Deep Fried Turkey

See also: Turkey Carving

For my birthday this year (2000), I finally got a deep fried turkey kit. I've been looking into this for a while now, and after last year's Thanksgiving did a bunch of research it and decided this was something I wanted to do.

We got the kit from Home Depot, which has a setup with almost everything you need in it—pot, burner, thermometer, stand—all you need is a propane tank, a couple of gallons of oil and a turkey or two.

What finally convinced me to get the setup was when I found out how long you could reuse the oil and how you could store it. I didn't want to add $20 worth of oil to the cost of the turkey each time. It's good for about four months, and about 6 turkeys worth.

Kit

http://www.bayou-classic.com/ - Turkey Frying Kit Manufacturer

Bayou Classic 30–Qt. Turkey Fryer Kit. It is nice and has pretty much everything you need. I have seen kits that have better shielding around the burner to guard against the wind.

If I were to do this again I would get a burner that has a wind screen. For example, the Bayou Classic Model SP10. When you are just 'simmering' the turkey at particular temperature I need to turn the burner down low and with my model the wind can pretty easily blow it out. I set up my own wind screen to protect the flame.

Real Life

Well, you go to the various sites (see Links) and everyone raves about how great it is. Well, it doesn't suck, I haven't made a bad one yet, and it takes a half an hour to cook a 10lb bird leaving the oven free for other cooking tasks.

For the amount of oil to use, everyone says to put the turkey in, fill the pot with water to cover, remove the turkey and mark the fluid level. So now you've got a bunch of water to dump, you need to dry everything (water and hot oil don't mix), and what do you use to mark, a crayon? For the tall pot I have (six gallons) just three gallons of oil works just fine for about any size turkey. When you lower the turkey in, it bubbles a bunch which adds height. Also, if you have some of the turkey sticking out (e.g. leg tips), don't worry. You're not going to eat those pieces anyways.

Temperature

This is a sticking point. You get it up above 400° and the oil starts to break down. Get it below 350° and it starts soaking into the bird. The problem is that when you put the bird into the oil, the temperature is going to lower about 50°. And it will take five to ten minutes to bring the oil temperature up again.

Clean Up

This is the worst part. Nothing like a couple of gallons of hot oil to deal with. I let it sit overnight to cool. I bought a filter pump which makes it easy to both filter the oil and return it to it's original container(s). Now, in truth, the particulates have all sunk to the bottom by now, so you could probably get away without filtering. Just stop when you get to the dregs. But what are you going to do—lift up the pot and pour the oil back into the containers? At the very least get a siphon. But even the filter pump which is totally cool needs to be cleaned as well.

The first time I fried a turkey, I had too much oil and it splattered and spilled and made a great mess. I let it stit for a couple of days before cleaning things up because I didn't know how to properly clean it up. There were oil stains on the outside and blackened char on the bottom. I still haven't been able to clean the outside up. I don't worry about it. But the inside comes clean with Comet (or similar) cleanser. Sure, the stuff is pretty harsh, but you need it for the oil and the sediment that has settled on the bottom. Use lots of cleanser and a little water so it is thick and pasty. A brush works well, but you might use a brillo pad to work on some of the tough spots. Clean it up the next day and its easy. Wait a week and you'll need to use some serious elbow grease.

August 2000 Notes

15 lb turkey. 4 gal corn oil (get peanut oil nex time from asian market like 99 Ranch) 4 gals filled pot 2/3 full. Still had splatters and oil spilled out. Not only displacement, but the oil bubbles and fountains which adds to the volume. Good thing I moved from the cement to the grass. Didn't stain the cement.

Wind blew the flames around—not much of a shield on the burner. First the warning tag on the tubing blew to the hot end, melted caught fire and started the hose burning. Tried blowing it out with mouth at first—what a chowderhead! Turned the valve off and it stopped. Should also have had the hose coming off the burner at 6 o'clock. At 1:30 the wind blew around and caught the hose on fire again. Perhaps I should have tightened the nut tighter?

Above 350° when turkey went in the temperature lowered to 300° when the turkey was immersed. Turkey may have still been a bit frozen.

2nd turkey had more time to sit outside of the fridge. Temp at dunking was higher too—perhaps 375-390. Oil temp didn't lower as much when second turkey went in.

All the oil spilling over created big black scortch marks on the pot. Putting powered Comet on a moist scrub pad did the best job.

Can dispose of cooking oil in standard trash pickup. However, disposal of more than five gallons should be taken to a rendering facility.

Thanksgiving 2000 Notes

To do stuffing and cranberries

Started warming up the oil at about 10. Heated up to 350 a lot quicker than in August. Might be because I put up a wind shield around the stand (chicken wire for support, aluminum foil to block). Didn't have a problem with the air intake catching or the flames blowing out. Got up to temp a little early. Turned off the flame for an hour and lost about 100°. Is kind of a problem because the stove needs to be watched so you can't do cooking inside. Good time to set up the tables and the garbage bins.

Took at least fifteen minutes (perhaps half an hour) to get the temp back up to 350°.

Used 3.5 gallons of oil. Probably too much. Put the turkey in and it bubbled in just about to the top. Had to bring the turkey out a couple of times to let the bubbling go down. After a while the bubbling went down much less, but still was above the turkey.

Lost some oil between the first turkey and the second. Still try only 3 gallons next year and see if it is enough.

If I were to buy another burner, I would get one that has a wind shield around the burner.

Thanksgiving 2002 Notes

Really liked the way the 20lb turkey came out. Lots of meat. Seems like there wasn't as much meat on the 15lb turkey (well, duh, but it seemed like the extra five pounds was all in the breast).

Used 3 gallons of oil, but the 20lb took up lots of space and we had some overspill. Used a metal ladel to take some of the oil out to reduce the oil level. Still had a bit of a fountain out of the turkey cavity. I put some foil on the side of the pot to redirect those splatters back into the pot. The foil idea is pretty good. You're not supposed to put a lid on, but if you're getting bubblings that are spilling over the side, you can add foil to increase the height of the pot.

I have used the temperature probe with the alert on it to warn me when the oil is getting up in temperature. It is a good method. You don't have to keep walking over to check out the temp.

The 20lb turkey really lowered the oil temperature a lot when it went in. It also filled up most of the pot. I don't think I should go much bigger (i.e. 25 or 30 lb).

Since there are no pan drippings, gravy has always been a problem. I tried frying up the wing tips (always chop them off before putting the turkey in the pot) in a pan to make some dripping, but it didn't work out very well. Store bought has always been better than what we've made. *sigh*

I want to try brining a turkey next time. See Links page for All About Brining.

Thanksgiving 2004 Notes

I've got this down to a science, but I tried something new this year. I've seen ads for electric turkey fryers that say you need to keep the lid on the pot. So I'm thinking, why do all the web sites say you need to fry the turkey without a lid. So why? Well, I tried it with the lid on this time. I had pretty big birds this time (18 lbs) and the oil was bubbling up pretty high, so I thought a lid would keep the splatters down. Also it would/could/should keep the heat in a bit more.