Hi,

I have read a number of posts by Omelet where she mentioned that she
used a Fry Daddy for deep frying. I decided I might like something like
that. My wife bought me a beautiful DeLonghi fryer for me for
Christmas, but it was too big for the two of us and a bit of a hassle.
I started investigating and found something else. She suggested I post
my narrative about my search and the results. Here it is.

"I currently have one of these:

http://tinyurl.com/349z5f

It's really quite good. I've only used it a few times, primarily
because it's just too large for my wife and I. As we get older, we seem
to be eating less and less, but we still enjoy good food.

I thought I remembered reading how much you enjoyed your Fry Daddy so I
did a little research on the web and came up with a solution for me this
morning. I bought a Presto Kitchen Kettle. See:

http://tinyurl.com/2bkfzk

I bought it at a local Wal-mart for the price in the link, roughly
$21.94 + tax. It holds 8 cups of oil for deep frying (4 cups seems to
be about the minimum it can use). It has about a 6qt capacity for
other uses. I looked at the Fry Daddy while I was shopping. It seemed
about the right size for us, but there are a couple of reason I bought
what I did.
First, it was useful for other purposes. This MIGHT be a
disadvantage, since often single purpose appliances are more useful. I
believe Alton Brown takes this position.

Second, It has a temperature control which ranges from 200° to 400°.
According to one of the websites I saw (Cooking for Engineers), one of
the guys added his own marking for the lower temperatures below the
minimum marking of "Warm" down to 130°. Some of the things I like to
cook use two frying temperatures, e.g., French Fries, which are usually
fried first at a low temperature then finished off at about 350°. One
concern I have, now that I have it home is that the instruction book
recommends setting the temperature to 400° for frying. The site I
mentioned above mentioned that they have a very good thermostat, so I'll
probably experiment a bit.

I'm looking forward to playing with it a bit. I can think of all sorts
of things we like, like Tempura, Egg Rolls, Fried Chicken, etc, etc. I
have a good book I plan on hitting tonight. See:

http://tinyurl.com/3a8vld

Regards...

Tom

tom spillman > wrote:

> morning. I bought a Presto Kitchen Kettle. See:

> http://tinyurl.com/2bkfzk

> I bought it at a local Wal-mart for the price in the link, roughly
> $21.94 + tax. It holds 8 cups of oil for deep frying (4 cups seems to
> be about the minimum it can use). It has about a 6qt capacity for
> other uses. I looked at the Fry Daddy while I was shopping. It seemed
> about the right size for us, but there are a couple of reason I bought
> what I did.
> First, it was useful for other purposes. This MIGHT be a
> disadvantage, since often single purpose appliances are more useful. I
> believe Alton Brown takes this position.

Yes, Alton likes multi-taskers, not single. By the way, that Presto
Kitchen Kettle can be used for some small batch candy making. My wife
has a couple in her candy kitchen.

> minimum marking of "Warm" down to 130. Some of the things I like to
> cook use two frying temperatures, e.g., French Fries, which are usually
> fried first at a low temperature then finished off at about 350. One
> concern I have, now that I have it home is that the instruction book
> recommends setting the temperature to 400 for frying. The site I
> mentioned above mentioned that they have a very good thermostat, so I'll
> probably experiment a bit.

I suspect that they recommend the higher temperature because there
is not a lot of oil, therefore not a lot of heat capacity, and they
expect people to be putting in cold (if not frozen) french fries.
Recovery time is probably a bit slow since it's only 1500W or less.
Get a candy/deep fry thermometer and see how the oil temp drops when
you put things in there. You'll get a feel for it quickly enough.
Small batches will be less trouble.

Have fun.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.

In article >,
says...
> Hi,
>
> I have read a number of posts by Omelet where she mentioned that she
> used a Fry Daddy for deep frying. I decided I might like something like
> that. My wife bought me a beautiful DeLonghi fryer for me for
> Christmas, but it was too big for the two of us and a bit of a hassle.
> I started investigating and found something else. She suggested I post
> my narrative about my search and the results. Here it is.
>
> "I currently have one of these:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/349z5f
>
> It's really quite good. I've only used it a few times, primarily
> because it's just too large for my wife and I. As we get older, we seem
> to be eating less and less, but we still enjoy good food.
>
> I thought I remembered reading how much you enjoyed your Fry Daddy so I
> did a little research on the web and came up with a solution for me this
> morning. I bought a Presto Kitchen Kettle. See:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2bkfzk
>
> I bought it at a local Wal-mart for the price in the link, roughly
> $21.94 + tax. It holds 8 cups of oil for deep frying (4 cups seems to
> be about the minimum it can use). It has about a 6qt capacity for
> other uses. I looked at the Fry Daddy while I was shopping. It seemed
> about the right size for us, but there are a couple of reason I bought
> what I did.
> First, it was useful for other purposes. This MIGHT be a
> disadvantage, since often single purpose appliances are more useful. I
> believe Alton Brown takes this position.
>
> Second, It has a temperature control which ranges from 200° to 400°.
> According to one of the websites I saw (Cooking for Engineers), one of
> the guys added his own marking for the lower temperatures below the
> minimum marking of "Warm" down to 130°. Some of the things I like to
> cook use two frying temperatures, e.g., French Fries, which are usually
> fried first at a low temperature then finished off at about 350°. One
> concern I have, now that I have it home is that the instruction book
> recommends setting the temperature to 400° for frying. The site I
> mentioned above mentioned that they have a very good thermostat, so I'll
> probably experiment a bit.
>
> I'm looking forward to playing with it a bit. I can think of all sorts
> of things we like, like Tempura, Egg Rolls, Fried Chicken, etc, etc. I
> have a good book I plan on hitting tonight. See:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/3a8vld
>

Dedicated deep friers are single purpose gadgets that are totally
unnecessary. All you need is a good sturdy saucepan, an accurate
thermometer, and tongs or chopsticks to manipulate the food.

--
Peter Aitken

tom spillman wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have read a number of posts by Omelet where she mentioned that she
> used a Fry Daddy for deep frying. I decided I might like something like
> that. My wife bought me a beautiful DeLonghi fryer for me for
> Christmas, but it was too big for the two of us and a bit of a hassle.
> I started investigating and found something else. She suggested I post
> my narrative about my search and the results. Here it is.
>
> "I currently have one of these:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/349z5f

That is the one I have and I love it. It is large enough to maintain heat.
We don't use it that often, but when we do it does a great job.