Deep Fryers for the Home Kitchen

[Anna N]

I am with gfweb. I too own a Waring which is now gathering dust in my daughter's basement. It lived up to its advertised capabilities but was a PITA to store and clean. It is a one trick pony and unless you do a great deal of deep-frying you will be better served by an induction hob and an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. I always hate not answering the question posed but I also hate to see someone make the same mistake I did!

[ElsieD]

Anna N and gfweb, how easy is it to control the heat using induction and an enamelled cast iron pot? I have both of those but I can't stand having to diddle around with the heat controls on a stove when I am deep frying.

[gfweb]

Just spend a little time finding the setting, write it down and no more fiddling.

 

Induction has the huge advantage of not being able t o ignite if boil-over occurs.

 

You can even put a piece of newspaper over the unit to catch splatter

 

Having said that I usually just my gas stove and stay attentive

Edited November 11, 2014 by gfweb (log)

[Anna N]

What gfweb said. But I would add that it is neither realistic nor necessary to maintain a rock solid temperature while deep frying.

[pbear]

Elsie, I don't know whether this is universal, but both of my induction cookers work with a thermostat.  If yours does as well, then it's simply a matter of finding the right setting as gfweb says; the electronics will do the rest.  FWIW, this is how I handle deep frying also, in my case with a Fagor unit.

[Shalmanese]

Electric deep fryers suck in the home for two reasons:

1. Home circuits are limited to 1800W which means anything plugged into your standard 1 phase power plug is going to be underpowered and slow to recover

2. For home deep frying, because you're dealing with such a small amount of oil relative to the food, the best strategy is to overheat the oil before putting in the food and then relying on the temperature drop to get you to the correct temp. Electric models work the same way commercial fryers work where you start at your target temp and then recover from the drop which takes a long time.

[lindag]

I have a Presto deep fryer that's lingering on a shelf in the garage.  My biggest complaint?  the odor of the hot oil that hangs in the air in the house forever.  I used it once in the kitchen then, because of the awful smell, I moved it out to the garage where I used it a few more times (easier to ventilate with the garage doors open - I could bet rid of the smell much sooner).

It really was too much of a PITA to fuss with, what with draining the oil, filtering the oil, then storing.  Haven't used it now in years and I don't miss it.

Edited November 12, 2014 by lindag (log)

[NEPolarbear]

Do not know the quality of the electric home fryers.

My friends that have them are sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Only used a few times.

However, they still fry using their dutch ovens.

[boilsover]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to offer up an alternate solution which has worked out very well for me: a stovetop pressure fryer.

 

This is basically a pressure cooker, but it is one of the very few that are approved (and safe) for frying.  The two I know of are the Pressure Magic by Fagor and the Rapid Chef The Supercooker.  Both can be found here:  I believe the Rapid Chef is also made by Fagor in Spain.

 

These look like an old-style, armature-sealing PC, but they are specially-designed to both pressure cook and -fry.  The seals are heavy and heat-proof, and there are 3 safety systems.  They are also 8 psi units, so for use with regular PC preps, you need to add about 5 minutes' cooking time.

 

I have the Rapid Chef 8Q, which I use for both pressure frying and deep frying (sans cover), as well as a PC.  The only practical difference is that, when pressure frying, you want no more than a 2" oil depth, whereas with the cover off, you can have it much deeper.  I find that pressure frying conserves oil and keeps food moister.

 

The vessels themselves are SS shells with a thick (I think about 5mm), encapsulated aluminum base.  They make very decent stockpots in their own right.  Which makes them triple-taskers in my book.

 

They come with an instructional DVD (the technique is a little different than with a regular PC), and there is an available 325-page cookbook with a focus on the pressure frying function.

Edited November 13, 2014 by boilsover (log)

[takadi]

Want to revive this thread because I've been deep frying in a small dutch oven for the last few years and my biggest complaints are the clean up, the splattering, the temperature control, and the ability to keep the oil clean. The last one is my biggest pet peeve because the oil will quickly get black when the crumbs/flour drop to the bottom and start burning. Worst part is it is very difficult to filter out the tiny burnt particulates to reuse the oil, so I have to trash the oil often. 

 

I've been trying to look into investing in an automatic deep fryer that addresses these issues, one that has a filter for the oil and a good stable temperature controller as well as easy maintenance and clean up. Anyone have any suggestions? Waring is currently the top rated brand on Amazon so far.

[AlaMoi]

I use a pot and a thermometer.

 

some oddball thoughts:

 

spattering - there is no help for this except a lid or a semi-solution - a spatter shield

 

temperature control - for me this is not a problem, having learned that overloading the pot causes severe temperature drops.

instead of attempting to deep fry all twenty pounds of butterflied shrimp in one batch, I use many batches, and the issue of temperature control is not much of a problem.

 

burnt stuff - yup.  over load the pot, crank up the heat to maximum hoping to make the pot recover more faster, pot over heats, burns everything.  not too much mystery in that.

 

filter for the oil - you can filter out the burnt bits from the oil.  you cannot filter out the burnt taste.  hands UP- don't BURNT!

 

temperature controller - you can have the finest thermostatic control this side of Alpha Centuri - it will only call for more heat - and lacking sufficient uniform heat input, that finest control is utterly useless.  countertop electrical units are not famous for high input uniform heat - so your experience may vary.

 

difficulty filtering the oil - colander, coffee filter / paper towel, big bowl.  no problem.  it does not filter out the burnt flavors tho.

[gfweb]

I agree with the above. I've tried Waring and a couple others. Basically junk. They don't get hot enough...not even the 375F they claim. Volume is too small so they cool off too much  w food added. Storage and cleaning is harder than a big pot too.

 

If you don't like filtering oil, just chuck it. It'll take quite a while for the lost oil expense to come close to the cost of an electric fryer that you'll hate anyway.

[takadi]

Thanks for the tips alana. I didn't think I overloaded my pot too much but it's like the slightest turn of the knob can be the difference between a burnt piece of food and an grease soaked piece of food. Really annoying to deal with....I wish I had an induction 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Consider http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151000-new-kickstarter-meld-wow/