What next? I know people cool, filter and store oil for reuse, no matter what they’re frying, but I rarely deep fry. But you have an abundance of oil, piping hot, and full of turkey goodness. Does anyone have experience with using it right away? I’m thinking of sweet potato fries, or maybe fry bread. But would either of those be bad for the next use? I’m thinking in particular, sweet potato fries might add too much sugar to the hot oil, and make it burn the dropped bread batter.
If I deep-fry Turkey, I usually deep fry several of them (Two for our Thanksgiving dinner, since I use smaller turkeys when deep frying, plus I take requests from other folk’s Thanksgiving dinners), and follow it up with a couple of deep fried whole chickens. After all that, I feel like I got my money’s worth out of the peanut oil. Discarding it is still a pain in the ass, so I don’t deep-fry turkeys often.
Make sure you completely thaw the turkey before you drop it in the oil!
This may be common sense to you, but a lot of people get injured every year by exploding their turkeys and you said you don’t fry very often.
I would even air brine the bird in the refrigerator for a few days to dry it out completely.
I don’t buy frozen turkeys to begin with, but yes good advice for those new to the frying game. Also, don’t fry in your garage, or on your deck. Also measure the amount of oil required (accounting for displacement) before placing the turkey in! That’s actually the #1 cause of turkey frying fires. I don’t know too many people stupid enough to drop a frozen turkey in the oil but a lot of people seem to forget about displacement. I always place my biggest turkey in the fry pot, fill with water to cover, remove the turkey, and mark the resulting water level on the pot.
Deep fried:
[ul]
[li]Apple pie[/li][li]Stuffing balls[/li][li]Potato bits[/li][li]Carrots[/li][li]Squash[/li][li]Biscuits[/li][/ul]
With a pot of oil that big, I think I’d have to try funnel cake. Or 4 dozen chicken wings.
I’m just going to do half of a boned turkey breast. I’m actually considering doing it on top of the stove, unless people on the SDMB scream NO! at me. In which case, I’ll rig up something in the middle of the backyard. I definitely will leave it open the fridge to air dry the nigh before.
It seems the secret is to lower it slowly into oil at the right temperature, and be sure after being covered with hot oil, 5 inches of empty space remains to the pot rim.
And I’m shooting for the fried bread to have stuffing components – celery, carrots onions, fennel inside.
I will cut a pocket in the boned breast for stuffing. I’m leaning towards a convectional cornbread, and dried cranberry stuffing.
Anything sound too close to a disaster?
Macaroni and cheese balls
Hush puppies.
They’re not just for fish fries any more.