TURKEY day coming! Need advice on "frying" a Turkey

[1Old Pro]

It's time for me to start planning so that I can fulfill my promise to deliver a tasty fried Turkey this Thanksgiving Day.

I know many of you have had experience with this culinary process and am looking for input and advice. I'm told that there is simply no better way to cook a Turkey so I am going to give it a go.

1) First, I have a series BTU outdoor gas cooking grill but I need to buy the pot. They come in many sizes so I'm wondering what is a good size (not too big or too small).

2) I see some pots have the "liner" pot with holes so it's easy to remove the bird from the oil. Others simply have "hooks" to lift the bird out. Anyone have suggestions here and perhaps even a website to purchase these?

3) What kind of oil, and how long do you cook various weight birds?

4) Any special (secret recipes) cooking suggestions?

5) Any websites that offer good info on frying a Turkey?

Thanks for your help and perhaps this post will encourage others to try something new.

[Slip18]

Yeahhhhh!

I've always thought it was a waste of peanut oil to only cook one turkey.

[ppaul]

Lard?
I like that suggestion.
Sure to inflame the vegetarians!
And, provides a good way to really feed the jihadi detainees "turkey" at Guantanamo this Thanksgiving!

[da_toolman]

been there, done that. Word of advice, make DAMN sure that the bird is done before taking it out. If you slice open the breast and find pink, put it back in the oil, it tends to dry out the turkey very quickly. Other than that, very good eating.

[phasma proeliator]

I wonder if I can sell my wife on the idea...

[Lokibob]

http://www.barbecuen.com/docmiller/

 

 

 

[Slip18]

I love it!

I didn't think I would like fried turkey. It is marvelous, though. It's the best way to cook those puppies.

Nice photos.

[ottersnot]

I did this last year.
Definitely make sure your burner is correctly burning.
You want a sharp blue flame. NOT yellow.
This is important to get the oil to temperature and keep it
there. Also definitely use peanut oil.
You can get it at costco or sam's in a 5 gallon
size. It is a little more expensive, but tastes better
and heats better.
I went with the hook which had a small ring at
the bottom to hold the bird. No problems with this.
The bird did not fall apart on me either time I
cooked.
I did a practice bird before I did the Turkey
day bird and it was well worth the effort.
My practice bird did not come out as well because
I used canola oil, and I did not have my burner
adjusted correctly. Once I adjusted the burner to
a nice blue flame I had that bird sizzling the second
time.
Do not worry about the cooker bubbling hard or the bird being black. My first bird was black, but the second
bird done in peanut oil was brown, and wonderfull.
It was not greasy at all. I'm sure Canola or vegetable
oil will work, but I found peanut oil to be better.
This is highly recommended and FUN!.
enjoy and good luck.

[Lokibob]

I just remembered something else.

If it is a cold day, the oil will cool very quickly when cooking.

We cut the top off a 55 gal drum, punched holes in the bottom (for air), and put the whole rig, burner, pot etc in it. This keeps the cold air from going around the cooking pot. You probably will need to raise the whole rig up in the drum for easy access.

Let me repeat something, tho. You are not cooking in the 55 gallon drum. You simply have the cooking rig in the drum to keep the air off the cooking pot.

[ottersnot]

Can you give us a follow up post when this disaster occurs? Frying turkeys is an accident waiting to happen. Having said that, I would make sure that: 1) you're outside 2) the turkey is thawed, as ice crystals will pop and explode when heated up 3) you have some sort of broom handle used to lower the turkey, as the oil spits up and hits whatever in a 3' radius 4) don't use that much oil. Maybe even go for a dry run with unheated oil to see how much you need

My experience has been that Frying is NOT a disaster waiting to happen. OF course you have to follow some common sense rules, but it's no more difficult than doing the bird in the oven, and it's much much quicker. The broom handle suggestion is a good one. No worries about drying your bird out either!!.

[nina0113]

ping.

[Pharmboy]

Hey...I'm in the office...I'm not supposed to laugh that loudly!!

[Pharmboy]

It makes it more dangerous if you use a live turkey...

[blackdog]

I have a plumbers burner that they use to melt molten tin/lead. It puts off about ten quadrillion BTU's. Boils a keg of water in about ten minutes. You've gotta watch it with oil though, it can scorch.

I developed this method because I brewed beer on my electric stove at home. The BTU output is so poor from an electric stove I ruined the elements and blistered the enamel on the stove.

When real men do real cooking, they need the right tools for the job. I have made a motorized terret griddle for our fly in breakfasts. It is an eight foot diameter stainless steel griddle which is chain driven on a gear reduction motor. We can pump out 30 pancakes per minute. It used to be part of a dryer in a paper mill.

We enjoy espresso rather than coffee. I've been tinkering with "manly" engineered espresso brewing methods which can produce far greater volumes of espresso other than those sissy little cups and pots. I am talking like a gallon per shot. Granted, the vessel might be more dangerous than a bomb, but in manly cooking tactics these are the risks you have to take.

[blackdog]

That reminds me of the first time my dad took us crabbing. We got home and poured about 50 lively blue claws into a pot. About half of them leapt out onto the floor madder than Hillary and equipped to remove more than a toe. I was only five years old. I still remember running thru the house with crabs attatched to my footie jammies sreaming for help.

[Pharmboy]

Blue claws are mean...camped out on Assateague Island and did some crabbing there a while back. Mean..but tasty.

I imagine you'll never forget that incident! LOL!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Have you ever had a fried Turkey? It's better than a baked turkey in my opinion.

[oldcomputerguy]

We made dressing on the side last year and it was as good or maybe even better that the stuffed version we usually make.

We bought a package of chicken necks and boiled them into submission then spiced the bread mixture as usual and poured the chicken stock over it. Then we baked covered for some period of time and then uncovered until the moisture content looked right. It was easier and frankly as good or better than the stuffed.......and the stuffed version is great.

[oldcomputerguy]

What's that white stuff on the ground?

[oldcomputerguy]

Peanut oil is monounsaturated and has a large molecule. This large molecule(like lard which also has a large molecule) will not easily pass into the bird being cooked. That is a big reason why they are not greasy when cooked this way.

The same cannot be said for ordinary vegetable oil of the polyunsaturated variety which soaks into the cooked object.

[MinuteGal]

I have no doubt your fried turkey tastes ok, but there's a lot missing here. Have you ever tasted my ROASTED turkey? The savory bread stuffing, scads of yummy hot gravy, the whole apple roasting just inside the cavity giving the dressing luscious flavor and heartiness, the crispy skin, the tantalizing aroma emanating from the oven all afternoon?

Don't want no "fried" turkey, no way, no how.

Don't wanna worry about gallons of hot oil, fires, explosions, burns, fire extinguishers, brooms, 60-gallon pots, blue or yellow flames, BTU's, overnight soaking, undercooked meat, cookin' outside in the snow or surgical injections under the bird's skin. Is this Thanksgiving day or planning the Normandy invasion?

Fried turkey may be all the latest craze, but I'm an old-fashioned gal. I just wanna pop the bird of honor in the oven, watch a football game and relax. Don't have no chainsaw to carve the turkey with, anyhow.

Comanamy house!

;-)

Leni