Electric Home Fried Potato Dilemma

[Alan in Durham]

Hello. Nice to meet you.

My beloved midcentury Sunbeam CONTROLLED HEAT electric frypan hath the dust bitten.

The centerpoint of my whole week is the eggs and homefried potatoes I make on Sundays, so this is serious stuff. Especially since there seems to be no reasonable replacement available for the Sunbeam.

All the electric frying pans I've encountered have no-stick surfaces of one sort or another, which is useless for frying potatoes because you want them a little greasy, and the oil just beads up on the modern pan's surface. Does not work.

I might be persuaded to use a plug-in hotplate and a regular pan but the pan would have to be maybe eleven or twelve inches in diameter, and the hotplates top out at seven inches. And the fancypants induction cooker I saw had a coil that was even smaller. And I doubt that they'd have enough power to melt a candle in a pan that big.

Does anyone have any actual experience (and hence legitimate advice) that might allow me to continue the meal that, weekly, makes life worth living?

Thank you kindly.

.

 

[Dawgluver]

Welcome to DC! Have you tried a cast iron frying pan? It's not electric, but works nicely for eggs and potatoes on a stovetop.

Do you have a stovetop? Another thought would be to hit up Goodwill or a yard sale.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

What about a FryDaddy? That might work.

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-05420-FryDaddy-Electric-Fryer/dp/B00005KB37

 

[Alan in Durham]

Ooh, I forgot to state explicitly....

I fry all my frying outdoors. I really really don't like smelling up the house with that stuff, and fans are not an adequate answer to my delicate sensitivities.

So whatever I use, I have to plug it in somewhere.

 

[Alan in Durham]

What about a FryDaddy? That might work.

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-05420-FryDaddy-Electric-Fryer/dp/B00005KB37

Thanks, it might, but deep-fried home fries are kind of not what I'm looking for. Not to mention that they burn people's houses down when used by clumsy people like me.

 

[Addie]

Take at looksee at Amazon. They do carry Teflon free electric fry pans.

 

[Alan in Durham]

I did see a few stainless steel ones, but about a third of them apparently broke within a very short time -- much shorter than the 50 years the Sunbeam lasted.

It appears that the most expensive ones come from the same factories as the cheap ones. I don't think that this is very encouraging. I autopsied a dead Oster bread machine once, and the internal construction was ghastly. And that's supposed to be a premium brand.

Maybe it is no longer possible to buy good things any more.

 

[Cheryl J]

Welcome to DC, Alan! I'm enjoying your writing style.

I don't have any advice other than what's been given, but I'll be watching this thread - I might be in the market for a new electric skillet. And I'm also afraid that most things aren't made like they used to be. I had mine for decades.

 

[GotGarlic]

Hi and welcome to Discuss Cooking

Do you have a grill? You can use a cast iron skillet on the grill. My husband frequently makes home fries and eggs in our cast iron skillet, albeit on the gas stove

 

[Alan in Durham]

I don't even really know what "grill" means. Is that the things with lids that are lined up like used cars at Home Depot? Do they work on windy days? Do they work in the garage on rainy days? Do they last forever like the Sunbeam almost did?

It seems like a dreadful thing to have to own but if it does the trick it might be the best answer. I certainly do miss gas since I moved South.

 

[GotGarlic]

I don't even really know what "grill" means. Is that the things with lids that are lined up like used cars at Home Depot? Do they work on windy days? Do they work in the garage on rainy days? Do they last forever like the Sunbeam almost did?

It seems like a dreadful thing to have to own but if it does the trick it might be the best answer. I certainly do miss gas since I moved South.

What do you mean? I live in the South and we have gas.

Yes, they will work on windy, rainy days. Just leave the garage door open

 

[Alan in Durham]

What do you mean? I live in the South and we have gas.

I think that there's only one house in the neighborhood that has a gas tank and has the truck come in.

 

[Janet H]

Hello. Nice to meet you.

My beloved midcentury Sunbeam CONTROLLED HEAT electric frypan hath the dust bitten.



.

I feel your pain. I had a similar pan for years - it was made by salad master and had an oil core. It was built like a tank and cooked like a champ; I loved it. I found a replacement on ebay that was entirely satisfactory you might give that route a try...

 

[Alan in Durham]

Actually I just this minute did just exactly that.

It only has to last until I'm dead, and I'm pretty far up the road.

 

[GotGarlic]

I think that there's only one house in the neighborhood that has a gas tank and has the truck come in.

We have a gas line, not a tank. Runs to the stove and the water heater, so we have hot water even during a power outage

 

[Addie]

Take a look.

Sunbeam Vista Tilt High Dome Lid Immersible Electric 12'' Skillet Fry Pan | eBay

I think I found your solution to your problem. A SUNBEAM electric frying pan. Take a looksee.

 

[Alan in Durham]

We have a gas line, not a tank. Runs to the stove and the water heater, so we have hot water even during a power outage

Once up North the power was down for a week in cold weather. I didn't know that gas furnaces had special settings to keep the house warm on an emergency basis. I'm so embarrassed, I'm supposed to be such a handyman.

 

[Andy M.]

Once up North the power was down for a week in cold weather. I didn't know that gas furnaces had special settings to keep the house warm on an emergency basis. I'm so embarrassed, I'm supposed to be such a handyman.

I'm not sure that's the case. At least my gas furnace requires electricity to ignite the gas. So, for the last power outage we had no heat. On the other hand, our gas water tank has a pilot light so we had plenty of hot water.

 

[tenspeed]

A few years ago there were a lot of power outages on Thanksgiving. One of our computer consultants didn't have power, but had a propane stove. He took his battery backup from his computer and plugged the stove controller into it so his wife could make dinner.

 

[Alan in Durham]

I'm not sure that's the case. At least my gas furnace requires electricity to ignite the gas.

Your fault for having a modern furnace. On mine there was a bypass you could switch on, manually light the gas, turn it down about halfway so it doesn't burn the heat exchanger, take out the filter so the warm air rose and the cold air fell, and there you had it. Your only thermostat was the flame height, but compared with no heat at all that would have been golden.

Of course you'd put it all back when the lights were back on.