Deep fried turkey oil

gidrah

We got one of those deep friers last year and it works great. It's kinda expensive to fill up with peanut oil.

Can you re-use peanut oil? If so, for how long? Would it be necessary to clean the oil (coffee filter) first?

I just thought that with turkey on the brain I could get some assistance.

petrym

gidrah,

I found the following since we bought our fryer this year and I had the same question: http://www.turkeyfed.org/foodsrv/messages/620.html

Our turkey turned out excellent!

-justin-

AHhh, next year I need to buy one of those. Deep fried turkeys are the BEST!

Micah Cohen

I'd love to try this, too. We had a whole big discussion about it over the dinner table on Thanksgiving. This, and the TurDuckEn.

MC

gidrah

Thank you sir.

petrym

Let me pass on my first experience with our fryer... We got a 42 qt pot because of the 18-19 lb bird we bought. That turkey just wouldn't fit in a small pot!

The larger pot makes more sense in that when you dunk the bird, the temperature of the oil doesn't drop as far as a lesser quantity of oil. (The basic physics includes latent heat capacities of both the masses of oil and bird -- I'll skip the math;))

First lesson learned: do not measure the air temperature in the pot when heating the oil. By the time the thermometer registered the recommended 375 (air temp of the covered pot), the oil itself was well over 425. Second: you are not going to just drop the bird in and cover the pot back up. Take your time and slowly lower the basket/rack bird-assembly into the oil. It will bubble up violently and spatter. (I have to wash down the driveway still...) Wear gloves and a full length apron during the immersion phase -- unless you like oil-stained clothes and shoes as well as burned hands. It's kind of like frying bacon gone ballistic. It took about three minutes to get the whole bird into the oil. The skin may peel back and split but that doesn't really matter.

Maintain temperature of the oil at 350 for the rest of the cooking phase, it will take some fiddling of the gas valve every few minutes to find the right setting. Cook for 3 - 3.5 minutes per pound. Make sure when you're done cooking to slowly take the basket/rack out to let the excess oil drain. I'll leave the rest up to you on transferring the bird onto a suitable carving platter. Let the bird sit for 20 minutes and then carve up like usual. Third lesson learned: You'll have to buy separate gravy mix if you want gravy since there are no drippings!

Let the oil cool completely and then filter the oil as you pour it back into the container. Cleanup can be a hassle since the size of the pot determines where you clean it -- I had to take ours down to the basement utility sink. Have plenty of dishwashing liquid on hand since the amount of oil to emulsify is a lot larger than any other household cooking utensil you'll ever clean.

Our turkey turned out excellent, the legs were completely done and the **** were juicy and cooked through. Best of all: it didn't take four hours to roast and I wasn't in the kitchen juggling the other cooking duties!

petrym

You're welcome gidrah!
Mike

TroyD

Couple of tips.

1. get a long needle thermometer, you can get them from most restaurant supply stores. They are more accurate and durable

2. Peanut oil, AFTER you fry your turkey, slice up a potato (like potato chips) and throw it in the oil to fry. The potato will act like a sponge and suck up a lot of crap in the oil. Pretty tasty too! I don't strain my oil through a coffee filter. I use a fine strainer. A coffee filter takes too long. I use my oil for 6 or 7 turkeys. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

3. Make sure the bird is COMPLETELY thawed out and pat it with paper towels to get it as dry as possible. This will reduce a lot of splattering.

4. You may ask how to figger out how much oil do I need? Simple. Take your turkey, still in the plastic and put it in the pot. Add water until the turkey is covered. Remove turkey. Mark the inside of the pot in some fashion at the water line. This will give you a decent guide as to how much oil you will need.

4. Use some common sense when frying a turkey, it's not hard but if you use common sense, it's not that difficult or messy.

BDT

gidrah

More thanks.

Oil disposal? Being organic, can I just dump it in the shrub line?

TroyD

some friends of ours own a restaurant, I just pour my old oil in thier grease bin.

BDT

audionutt

Todays cooking tips brought to you by the troy.;)

joe

TroyD

Well, my take on audio related subjects seem to be fairly controversial. Maybe my cooking tips will be more well received.

Hey, I used to manage a reasonably large restaurant so I know what I am talking about. I KNOW. DO YOU?

BDT

shack

.

I used to manage a reasonably large restaurant so I know what I am talking about.

Since when does a Waffle House qualify as a reasonably large restaurant?

TroyD

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa

Nope, no waffle house in New England.

Anyone ever been to a Weathervane Seafoods restaurant in the New York or New England?

Pretty much all seafood, mostly fried.

BDT

audionutt

Did you were a uniform like the charater "brad" did in the movie "fast times at ridgemont high"?

joe

TroyD

Heh, heh, heh. No. Shirt and tie or the standard blue polo shirt and khakis.

BDT

mantis

Hey, I used to manage a reasonably large restaurant so I know what I am talking about. I KNOW. DO YOU?

SO........now your a cooking expert?rolling in experience??

I say all your resturant experience means little and holds no water.:p

TroyD

Enter the term and enter the understanding.

You want to question me? Try me.

Do you know about seafood? I KNOW. DO YOU?

man, I could go on forever.

BDT

mantis

So what your saying is that all of our turkeys are crap due to lack of experience right?Ever taste mine???Magic balls say....thanks for playing,try again real soon.

mantis

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Don't messs with my DQ turkeys now.And my Carver fixing's...the Stuffing is passive and the wine is on the cheap.:D

TroyD

Well, Dan, gotta give you a star for effort anyway.

BDT

RuSsMaN

A star, ONE. NO more.

I am we Todd did.

Cheers,
Rooster

mantis

Does the star come with a smile face???:)

dude you know that was good............

Don't messs with my DQ turkeys now.And my Carver fixing's...the Stuffing is passive and the wine is on the cheap.

I laughed my **** off at the wine on the cheap........o well I tried

petrym

Hey Troy,

I filtered my oil and it's still out in the garage (35-45 degrees), what's the accepted method of storing the used oil? Room temp or in the fridge?

Mike

TroyD

either or, it doesn't matter. I wouldn't recommend letting it freeze but in the garage is fine. That's where I keep mine.

BDT

petrym

Thanks Troy,

I think I'll bring it in tonight -- it's supposed to go down to 15 degrees tonight!

Mike

danger boy

use for left over peanut oil. hee hee

there is a guy who wants to build the worlds largest lava lamp. hey maybe you all could donate your used oil to him... and he could then build his huge lava lamp. complete with floating turkeys. ha ha ha

Billm57

Bass Pro SHop carries a filter kit ..ive re-used the same oil several times

faster100

Well generally speaking you don't really want to reuse poultry oil, But to each is own, coffee filters don't filter disease, LOL even at 350o ..... Just my little tip

TroyD

Well generally speaking you don't really want to reuse poultry oil?

Why wouldn't you? If you are worried about bacteria etc., heating the oil to 350 will more than eliminate any sort of nastiness or disease carrying critters. It's sort of the same principle as pasteurization.

What would the difference between poultry oil and, say, seafood oil be? If it were inherently dangerous, restaurants would be required to completely drain the oil daily(which they aren't and don't). Instead, they filter the oil with a machine that essentially pumps the oil through a filter.

BDT

faster100

Thats true, I just don't like to keep oil around long anyways.. especially poultry oil, and i say poultry oil because thats where the risk is, Not seafood or other items usually... what do i know