Deep Frying

[Bobmarlon]

Do any of you ever deep fry at home with a pot or Skillet? Can you use any kind of oil?

 

[jkath]

I use my fry-daddy, but you can certainly use other methods! Olive and Peanut oils work great, because they both do well in high heat. (Also vegetable oil works in a pinch.) Corn oil, however, doesn't perform well at all.

So, what types of things are you thinking about frying?

 

[skilletlicker]

Do any of you ever deep fry at home with a pot or Skillet? Can you use any kind of oil?

I use a DeLonghi deep fryer because the thermostat does the work of monitoring and regulating the temperature, but could just as well be done with a pot a thermometer. The later gives you the advantage of changing the size of your pot and the amount of oil needed.
Here is a link showing various oils smoke points and appropriate cooking methods. I
[highlight]assume[/highlight] that grocery store oils are virtually all refined. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will elaborate on the difference between refined and unrefined. EVOO shows up as both in many charts.

jkath: Why do you find corn oil unacceptable?

 

[Bobmarlon]

thanks for the tips, we made corn dogs and french fries!! We havn't really perfected either though.

 

[cjs]

I would not recommend using olive oil for deep frying - it's smoke point is just too low. Your best bet are peanut, soy or safflower oils.

Any deep pan will work for deep frying and the heavier the better. Have fun.

 

[AllenOK]

Also, the more volume of oil that you have "at temperature", the better results you will have for fried foods, for when you drop in a couple of items, you don't lower the temperature of the oil as much. Of course, if you overload the pot with to many items to be fried, you'll still lower the temp of the oil to far and get soggy fried foods. This is one of the main reasons why restaurants have huge deep fryers. However, the energy required to heat large quantities of oil is large, so be aware of that.