Tip Of The Week: Safely Frying A Turkey

Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of helpful homeowner tips and advice. 

As Thanksgiving approaches, I'd like to talk about something that a lot of families like to do but many often don't do safely. As the holidays are getting closer, many people like to deep fry their turkeys but they don't understand the dangers of doing this; in fact, doing this task the wrong way has been know to cause house fires.

Here are some tips and advice for frying turkeys.

First off, you want to make sure that you have a very LEVEL space in your back yard. Do not do this on your deck, near your pool, fence, or any other obstuction or area. This needs to be done in an area where there is plenty of room and space with at least 10 feet of clearence on all sides.

You'll want to make sure that you purchase a high quality turkey fryer, and one that is made for doing this and not just a pot on top of a burner. Spend the additional dollars and get a high quality fryer.

I've often been asked how much oil to use. Here is the best way to figure that out.  Don't take the turkey out of the wrapper, leave the turkey as is and place it in the DRY pot. Fill the pot with water until the level of water is about 4 inches above the turkey. Next, pull the turkey out and make a mental note of where the water level is at when you do this, and that is the level of where you'll want to pour the oil up to. You have to remember to take "displacement" into consideration.

So, now that you have your level area, and another suggestion is to obtain a 4x8 sheet of plywood and that should be used as your level base. Your lawn is never level and if you don't use this you will cause injury to yourself and you will kill your lawn. So, use plywood as your level base to work on.

Set up your turkey fryer according to your manufacturers directions. Make sure your fryer pot is clean and dry, and place the necessary level of either corn or peanut oil in the pot to the height that we dissused eairler. Place the fryer on the burner and ignight the burner and let the fryer pot reach 375 degrees. Most good quality fryers will come with a thermometer.

After the temp is reached, and the turkey is resting on the carriage or stand that comes with the fryer, the best way to lower the turkey in the hot oil safely is to use a 6 foot long dowel rod with 1 person holding the rod at each end with the turkey hanging from the middle of it. Slide the rod through the top hole of the carriage and lift it up and very, very slowly lower the turkey into the hot oil.

When the turkey is done, slowly lift the turkey out of the hot oil and place it down ontop of the plywood so it can drain off and onto the plywood and not your grass.  Turn the burner off and please let the pot cool down to room temp and, please folks, discard the used oil properly, and don't just dump it whereever it's convenient. 

After this is done and you feel comfortable, take the turkey inside and enjoy with family and friends.

Remember this huge safety tip: Please have a fire exstinguisher with you when youu're doing this project because you never know what will happen, and, trust me, I've seen horror stories.

This  is a fun thing to do, just remember the safety tips and you'll be OK.

Thats it for this week folks, and I thank you for joining me. Until next time, if you have any questions about your home, condo or apartment please write to me, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks again, and have a great week!