I swear I just blinked and the kitchen filled with smoke, the dog ran out of the room, and now I have to explain to my wife why the fire alarm went off at 11pm on a Tuesday.
So I was at a state fair in Des Moines last weekend and watched two food vendors frying the same thing right next to each other. One bragged about using peanut oil at $28 a gallon, the other used regular vegetable oil for like $12. Honestly I couldn't tell the difference in taste, but the peanut oil guy had way less smoke going. Is it really better for your fryer or are we all just buying marketing? What do you all think?
I kept getting either soggy wings or burnt outsides with raw meat inside. Thought 350F was safe but my cheap thermometer was off by like 30 degrees. After ruining 3 batches of wings I finally grabbed a digital probe thermometer from Ace Hardware. Turns out the sweet spot is 375F and you gotta let the oil come back up between batches. Took me a solid 2 hours of wasted chicken before I figured it out. Anyone else have a cheap thermometer mess up your fry game?
I was frying up some chicken wings last Tuesday and put the lid on the pot to keep the oil from popping everywhere. Big mistake. The steam built up and the lid basically launched off, sending hot oil all over my stove. My buddy Rick told me later he always uses a mesh splatter screen instead of a lid. He said it lets steam escape but still blocks the grease. I grabbed a basic 12-inch one from Target for $15 and tried it again yesterday. No explosions, no mess, and the chicken came out way crispier since moisture wasn't trapped. Has anyone else almost burned their place down covering a deep fry pot with a normal lid?
So I was reading the manual for my new fryer last night and it had a chart about different oils and their smoke points. I always just used whatever vegetable oil was on sale, figured oil is oil right? Nope. The thing said if you heat oil past its smoke point it starts breaking down and releasing chemicals that can actually make food taste burnt even if it looks fine. I checked my bottle and I've been cooking at like 50 degrees past the limit this whole time. No wonder my last batch of fries came out smelling like a garage fire. Has anyone else checked their oil temp against the bottle?
I bought one of those fancy infrared thermometers thinking I could finally nail oil temps without a probe getting in the way. Turns out they're useless for deep frying because they only read surface temp, not the actual oil. I was getting readings of 350 but my fries were coming out raw in the middle. After ruining 3 pounds of potatoes and a whole bottle of peanut oil I finally tested it with a regular probe. The real temp was barely 280. Wasted $80 on a gadget that just sits in my drawer now. Anyone else fall for this or am I the only dummy who thought IR guns work on oil?
I thought I was being smart buying a cheap infrared gun off Amazon to check my deep fryer oil. Turns out those things only measure surface temp, not the actual oil temp inside the pot. I spent a whole Sunday trying to make crispy fried chicken and ended up with greasy, pale skin every single batch. After my third try I finally stuck my old candy thermometer in there and saw the oil was barely 275 when the gun said 350. Wasted about 15 bucks on chicken and another 8 on oil before I figured it out. Has anyone else gotten tricked by those infrared gadgets or is it just me being cheap?
Pulled that bird out of the oil after 20 minutes last Christmas and found the bag of giblets cooked solid inside the cavity, nearly ruined my brand new turkey fryer from Academy Sports.
I thought I'd be a hero and deep fry a turkey for the first time, but I ignored the rule about not overfilling the oil. It overflowed when I dropped the bird in and the whole deck almost went up in flames. Has anyone else had a close call with a turkey fryer that close to the house?
I used to just dump hot oil through a strainer into a container and call it good. Then my dad watched me do it last Thanksgiving and pointed out all the little burnt bits still floating around. He showed me how to filter it through a couple layers of cheesecloth while it's still warm (not hot) and man, the difference is night and day. Food tastes cleaner and the oil doesn't go dark after one use. Anyone else have a family member call them out on a bad habit like that?
Spent $8 at the dollar store on a mesh screen. Fried chicken for Sunday dinner. Oil went everywhere anyway because I forgot to dry the chicken first. Grease popped straight through the holes. Hit me right in the arm. Still have a little scar. Anyone else skip the basics and regret it later?
He told me he didn't pat the turkey dry before dropping it in, and the oil exploded up so high it hit the ceiling fan and caught the cabinet above on fire - took him 2 hours to scrub the grease off everything. Has anyone else had a close call with water and hot oil like that?
I was broke and needed a deep fryer for a party I was hosting. The $30 one from the discount store lasted exactly one batch of fries before the basket handle snapped off. Ended up grabbing a beat up old commercial model from a diner closing down on Elm Street for $75, and that thing is still going strong today. Anyone else ever gamble on a cheap fryer and regret it?
Was at the Franklin County Fair last August and watched this older guy drop a basket of wet-battered onion rings. Oil splattered everywhere and the rings came out like rubbery blobs. He just looked at me and said 'dry dredge never lies to you, son.' That one sentence made me switch and I haven't had a greasy mess since. Anyone else have a random stranger change your fry game?
For like 3 years I'd dump a whole pound of fries into my fryer basket and wonder why they came out soggy every time. One day a buddy watched me and said "dude you're crowding it, the temp drops too much." He pointed out how the oil stopped bubbling hard as soon as I dropped the basket in. So now I do half batches but it makes cooking for a crowd take forever. You guys think it's worth the extra time for crispier results or do you just pack it in and deal with soggier food?
I thought I could save $50 on a catered Thanksgiving by doing a 15-pound turkey in my home deep fryer on the back porch, but 4 minutes in the oil overflowed and set my neighbor's recycling bin on fire, and now my garage still smells like burnt plastic and poultry 6 months later, has anyone else ever had a garage fire from frying?
I was trying to fry chicken wings for game night. Oil temp got way too high, maybe 425. Dropped in some wet wings and poof. Huge flame shot up to the ceiling. Fire extinguisher made a mess everywhere. Took me an hour to clean up the powder. Anyone else have a close call with a grease fire?
He was talking about how he ruined 30 pounds of chicken wings because his oil was 50 degrees too low, and I realized that's exactly why my last batch of onion rings came out like greasy sponges. Has anyone else had a batch of food ruined just because the oil wasn't hot enough?
Was trying to make those crispy tortilla bowls for taco night on Tuesday. Dropped a wet tortilla in at 375 and the oil went everywhere including straight up into my ceiling fan blades. Now every time I turn it on it clacks and wobbles like it's about to fly off. Anybody got a trick for getting oil film off fan blades without taking the whole thing apart?
It was 3 years ago at my brother's house in Phoenix. I thought it was thawed but nope. That thing hit the oil and it erupted like a volcano. Oil all over the patio and my nephew's bike got coated. Has anyone else had a frozen food surprise go this bad?
My buddy said 'just pat them dry' and I ignored him, ended up with hot oil splattered across my forearm and a half-cooked batch of onion rings that looked more like charcoal briquettes, has anyone else learned this the hard way?
I was making fries for game night and dumped a full 2 pound bag of frozen fries straight into the deep fryer at 375 degrees. The oil boiled over so fast it hit the burner and sent a column of fire up to the ceiling. Has anyone else had a frozen food explosion that made you question your life choices?
Honestly, I thought I was saving money buying a no-name fryer basket for $25 instead of spending $50 on a good one. It came with this weird coating that started peeling off after one use. I lost 3 pounds of chicken wings and $15 worth of oil because the basket collapsed mid-fry and dumped everything into the oil. The handle got so hot I burned my fingers trying to fish it out. Has anyone else had a cheap basket just fall apart on them?
I'd been frying chicken at my place in Austin for like 2 years. Always got soggy breading. Then my buddy Tim used a laser thermometer on my oil. It was only at 300F instead of 350F. My cheap fryer's dial was off by 50 degrees the whole time. Did anyone else discover they were running low temps for months and ruin a ton of food?
For like 2 years I would just throw as much food in as possible, figured more surface area meant faster cooking. Then last month I dropped in a batch of hushpuppies and the oil temp dropped from 350 to 280 instantly. They came out greasy and raw in the middle, a total mess. My neighbor who runs a food truck saw it and laughed, told me you gotta fry in small batches or it's just a soggy disaster. Has anyone else stubbornly done this for way too long?