed out (which means
putting it in a fridge a week before and sitting in the sink full of
water overnight the day before. Fry the turkey as-is - don't put
*anything* on it or in it and it'll turn out great.

Put turkey on frying rack neck down. I.e., the turkey should be upside
down with the feet at the top and the neck towards the bottom of the
pot.

Get a large sheet of cardboard to put the fryer on while you cook, as
some oil spillage is inevitable, and hot oil kills grass. Don't do this
next to your house or on a wooden deck. The thicker and the larger the
cardboard you can get, the better. I sometimes use an old tarp as well.
If you can't find anything else, put some flat paper bags under your
cooker or you'll probably end up with a nice grease spot on the
concrete. If you're cooking on grass and have an overflow, you'll have
a nice dead patch of grass where the overflow was in a week or so.
Level dirt is the first choice. A patch of expendable lawn is second
choice. Concrete is 3rd choice because the oil will stain it.

To determine the correct amount of oil, place the turkey on the frying
rack and place in the pot. Add water until it reaches 1 inch above the
turkey. Make sure you've got about 4-5" between that high water mark
and the top of the pot, or you're probably going to boil over some oil -
which is OK but you'll have to watch for any fires that might crop up.
Remove the turkey and note the water level without the turkey in it (I
use a sharpie). Dry the pot completely and add oil to the water level
mark you just made.

Wear a long sleeve shirt and an oven mit when lowering the turkey.
Lower the turkey *very* slowly to avoid overflowing the oil. Good rule
of thumb is to count to 30 while you lower it.

So right about now if you didn't have the spare 4 to 5 inches mentioned
above, you'll probably start to have a problem with the oil overflowing
to some degree during the first 10 minutes of frying. A little spillage
isn't a problem. If a lot of overflowing occurs, keep frying but be
ready to handle a flame up by quickly turning off the gas at the tank.
If you have to cut the gas, quickly wipe the excess oil from the outside
of the pot (with the hand that's wearing the over mitt) and then
re-light and maintain 350 temp. The temp won't drop that fast without
the flame, so don't be in too much of a hurry - it's better to wipe up
good and get it cleaned up well to avoid another flame up. Don't try to
take the pot off of the cooker while the turkey and hot oil is in there
though.

When it's done, cover loosely with aluminum foil for 10-15 minutes after
cooking. It's important to let it sit for a while before carving it.

Once the oil cools (4-5 hours) strain it (can use panty hose and a
funnel) back into it's container and it can be kept unrefrigerated for 6
weeks. Refrigerate it and it'll last at least 6 months.
-------------------------

Hope this helps!