Deep fat fryer question

sparkychris

Morning team!

I have been looking at deep fat fryers for ages but haven't bought one because I'm addicted to mse and am turning into a miserly penny pinching scrooge. However yesterday in Tesco, they had a pallet of them at 17 quid a pop so I splurged.

Quick question- I won't be using it often because I don't want to get fat and die so in between times, what do I do with the oil? Do I pour it back into the bottles or, heaven forbid - chuck it away?

How long will it keep? And if I cook, for example, some fish, will my next dish - banana fritter, for example, taste a bit fishy?

And now a stupid question- is there anything reasonably healthy I can cook in it?!

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning

We have one. I hate the thing because its messy and makes the kitchen smelly but sometimes it is useful.

Oil - I leave mine in the fryer between uses. You will see that it starts to darken when it is ready for changing and yes you might get a slight fishy taste and smell after cooking fish. If you cook something like scampi you will get a lot of breadcrumb bits left in the oil too.

As for disposing of the oil the best thing to do is put the cold oil back in the bottle and take it to your local recycling place if they have an "oil bank". My friend puts the oil back in the bottle and puts the whole thing in the bin. This sounds a bit messy for the bin lorry but maybe that's what other people do!

All things in moderation, there is probably nothing wrong with a few proper chips now and again and fish is good for you, even if deep frying is not the healthiest way to cook it. Get your oil nice and hot and drain whatever you are cooking on a bit of kitchen paper when its done.

If you are cooking something battered you are better off not using the basket because the batter will stick to it.

suki1964

Drain and filter the cold oil through a metal sieve lined with kitchen paper and pour back into the bottle to be reused

Filtering out tiny particles will prolong the life of the oil


I make onion bhagees a lot and use seperate oil for those as the flavour really does taint the oil

I worked in a professional kitchen and during a busy service we couldn't dedicate pans for different things, fish, chicken , veg, chips, all went through no problem. As long as you are frying at the correct temp and keeping the oil as clean as possible you really shouldn't have problems with flavours transferring ( onions aside)


Cooking at the correct temp is important. The quicker you seal your food the less oil is soaked up

When using a wet batter, lower straight into the pan, not the basket, slowly, and away from you. You need the batter set before it hits the bottom of the pan as it will stick if you don't and you will end up with a mess of a pan and food with no batter

Pop_Up_Pirate

sparkychris wrote: »

Morning team!

I have been looking at deep fat fryers for ages but haven't bought one because I'm addicted to mse and am turning into a miserly penny pinching scrooge. However yesterday in Tesco, they had a pallet of them at 17 quid a pop so I splurged.

Quick question- I won't be using it often because I don't want to get fat and die so in between times, what do I do with the oil? Do I pour it back into the bottles or, heaven forbid - chuck it away?

How long will it keep? And if I cook, for example, some fish, will my next dish - banana fritter, for example, taste a bit fishy?

And now a stupid question- is there anything reasonably healthy I can cook in it?!

What to do with the oil?
Don't put it in there to begin with.

Use a good quality lard. Cooking in lard is far better for your health than cooking in oil as it is a natural product.
Yes, its hard to believe because we have been told the complete opposite for years and years but it is true and one only needs to do a little research.
You won;t get fat if your fryer is used in moderation, which is the key to all things in life really.

The lard won't hurt you in moderation but the oil will. Most oils are made using carcinogenic solvents....nasty.

It might carry flavour over a bit, as you would expect, most foods will release a small amount of water when cooking so yes, a banana fritter after fish might not be ideal, but only you can tell if it impairs the flavour too much.

As for what you can cook in it. I cook chicken, and sweet potato fries. I don't actually do fish in mine as I use a frying pan because I don't do batter. Sausages are nice deep fried and prawns.
Experiment and see what you like best.

tub28

Pop Up Pirate can I ask which fryer you have please. I have been looking for a family size one for ages that is suitable to use lard in but can only find ones suitable for oil

suki1964

tub28 wrote: »

Pop Up Pirate can I ask which fryer you have please. I have been looking for a family size one for ages that is suitable to use lard in but can only find ones suitable for oil

You will find that all electric fryers say not suitable for solid fats. What you can do is melt the lard first ( as the instructions say on mine)

tub28

Thank you Suki, I wouldn't have thought of that.

EdwardB

Shame they have some air ones in ALDI that will go on offer soon.

PasturesNew

suki1964 wrote: »

I worked in a professional kitchen and during a busy service we couldn't dedicate pans for different things, fish, chicken , veg, chips, all went through no problem.

I bet vegetarians would be pleased to read this!

tensandunits_2

If you buy chips from the chinese they have a distinctly 'chinese' flavour, so it wouldn't surprise me if they use the same fryer for everything.

As for what to do with the oil, I think my mum just used to leave the oil in her deep fryer, but we did eat chips quite frequently in our house!

jackyann

I have one that I used a lot more when feeding a hungry & active family. However, I do like it for:
onion bhajees
calamari
courgette fritters
prawn crackers for a crowd
and very occasionally, pettes de nonnes (sort of choux pastry fritters loved by children)

It gets used maybe once every couple of months now. I filter the oil as described above, and also through a muslin. I store it as 'used oil' and then use it for any suitable cooking (just not salad dressing).
I tend to find it doesn't smell too fishy after the calamari, so that gets used. I do find the onion bhajees leave their smell, so that lot gets labelled and used in spicy dishes.
I find that as long as it is well filtered, it does keep fine.

I just want to add that although I have no problem with cooking with lard (I too think it got an undeserved bad press) that oil is also a natural product, and if cold-pressed is not harmful.
It may sound unMSE to use 'expensive' cold-pressed oil, but I buy from a local farm and use small quantities (except in the deep-fat fryer!) and also make sure that I filter and re-use as much as possible.