Hi- I saw this on the news on Tuesday night. Apparently an 86 year old gentleman in Arlington Heights, was frying a turkey, and lost his balance, and accidentally tipped over the pot with the oil, and suffered major burns. Obviously he was not using a sturdy fryer. When I hear stories like this, I have no desire to buy a turkey fryer. Thanks, Nancy

I deep-fried one of our turkeys this year (in peanut oil) and it was so superior to even the smoke-roasted bird I cooked on my Weber 27", I'm not sure I can ever go back to oven roasting. It was like a magnificent fried chicken and it seemed every morsel of the bird was fantastic. I brined it for a couple of days in 1 cup of Morton Kosher salt + 2 gallons of water, along with about a pint of additional water in which fresh sage and whole black peppercorns had been briefly simmered and then chilled. We had a couple of very nicely executed oven-roasted turkeys too, for our group of 40, and they were barely touched.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:I deep-fried one of our turkeys this year (in peanut oil) and it was so superior to even the smoke-roasted bird I cooked on my Weber 27", I'm not sure I can ever go back to oven roasting. It was like a magnificent fried chicken and it seemed every morsel of the bird was fantastic. I brined it for a couple of days in 1 cup of Morton Kosher salt + 2 gallons of water, along with about a pint of additional water in which fresh sage and whole black peppercorns had been briefly simmered and then chilled. We had a couple of very nicely executed oven-roasted turkeys too, for our group of 40, and they were barely touched.

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I think we're on year 8 of fried bird on t-day. It's insanely good. To get our $ worth out of the fryers, we usually do another bird or two for a big Sunday dinner throughout the year, and also a big fish fry in summer after heading out on the big lake for a salmon run. Another big part of the the fun is using the vat of boiling oil for fryin up a mess of "stuff" to go along with the mains- sweet potato fries, fried pies, mushrooms, candy bars, hush puppies,onion rings, pork skins, etc. Safety first is the key, but damn if it ain't fun using those big vats to fry stuff up after the bird is done.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm not sure I can ever go back to oven roasting. It was like a magnificent fried chicken and it seemed every morsel of the bird was fantastic.

AGREED. Jerk marinade injected 12 lb turkey, 40-45 minutes in peanut oil, perfection. It was my first deep fried turkey and I'll never be the same.

Do those of you who do this post someone to guard the hot oil while it cools to a safe temperature? This was the main reason why I never did this again. Cooling the oil took hours. It wasn't good enough to be worth all the trouble.

imsscott wrote:Do those of you who do this post someone to guard the hot oil while it cools to a safe temperature? This was the main reason why I never did this again. Cooling the oil took hours. It wasn't good enough to be worth all the trouble.

I left it in the pot on the driveway near our cooking spot until it cooled. It was low 40's and pretty windy, and had cooled enough to safely pour it back into the jug in just a couple hours. I felt safe doing this because it was in a really out of the way spot.

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