CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
41
I’ve got the grandaddy (i.e., much older) version of this FryDaddy but it’s still pretty much the same thing.
I don’t use it all that often, and when I do, I take it out on the deck to avoid smelling up the house (if fish; see next). My most common deep-fried items are battered shrimp and battered catfish nuggets. A local lake is known nationally for striped bass fishing and contests, but in some of the quiet sloughs good sized catfish hang out, so if I get a hankering for catfish I’ll go catch a couple of 3-4 pounders and that’s enough for a family dinner.
As some others mentioned, managing the oil is what makes me reluctant to get the FryDaddy out and us it. And with fish, I really don’t feel like I can get more than 2, maybe 3 in a pinch, uses of the oil no matter how carefully I strain it. So for most other items, I’d rather shallow-ish fry on the stovetop and use a spider for dipping the finished foods out. I store the used oil in its original container(s) in a dark cabinet for next use. I squeeze out air until the oil is all the way to the top then recap it to reduce O2 contact.
For the shallow-ish deep frying I have an old SuperMaid 3 quart thick aluminum pan and an inch or two of oil works well for most of the other stuff I fry. Falafel, maduros, pounded/breaded pork or chicken fritters for sandwiches (I did chicken thigh sandwiches Tuesday night), sometimes smallish servings of fried potatoes (mostly if I cut for French fries nowadays I use the air fryer thing). I can’t think of much else, so I’m either braindead or really just don’t fry too much stuff!
My wife quite frequently deep fries in a wok or a deep pot.
She made deep fried chicken the other day and while I did enjoy eating it, something in me just tells me I should avoid deep frying for several reasons.
I used someone else’s induction stove to fry once and was very impressed with how well it kept temperature. Best of both worlds: steady temperature and easy cleaning.
As much as I love double cooked fries, I have just about dropped deep frying from my repertoire. I pan fry puffy tacos and oysters. I use the convection oven for oven fried potatoes.
Do you remember the make and model of stove? I ask because induction stoves that accurately hold temperature settings are the exception, not the rule.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
47
I wonder if the comment wasn’t more about how an IC with a maintain temp type setting doesn’t need to be fiddled with quite so much when you get that early burst of food moisture evaporation, tanking your oil temp.
For me, cooking on stovetop with gas and not all that much oil (2 cups total, say), I get the oil to 375 and keep it there a while before putting the food in, then just before I put the food in I crank the heat, dump the food in and watch the oil temp drop to 320 or so (depending on how moist the food is) in just a few minutes, even though I’ve got the flame cranked, then as more of the moisture is evaporated the oil temp rapidly starts climbing again and I have to keep turning the flame down to adjust to the current level of evaporative cooling. Then it levels off for the remainder of the cook cycle.
Of course, if I’d just use 2 quarts of oil like a Right Proper FryDude, I’d have enough mass to counteract much of the evap, and wouldn’t have to jump through so many of these temp-adjustment hoops.
Good (non-greasy) deep fried foods are dependent on quick oil temperature recovery time. This is best accomplished by having a lot of oil volume and powerful heating elements . Look for a fryer with high wattage and large oil capacity. I like to deep fry shrimp, sea scallops, fish and chips, chicken fingers, falafel, fritters.
That’s certainly one foolproof way to do it. But for home cooking for only a few people, that is a big capital outlay, and an ongoing requirement to buy large volumes of oil.
I’d change the advice to: Look for a fryer with a good power:volume ratio. A full 1800 Watts under a pint of oil is a pretty decent rebound option, unless there’s a lot of frozen pieces going in. And larger fryers with the same 1800W won’t come up or rebound as fast. I mean, 1800W is the practical ceiling for plug-in fryers anyway.
Not only is oil’s specific heat capacity lower than water’s, but heating (and reheating) oil can be slower for a time because oil’s higher viscosity hampers convection currents. This also cuts against excess volume.
Large oil volumes obviously hold more heat, but there are tradeoffs. I’ve not had any greasiness problems with, say, 6 frozen prawns/batch in a FryBaby-sized unit.
I fry nowadays mostly in a Fry Daddy because it’s just my wife and I. It’s fine if you don’t overcrowd it. To me, deep fried food in restaurants tastes better because of the large capacity powerful fryers.
I’ve asked them to send me the model number. Will let you know when I hear back. I remember I thought their candy thermometer must be defective, so I kept checking with my thermapen and the temp stayed in a good range. It wasn’t exact and I think not what it was set at, but good enough that I didn’t have to fiddle with the settings.
My philosophy is I won’t include or exclude food merely for health reasons. I live my life according to my rules and willingly accept the consequences if my life expectancy is cut a few years due to those choices. I will eat and drink whatever sounds pleasing.
This works for me and not intended to be an argument with anyone else’s life choices.
Shall we call this Fry Hei? There may be something to that.
Of course there are many factors at work: 240v, better PID control, circulators, filtering, basket clearance, timers, oil blends, and LOTS of practice.
Commercial electrics range from about $5,000 to over $60,000. Home countertop electrics range from about $60 to $300. So it’s not surprising commercial units work better.
Sadly , FryBabys are no longer produced. Just FryDaddys. I had a FryBaby. It was perfect for my needs. I later got a small capacity Delonghi roto-fryer. The tilted, rotating fryer basket produced some amusing results. Think Latke Balls.
Please, the joy of this website and threads is the free expression of ideas. Nothing is off topic here in my opinion. The thread has well fulfilled the original op and allowing the discussion move around is interesting. So please share all you wish.
My approach to life works perfectly for me because I am single with no obligations to a spouse. If I had a spouse I likely would have a different philosophy.
