1.) Swamp Fox - 04/22/2016

I'm finally down to two good burners and no big ones on my old stove as the parade of malfunctioning big-ticket items continues here.

Last night I tried to fry some fresh crappie fillets, and I'll have to say it was like I'd never seen a skillet before. Well, almost. I over-cooked the fish slightly while not over-cooking the tasty batter. Kind of a strange and new combination for me. I blame the malfunctioning burners. I suppose I should break down and invest in an oil thermometer, but I've been winging it all these years, so...

Anyway, I got to thinking, maybe I should just join the modern world and get a deep fryer with a thermostat and some fancy LED lights. Maybe a beep tone. I mean, a whole new stove is in the back of the line, but if you're gonna have a deep fryer you should have it during fishing season, right?

So, I've started looking around. Anyone have one they like or would recommend? I wouldn't get a tiny Fry Baby (if they even still make those) but I wouldn't need something to feed the whole hunting club, either. Do you need a really big one if you wanted to try deep frying a couple of chicken breasts in one, or do people not even do that? Chicken breasts with rib meat are the biggest thing I can think of that I'm used to frying.


Here's where I'm starting from. I've only read the first one so far. The others will have to wait until tonight.


[url]http://bestreviews.com/top-electric-deep-fryers[/url]

[url]http://www.consumersearch.com/deep-fryers[/url]

[url]http://deep-fryers-review.toptenreviews.com/[/url]

[url]https://foodal.com/kitchen/kitchen-appliances/deep-fryers/best-home/[/url]

2.) DParker - 04/22/2016

As you well know I loves me some kitchen gadgets (well, gadgets in general), so I'll always vote for one more...even when it's for someone else. But do you really do enough deep frying to justify a quality piece of equipment (not only in terms of $$, but also storage space) dedicated to that one task vs, say...upgrading to a new stove and getting that fryer thermometer? A new stove would address your oven-method roux woes as well.

3.) Jon - 04/22/2016

Plus a new stove could probably offer much more space to throw a cat or two in for warming up

4.) DParker - 04/22/2016

[QUOTE=Jon;41056]Plus a new stove could probably offer much more space to throw a cat or two in for warming up[/QUOTE]

Good point. I do love Korean food.

5.) Swamp Fox - 04/23/2016

Space for the fryer is the major concern. It is correct that the simple oil thermometer is the approach that makes the most sense...Thus it will be the conclusion that takes me the longest to get around to. LOL


Space for cats is a non-issue. They have the entire great outdoors...Well, except for Pudgie, who has wormed her way up to commandeering my office chair in recent months. She actually gives me the fish-eye when she wants me to give it up so she can have it all to herself. LOL. ---

So it was a productive winter for her, resulting in the conquest of new territory. It's almost as if she's some kind of Viking...

6.) bluecat - 04/23/2016

Unless Pudgie wears a lot of mascara she'll never be a true Viking.

7.) Swamp Fox - 04/23/2016

May Thor strike you dead for your skepticism!

8.) bluecat - 04/23/2016

:hb:

9.) Swamp Fox - 04/23/2016

If I come across the Presto Cool Daddy at Walmart or Home Depot, I might just buy it. It seems the smallest and one of the least expensive deep fryers which will do the trick for me, so I don't see how I can get screwed up too bad, LOL. My only concern is that it is underpowered compared to the others that seem viable. I believe I can muddle along, though.


The shame of it all is I have a big, deep, beautiful skillet (and dutch ovens!) just itching to get back in the game, but until I get the stove fixed the smaller ones are the only ones that are usable on the small burners. There [I]is [/I]something more honest about frying your food in a skillet rather than dunking it in a plug-in vat, if you ask me...LOL

10.) bluecat - 04/23/2016

There is way too much dishonesty in this world of frying.

11.) Swamp Fox - 04/23/2016

You ain't lyin'...Exhibit A: Cholesterol, schlemesterol...I was saying that back in the Seventies, and now it's true....


I invented a second reason to go by Walmart today, so I made the trek to check out the huge variety of affordable goods made in Chyna and elsewhere, because who doesn't like everyday low prices besides Bernie Sanders, Hillary, all the other commies, and Donald Trump?

After I located my other items, I found a single Cool Daddy Elite, which seems slightly different from the machine I've been reading about. I almost bought it, except for two things: it seemed plasticky in my paws, and I noticed a gizmo called a Hornilla (Solida Individual) just down the shelf from it.

Now, I'd never seen one of these before---or even heard of one---but anything with "Solid" in its name has got to be good, right? Looking at the box, I see it comes from Oster, which is German for "eastern," or something, so that was another plus, because we all know the Germans make good stuff when they want to, which is to say when they are not in their tiny bathing suits on vacation in Spain, or marching down shaded boulevards in France, in bathing suits or not.

In a cruel twist of fate, however, I turned the box over on its side to discover that instead of being made in Ulm or Dusseldorf or some other bastion of Teutonic perfectionism, the Hornilla is indeed made in Chyna (as the pessimists among you probably suspected in the first place) and that "Hornilla" is actually not a thing, but really probably just Spanish for what we native Americans call a "burner."

Who knew they made a single burner you can plug in when you need to?...Such as when you have a beautiful stove and are just short one burner for the big candlelight dinner you are preparing for the sorority next door as your way of saying, "Welcome back from Spring Break, and your tans look fantastic"...Or when your stove is a piece of crap and pretty soon it won't work at all, and you have a ton of crappie to fry.

I know I didn't.

But, to make a long story short (Too late!) the Hornilla has come home with me, a big bag of fish fillets was wrestled from the bottom of the freezer, and possibly--just possibly---the earth is rotating on its proper axis once again.