What do you use to filter? Coffee filter perhaps? And how many times would you reuse fry oil before discarding? Novice fryers want to know.
Exactly the sort of encouragement that’s gonna lead me down the path. 
My only caveat for deep-frying is that it is great for 2. Maybe 3 or 4 if the latter two are small and slow eaters. But do not try to fry for a group. Been there, done that, and never got to sit for a nanosecond. Plus, half the time half the group was sitting banging on their dinner pails. Not pretty.
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Could you maybe add a line or 2 about any difficulties you encounter? (you can make a few up too)
We do fry frozen fries, a shallow pan fry in a peanut/crisco combo which we do strain and keep.
I would like to move onto fried chicken but have not tried it yet.
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i have a bottle of strained used oil I keep in the fridge just just for frying what my family calls codfish cakes. (I think husbands family calls them salt fish fritters).
When I do it, which is not often, I do just a few at a time, in about two or three inches of oil in a round bottomed wok. I think you don’t need quite as much as you would in a pot with a different shape.
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Tried it once. Just dont see the appeal.
I recently had an epiphany with poached eggs.
I put water in a custard cup and broke an egg into the cool water. Popped it into the microwave for 1 min 45 sec (ymmv) and let it sit in the hot water til the toast was fone and buttered.
Strained the egg and slid it onto the toast.
Perfect poached egg.
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Originally, sous vide was a brilliant way for commercial kitchens to semi-preserve proteins, hold them and finish them quickly to order. There was a time when some dining groups disdained kitchens that used this process as opposed to cooking from fresh each order. It has morphed into an accepted household technique. it does produce certain and predictable results, both protein and veg. If you like those textures, it’s a boon.
I was pretty turned off by the texture.
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Ha1 Will try this method.
My current go-to is from, of all people, Martha Stewart who had a guest chef on one of her shows. He instructed to crack an egg into a custard cup. When water is simmering, tip the egg into the water and IMMEDIATELY START flipping the egg over itself. Very quickly it will have formed a tight ball. Then, and this is the clincher, repeat this for each subsequent egg. Fine for two, maybe four, but a pain to keep track of how each egg is being cooked when you are doing a lot. But again, for a few, perfect eggs this way.
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Baked Alaska
I have to disagree with you on that. When you fry all that you mentioned in the same oil it’s going take on the flavor of everything. no matter how you filter it. To me seafood oil should be separated from others. And onion rings well…the oil will smell like onion rings. But to each her own. Other than that deep frying is pretty easy. Just depends on how you want to waste oil.
This thread made me think of Paula Deen who had twin built in deep fryers in her kitchen. Lucky her. Probably never had to clean them out though.
Tried to edit my post and deleted it my mistake.
I dont deep fry anything in the house because I’m all that fussed about the oil itself. It’s the mess, and the fact that my house then smells like a deep fryer for a couple of days, and the fact that it just isnt healthy. Filtering the used oil and fi ding a place to store it and then use it before it goes rancid is a pita.
So fried foods are a treat when we go out.
I was gifted an air fryer and it makes delicious french fries and other breaded foods.
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Especially the Neosporin + Pain relief!
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Sous vide - especially a steak and I swear here and now I never will!!!
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So much I haven’t done really, among them:
No deboning a chicken
No filleting a fish, descaling or cleaning one
Have never made macarons
Never worked with rolled fondant
Never made marzipan
Never made spun sugar, like for dessert domes, not cotton candy
Don’t sharpen my own knives; must rectify this soon!
No hand pulled noodles
Never cooked a whole pig
Never butchered an animal, have broken down large pieces of meat though
That’s what comes to mind at the moment.
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From what I perceive to be more common home cook things:
- Never poached an egg (sous-vide is set it and forget it!)
- Baked any cake or pastries from scratch (not much a sweets person)
- Made any pasta at home
- Never julienned any veggie where they look as uniform like on cooking shows (
) - Never pounded my own curry paste (perhaps not that common, but I eat and cook A LOT of Asian food)
- Never handmade my dumpling wrappers/skins
- Melted chocolate at home (see #2)
And then things I’ve done once:
-
browned and cooked down onions all the way – did this for onion soup, and there’s a reason I’ve only done this once. i have a life to live! holy cow, this takes waaaay too long.
-
Use a blow torch (for food) on a food product (a steak that was reversed seared) – eh, didn’t really add as much as I thought it would, and see the the thread about fires in the kitchen…
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Never tossed food in a pan or wok. I mean lifting the pan and really tossing food up in the air. Not even flipping pancakes. I’m just not a tosser! (not to be confused with British “tosser”.)
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Ok, when you wrote this you got me thinking; “Ok, I’ve never butchered an animal either” but then I thought: “Is a lobster an animal”? Because if so, then yes I have “butchered an entire animal” !!!
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