Saturday, August 30, 2008

Deep Thoughts on Deep Frying

Awhile back, Paul caught a nice Walleye fish in Lake Erie. Walleye is, indeed, a very mild, tasty white fish. We discussed cooking this wondrous fish. Paul wanted it deep fried and we didn't want to go the route of the big gas turkey deep fryer. We received a deep fryer as a wedding gift long ago and far away, long since sold or given away. It worked well, but we didn't like the odor of fried food in the house. Progress in deep frying in the last 40 years was huge, Fry Daddy, Cool Daddy, P Daddy, and Kohl's had a sale on the Cool Daddy. It had an odor filter. It can't splash hot oil around the kitchen. Sounds great.

So on the next trip to Kohl's I purchased a wonderful saleful Cool Daddy. I looked at the box and thought about it for, oh, five weeks, maybe more. Had the receipt taped to the top of the box, hoping to change my mind. Finally, I couldn't put it off anymore, thawed said fish, checked the peanut oil in the basement. It failed the nose test. Bought soybean oil.

Had fish to fry. And french fries, and chicken legs. Smelled pretty bad. Nothing like the fresh scent of fried grease. As Paul said, he could smell it coming out of his pores the next morning when he got out of bed. I just picked up Mr. Cool Daddy and moved him, still smells. Think his new home will be in the little cottage, in case guests want to fry fish. Spent one whole day messing with straining the oil. I am thinking Miss Pricilla's pigs will love that oil poured over their pig gruel.

The fish was great.

2 comments:

Andrea said...

I hate deep fryers. They are a pain in the ass and never get cleaned. Easier to buy fried food and have someone else clean it up.

Marjie said...

Cheaper to eat out. It has always been my rule to eat our when I want fish. Dad put it in the basement.