i think this is a good place for me to jump in and give cooking advice, im gonna get a little technical but will explain the scinece of deep frying.
oil is pretty important when deep frying , so if your worried about cholesterol there are lighter oils out there but this also effects the viscosity and detoration in my opnion . different oils have flash points , which vary from canola , vegetable, peanut , to solid beef talos and shortening . if you go to your favourite chip truck most of them use beef talo as it has a longer shelf life and higher flash point and browning capabilities. peanut oil is the preferred oil in a lot if places but because of price and allergies theese days not used as much. beef talo you can pick up from a food distibutor or your local watering hole might be able to order you a block . this can be stored in a cool dark place for a long period of time and generally comes in about a 40 pound block. from my past expeirence . but that was when i worked on shore and 10 years ago. also remember this product expands when melted .and make sure you dont melt it with out having your elements submerged or you will become a viral you tube video. i have had a few close calls over the years with cooks and dishwashers.
enimies of oil, there many different reasons that you dont get longer life out of you oil and the three main problems with oil breaking down are water,coatings and natural sugars , water and oil dont mix and all products you throw in the deep fryed caontain some amount of water. and when you drop something with to much water in hot oil you know the results as seen on you tube, all the dumbass turkey fryer fires we have seen . hence the old saying they are like oil and water. water breaks down the oil faster then any other element. so trying to eliminate as much surface moisture off your deep fryed goodies is important not only to your oil but safety.
coatings and natural sugars, i would have to say is the second element for breaking down. we all have our favourite coatings and batters . theese all contain contaminents to the oil. so by filtering and straining your oil after every use will definetly improved the longer life of what you choose for your fryer oil. just think that you are using flower for a coating. if your were baking bread with it the longer you leave that in a 400 degree oven the darker the crust gets. the same with oil your burning the breading in the oil.
all foods contain different levels of sugar, so when you make french fries for instance. there never the same from bag to bag you will notice. this is due to sugar in the potatoes and the caramilization of those sugars. this is why your fry oil goes brown with french fries over time with the water content and the burning sugar from what ever your frying. the older the potatoes the better french fries belive it or not chip trucks always want last years cold storage potatoes and when in and around august they turn to the newer potatoes. the french fries change. i think everyone has run into this problem . yukon gold potatoes all the rage a few years ago were great for a good mash but if you tried to use them for french fries the high sugar content would make them go real dark real quick before you cooked them all the way threw. good old pei dirty potatoes are my choice for fries. skin on after washing
i think the biggest thing to remember when deep frying is what is called recovery time. when you drop a turkey or wings or anythig into a deep fryer the oil tempuature drops almost instantly. keeping oil in the cooking zone is important for crispy and moist foods. i like to put my oil slightly into the red zone before i start cooking as you want to keep your fry oil in that 360 to 390 range at all times . if you drop it out of this range you run into a very greasy product, almost boiling it in the fat ( this is when you see big bubbles as opposed to small tight ones). so in between batches be sure to give the oil time to get back up to or slightly above the 400 mark, so that when you put the food in the oil it wont get out of that perfect cooking range . you are basically searing it shut and keeping the moisture in the meat. not allowing the water out a detoriating your oil.
one last thing a thermostat is really important part of a fryer and the placement of it aswell, having the thermostat ensures that the unit will regulate itself instead you having to adjust your propane by hand up and down to keep it in the target cooking range. my preference is to have the thermostat probe in the middle of the tank as if on the left or right side of the tank you dont get a accurate reading if your frying on either side of it .
i hope this helps and i wasnt to long winded , tight lines and and happy choleterol all
the pitco fryer you will have for years as it is a stainless steel tank used them for years and is probably one of the best on the market. you might be able to pick one up @ butchers restaurant supply in brantford 2nd hand they have tonnes of that stuff on site.
