Do you use a deep fryer?

[norgeway]

I have one

Of those Dormeyers new in the box, and just about every other kind known to man,,LOL, Sunbeams, Westinghouses, West Bends,Dulane FryRytes and on and on..Very seldom use them, my favorite is the Westinghouse that looks like a bowl, they work really well.

 

[mikael3]

I like my vintage Sunbeam.  I mainly use it for catfish, which really is best deep-fried.  I only use it outdoors—fish odors AND fry odors are not happening in the kitchen!!

 

[circlew]

I rarely eat fried food, as I've had heart problems. If I do, it's at a restaurant maybe once every couple months. French fries at home are baked in the oven.

As for odors, a good vent hood, with ducts to the outside, should take care of that.

Back when I was a teen, I got it the habit of making French fries in a frying pan. One day (when home alone) I left them cooking while I went outside to the neighbors yard. The grease caught fire, and caused over $5000 damage, mainly from the smoke. I thought my parents were going to kill me when they returned. No more frying for me for a long time!

 

[gusherb]

I have a Presto deep fryer with digital control but haven't used it in probably a decade. They require lots of oil and no fryer ever seems to get hot enough. I just do it in a pan and use butter or Ghee which withstands high heat quite well. I love to fry in coconut oil, butter/Ghee, and animal fat. Those options are healthier than using vegetable oil. 

 

Over Christmas I fried the potato pancakes in Ghee on the new Zojirushi electric griddle I got, they were the best I've made yet. 

 

[gyrafoam]

I'm southun. I can fry food in a hub cap if I need to. Any pot deeper than two inches is ok, too. I have an old Dormeyer I can use for a crowd and a huge old chicken skillet.

 

[washerboy]

reuse the oil

Not that my mother fried a whole lot; in fact it was a treat it was so rare; but she always reused the oil. She had 2 bottles/containers for oil. One for fish only and the other for chicken, orka, potatoes. Guess that's about all she fried...she never made homemade donuts..ha!

 

[stan]

I'm still frying Chicken in this

If I don't have leaf lard, I'll use Crisco.
Cast iron is what I'm use to.. Theres probably a better way?
I season chicken, shake in a bag (paper or plastic) in reg flour, or self rising.
After frying I pour left over oil in a can and throw out

 

[mikael3]

Where do you get good leaf lard?  The only sources I know sell rendered lard only, seriously over priced.  I’d prefer to render my own.

 

[michaelman2]

Leaf Lard in Atlanta

I found it at the Spotted Trotter, 1610 Josea Williams Drive, Atlanta. It is rendered and a bit pricey.

 

[twintubdexter]

Open Floor Plan = Stinky House

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I've got one of those fancy new deep fryers with the charcoal filter. I used it twice entertaining guests at my kitchen island. That part was fun watching them sip/guzzle cocktails down and quickly eat up each batch of tempura-like goodies as soon as they were done. What was not fun was the way my entire house smelled for 3 days afterwards...welcome to "Joe's Greasy Spoon Diner". I suppose I could have put the fryer under the range hood but out in the patio would have been better.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Last month I had a 30% discount from Kohl's as well as some of that "cash" you earn for buying stuff you don't need. They offered free shipping too so I got one of those "air fryers" for less than $30. I've used it a few times for frozen stuff and it seems to work pretty well...certainly not like oil deep fried food but OK. Even though it shoots air out of the back there's not much odor and stuff comes out fairly crispy. It's super easy to clean, a big +. I'm going to keep it out on the counter and try and use it often since my addiction to small appliances means there's not an inch of cupboard space left.</span>

 

[ea56]

Joe, to help eliminate cooking odors next time you cook something that stinks up your house try putting a shallow dish of white vinegar on the counter. Believe it or not this really does work. Somehow or another the vinegar absorbs the odors.

I’m like you, I can’t stand lingering cooking odors in the house. Our range vent isn’t vented to the outside, it just has a charcoal filter that isn’t much help. So in addition to putting out the vinegar we also have a room air filler that we run whenever I cook anything that creates any odor, and this seems to help a lot.
HTH,
Eddie

 

[abcomatic]

My Mom had a deep fryer and the name on it was Southern. She kept oil in and one day it fell out of the lower cupboard where it was kept, onto the floor. She got so angry with all of that oil on the kitchen floor that she threw it out of the back door on to the driveway! lol She did and retrieve it back. Gary

 

[abcomatic]

My Mom had a deep fryer and the name on it was Southern. She kept oil in and one day it fell out of the lower cupboard where it was kept, onto the floor. She got so angry with all of that oil on the kitchen floor that she threw it out of the back door on to the driveway! lol She did and retrieve it back. Gary

 

[sudsmaster]

I fried up some bone-in skin-on chicken thighs a couple of months ago in a big 12" T-fal covered frying pan. It came out just fine; the tricky part was monitoring the oil temp.

I also brought an Oster electric deep fryer out of storage. It is convenient to use; with a hinged ventilated cover, a lift handle that can raise the basket with the cover on, and a fairly reliable thermostatic control. It just doesn't have the capacity of the big frying pan, but is great for fries.

I've been research what's the best frying oil... high polyunsaturated vegetable oils are currently frowned upon, because they oxidize so easily in high heat. The best seems to be avocado oil or coconut oil. But both tend to be a bit pricey. Lard is another possibility. I used canola oil, which has a better mono to poly saturated ratio than other veggie oils, but it still tends to oxidize. Safflower oil is another possibility, with a lower poly ratio, but it can be harder to find in shops. In addition to being though healthier for frying, lard and coconut oil can be reused more times than high poly oils.

 

[stan]

John

I get leaf lard here from a organic butcher shop already rendered. It's sold in glass jars.. not much bigger than baby food jars. It's a bit pricy.
To render it yourself, you might be able to ask your butcher.. Ask your butcher to save some of the fat from near the kidneys, aka leaf lard, not back fat. Then you'd have to render it, and put it up at home.

Hi Eddie, I'm going to try the vinegar tip. I have no exhaust vent/fan so best I can do is open doors, windows, ceiling fans, close doors I don't want the cooking odors going into.

 

[sudsmaster]

I keep the deep fryer in the patio kitchen, which is partially open to the outside air.

 

[revvinkevin]

Until recently I think I have personally only deep fried once (or twice?) in my life. When I was younger I remember my mom making donuts (deep fried) a couple times.

My other half is from the Philippines and they deep fry pretty regularly. After seeing the mess that was made on and around the the stove, I bought this little (1.1 L capacity) Farberware deep fryer. I figured I'd give it a shot as it was only $20. Once I figured out what the temp needs to be, it works great I cooks things quickly and things are very tasty. However the health aspect of eating fried foods kept dancing around in my head and it hasn't been used for the last 3-4 months now.

Kevin

 

[launderess]

Everything in moderation.

Long as one is not consuming fried foods on a regular and consistent basis the odd one offs likely aren't going to harm. That is unless one has issues with cholesterol or some such and have been warned off by physician's advice.

Other worry seems to be the possible carcinogens generated by changes caused in frying. Well same things are said about broiling and other ways of creating searing and or using high heat to cook/create a crust.

 

[mikael3]

I have bought rendered leaf lard from the Spotted Trotter, which was the source of my complaint about cost!!  I’ve asked around for the raw stuff, but no shop I know of can get it.  Specialty restaurants and the Spotted Trotter are apparently buying it all up!  Another problem is that almost no one is raising lard hogs anymore, so no one has the yield they used to have.  Such a shame.

 

Beef kidney suet is also tricky to find, but it is possible.  I ended up buying an awful lot, which has lasted a few years.  So far, no freezer taste, but my luck is going to run out soon.  There’s nothing in the world like frying potatoes in rendered suet, but I keep most of mine whole for steamed puddings.  I only need 4 oz at a time, though, which is why my 10 lb supply is still with me!!

 

[sudsmaster]

As far as I can tell, the main health danger from deep frying is when the high heat causes poly unsaturated oils to break bonds and reform as trans fats. These are to be avoided at all cost. Oils that are primarily monosaturated or fully saturated are more resistant to the formation of trans fats, if at all. This accounts for the recommendation of fats that are solid at room temp, like lard or coconut oil, or highly monosaturated, like avocado oil.

I would also recommend frying no more than to the stage where the breading or batter or skin is golden, not darker brown. This means fewer toxic compounds like acrylamides may have been formed. Acrylamides are suspected carcinogens. It will also give a less bitter taste to the final product. So if you naturally tend to avoid bitter foodstuff (like dark bread crust, brown fried food, etc, as I always have) then so much the better.