Thinking about buying a deep fryer, should I...

Thinking about buying a deep fryer, should I? The main concern i have is the amount of oil used but I've heard some people putting the oil aside and using it two or three more times.

Home fryers are too small for shit like fried chicken because it gets too crowded but it's good for shit like fries. I have a shitty $20 deep fryer that just went out after a years use. I still have it just to store the oil in. You can use oil several times and you'll be fine. Just add in some fresh after a few fries.

How much is oil(rape) where you are my fryer take two litres in each pan, that's like £2 or less for each, and I do push my chip/fries side to around 3 runs. If you only have one you wouldn't want to use the oil from fish or scotch eggs on chips by you could use chip oil on fish etc
Most vegetable oil in UK is rape and perfect for frying

Thanks, fries or smaller things are mainly what I'm planning on using

>£2 or less for each,
£2 or less for both

Don't worry about the size for fried chicken- Ive got a fairly small one and you can do anything in it provided you don't blatantly overload it. I can do two whole bone in breasts at a time in mine and its only a 5 litre one and its fine, just got to make sure to let the oil return to the right temperature after each big piece.

I use lard for mine since I rarely make fried foods, so when I do I don't mind about that one meal being unhealthy. Lard should be good for 3-6 uses depending on how much crap gets left behind- if your oil is full of bits and the bits stay in they make the oil taste bad over time. I've heard of people running the oil ththrough a mesh coffee filter to get all the crap out then sticking it all in the fridge.

Just get a thermometer and a Dutch oven or other heavy pot. If you insist on a deep fryer get one that's made for frying turkeys, it will be a lot bigger if you are going to fry large amounts. As far as oil goes Costco or Walmart is your best bet. Walmart has a gallon of peanut oil for around $10 which is a pretty good deal. Also I strain the oil after and put it in a couple mason jars with lids and you can use it two more times before it starts to get shitty.

My family who lives in Greece exclusively use olive oil to fry in. I always scoffed at that idea because of its low smoke point and they always tell you to use peanut oil or canola. I was blown away by how good fried potatoes or fried fish taste fried in olive oil. It's insanely good. You just have to fry at pretty much 350 exactly. If you are cooking meedeteranian food olive oil is a must for making it taste right. And before crybabies come along and tell me I'm wrong, at Mario batalis place in NYC Eataly, they exclusively fry in olive oil

get an air fryer

No deep fryer now but when i had a party house I deep fried all the time. I used peanut oil only in mine because that's what i prefer, but some people used corn oil and they cooked me shit that wasn't bad...
Personally I left the oil right in the fryer, i didn't refrigerate it or anything. I did have an automatic filtration on mine though, so i got to clean out the little bits of stuff out of it after each use. I probably used the peanut fryer oil dozens of times, basically i only do a full replace 2-3 times per year. Never got sick from it nor did anyone else, but the main thing i made was fries, so maybe that's why.

Nah. Avoid deep frying like the plague. Acrylamides my dude. Top tier carcinogen.

No. We got as a gift a while back. I would pull it out and used it about 15 times until the oil level gets too low to do anything with, then clean and put it back in storage because it's something you get tired of pretty fast.

After about 10 hours total of use it gets to the point where the smell is so damn strong that heating up the oil makes you lose your appetite. It stinks up the whole house with that fryer smell. You can't imagine. I threw it away about 6 months because the only way we could use it was on the back porch where there's 100% ventilation. We also do the same thing for our rotisserie - only use it outside, because even the smell of fresh chicken cooking is overwhelming in those things. I don't know how it puts out so much smell. Not dirty or sour, just like swimming in grease.

I advise against wasting your money.

I believe you about the olive oil, seen a lot of Italian chefs do that even if I'm a bit uncomfortable with it. But eataly is a fucking rip off. There are at least 10 Italian places in the village that are better and cheaper and have a much better ambiance than eating in a fucking mall.

>I've heard some people putting the oil aside and using it two or three more times.

I leave my oil in the fryer and close the lid (that's what it's for!). Assuming you keep the oil clean you can use it dozens of times.

>Most vegetable oil in UK is rape

probably, I just used that as an example because its mario batalis and I trust him about most italian things. No doubt there are better and cheaper places though.

youll use it a few times then get sick of needing to maintain it

wow you guys are pussies

i use the oil in mine for at least 6 months. it's fuckin fine.

This! There's no need to refresh the oil every time.

>6 months
Of regular use? I deep fry at least once a week and my oil tends to start going bad after about a month.

>muh carcinogens
The way I see it anything will give you cancer these days. I also smoke a pack a day so deep frying is the least of my worries.

once a week isn't regular use and you oil definitely isn't "going bad" after 4 uses kiddo.

Yeah, I don't get this idea that the oil is going bad after a few sessions. Hell, how many batches do restaurants put in the thing in a single day? And I'll bet a lot of them don't change the oil every day.

Oil can go bad from three different things:

1) Contamination. Bits of food, breading, batter, etc. can get in the oil. This is easily avoided by filtering your oil every once in a while.

2) Thermal breakdown. Simply by heating the oil you eventually break it down. Even if no food actually touched the oil it will eventually degrade due to heat. This is unavoidable.

3) Rancidity. Oil reacts with the oxygen in the air and will slowly go rancid. This isn't toxic or dangerous but it can create some "off" flavors.

Oil could go bad after a theoretical *zero* sessions simply by being kept in a non-airtight container, such as a fryer with the lid on.

>smoking renders the health effects of deep frying harmless

You might was well just start playing in traffic at that point

While our oil is admittedly dirty by the end, we change ours once a week and fry about a billion times more food than any home cook ever could. about 3 quarters of our sides are fried, as are a few of the entries and it's a reasonably popular restaurant.

You gotten good advice so far so ill add in. Anything prebreaded and frozen comes out great. Youll kick yourself for using an oven over a fryer in the past. I use the same oil about 5-7 times aside from flaky things like tots that get in the oil. Dont skimp on changing oil because it'll crust on the fryer and make the whole thing look pretty trashy. Enjoy your fryer op

I have a deep fryer that has a nice built in storage container that you drain and filter your oil into. It leaves behind a small skim of oil that doesn't drain and all the burnt crunchy bits.

The amount of oil used is negligible.

The key is to buy a larger unit that you think you will need because the more oil the more thermal energy it has and the better it will cook your food.

The smell isn't an issue unless you are not using a vent fan. I use the fryer on the stove top and then use my oven vent.

Unless you are near poverty you can buy and and be happy using it once a month.

This. I just have a large pan that looks almost like a flat wok, and I use it to deep fry things.