What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fryers?
Right now we use regular clear fryer shrotening… it’s life is about 6-7 days.
We never filter it, i just wait until it starts to smoke, then change it.
I recall seeing a “hand pump” style filter at my local Steak 'n Shake but could never find one. (it was about 2ft. round cylinder that was on casters and stood about 3ft. high, the bottom had a hose that connected to the grease spout on the fryer… and the top had a hand pump and a hose that you just pumped the oil back into the fryer while it was still hot.)
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
We use pure beef dripping. It’s the best taste wise, however it’s most expensive. But no matter what you do, you should be filtering your oil, cleaning and covering your fryers to get maxium life from the oil. We filter once a day, cover fryers at the end of the day and scrub out fryers once a week.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
You can find filters which dont need to be connected to the fryer itself, but I havent seen too many fryers that dont have a drain, which is how you hook up a filter.
Waiting until the oil starts to smoke is way too long, it is killing the flavor of your fried product and you can bet that customers know when you have changed the oil and when you havent. If I look at a place and see dark oil, I will intentionally not order a fried product.
I guess one backwards positive is when the oil is old, it cooks product faster…lol
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
I got the idea after reading Fast Food Nation, a great read if you haven’t read it yet. I have studied MacDonald’s quite a bit as well. They used lard in their friers for years until they were sued over vegetarian french fries. Basically they couldn’t call the fries (as they always had been) vegetarian because they were fried in a mead product, and chose to keep the vegetarian label over keeping lard.
There is also a health “issue”. There are more trans fats in lard. See question 5 here. But it is like the health benefits of light cigarettes over normal ones. The difference between lard and vegetable oils is negligible when compared to not eating fried foods. Not to mention that the increase in trans fats in the fries themselves is insignificant.
I noticed no difference in the length of usable life between the vegetable oils we used and lard. You really should look at refining your fryer operations though. Using ‘when it smokes’ as an indicator is probably not a best practice.
ps - PizzainAZ… You aren’t cooking the food any faster with old oil.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Actually…McDonalds fried in beef tallow right up until just a few years ago. That was the secret to the flavor of their fries. Now with all of the health concerns, most operators have changed, or were forced to change over to vegetable based frying oils, and now we’re well into the trans fat frying oils. Not filtering the frying fat is a very expensive proposition. I’ve seen storte go for several weeks by daily filtering and replenishing the used fat only. Poke around looking for a good, used donut fryer filter. These are pretty reasonable and they work very well too. Be sure to keep your frying fat temperature at 360 to 365F to help extend the life of the fat. Are you aware that frying potatoes helps to clean your fat by absorbing flavors in the fat? Just a bit of useful trivia.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
thanks for the tip about the donut fry filter… i’m going to start looking into that. i have 2 Picto Fryelators that each hold 50# of oil and found the Pitco electric filter for $1300… thats $1300 i can’t afford right now :x
I keep the temp of both fryers at 350F… i assume the lower the temp the longer the life? As 350F is what all of my fried products is made for so it works out good.
As far as fries, i’ve been using the 3/8" straight cut regular fries for the past 3 years… which are plain… i’ve been experimenting with cutting my own and frying them up but havent gotten to good of flavor (yes, i test with new oil lol) until today, i made a batch and they came out very nice. So i am happy about that today :lol:
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
pizzamancer,
Actually my comment about black oil comes from experience. I was a GM for one of the top 3 burger chains for nearly ten years and things did cook quicker when the oil was breaking down…it ran HOTTER than oil that had been filtered and/or was new. If we didnt adjust frying times on change/filter day we would burn product, everything from chix to fries to breakfast items, fish…whatever it was.
Customers do know fresh oil versus old oil, plus the stench of burning oil is brutal and carries through the entire place.
Never worked at a pizza place that had fryers, but spent a ton of years at burger joints and know more than I want regarding programming and maintaining fryers.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
We’ve been frying in peanut oil for several years now - we filter several times a day w/the big fryer (its 4 sale if anyone needs an excellent ventless option)
Oil lasts from 6-10 days, depending on use & if filtered regularly…we fry @ 335
New place we are using some cheap, generic veg/blend oil - big difference in taste & visual appearance…
I do have a Cecilware Fryersaver that works pretty nice (not as convenient as old fryer)
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Nope. Not convincing me there either. For the oil to ‘run hotter’, the thermostat must have been broken. The easiest explanation I can see is that the longer you use oil, the darker it gets. We can all agree on that so far right?
The closer you get to the end of the oil, the darker the things fried in it are going to look. Especially things like fries and bkfst items like hash browns. They might appear to be over cooked, but that is not the case.
It is a fact that clean oil cooks faster than dirty/contaminated oil. When I say contaminated, I mean from regular use. Things like bits of batter, small chunks of french fry… Clean oil does not get absorbed into the food you are cooking in it the same way that older oil does, and transfers the hear far more effectively. You might have fallen for one of the old urban myths, like the 3 second rule, or cases of double cheese.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Absolutely right on all accounts. 995% of our business is frying. Fries: Fish, seafood, chicken, chicken fingers, hot dogs, burgers, onion rings etc. We fry with Beef Drippings, Veg Oil and use to use Canola. If you want whatever you are frying with to last longer, you need to filter your oil, clean your fryers and cover your fryers when not in use.
Toms post is also 100% accurate (as usual ) We also use a donut fryer for fish. We can cook 20-25 pieces at a crack because the fryer is shallow it recovers quickly. We paid a lot of money for ours $250.00. :o keep the temp around 360 -370 and look out . Donut fryers are a great way to go.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
pizzamancer,
Tell me this, where is the thermostat for your fryer located?
Is it near the top of the fryer or the bottom of the fryer?
If you have two fryers, three, four, whatever…next time you have the two that are ready to dump, clean and refill one fryer and leave a dark, smoking one going and fry two items next to each other. Tell me which cooks faster.
The thermostat is near the very bottom of any fryer I have ever seen and the more broken down the oil, the hotter it is at the surface, thus the literal SMOKE which comes out from a fryer needing a change.
That isnt vapor coming off, it is smoke and that oil near the top is hotter than the lower oil which is closer to the thermostat.
You break down any oil, veggie or crude whatever and it will have a tendency to run hotter and cook faster than oil with no impurities.
I have no reason outside experience to draw the conclusions I have stated here.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
There’s actual chemistry going on when you fry foods. The steam pressure from inside the food creates a ‘barrier’ on the surface of the food that keeps the oil from penetrating . . . basic knowledge we all have. It seems that as the heat and water stress the oil, some ‘soapy’ compounds are actually created. These compounds change the surface tension of the oil (notice it looks thinner when it pours) and allos it to encroach more on the foods. The closer the oil can encroach on the food, the higher the immediate temperature is that can impact the food product, and the more oil can be absorbed into the food. And the darker your foods are going to fry.
Brand spanking new oil does not brown anywhere near oil that has had a couple batches of food go through it. Extreme temperatures, water, raw meat/chicken/fish, coated fries, cornmeal, and the like are all brutally rough on the chemical degredation of the frying oils.
It really is more complex than that (that is about the most I remember), but you get the oxygenation of the compounds over time as well as heat degrading the oil. When you filter oil, you are getting out not only particulates, but also some of the water, animal fats, and ‘soapy’ compounds that build up. It is amazing what one finds out in magazine articles about food and cookery.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
You’ll have to pay for good shortening but will make up for it on life. If you deal with SYSCO ask for Fry-On. PFG/Roma has one called Brilliance it is the canola corn blend. Shortening is a big staple item for distributors and they often have promos that will rebate you on the purchase. My SYSCO rep is always giving me coupons and running trackings for Fry-on. My old PFG rep used to walk in with a check in hand being he had all ready done the work. Tell them youll switch but want a full refund if you dont like it. They usually will back the sale on high end shortenings
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Come on buddy. I am sure you have a lot of experience with food, fryers and restaurants, but that really can’t change facts. The temp is the same in either case, and it will be hotter at the heating elements, not the top of the oil. Even if there were variations, they are gone the moment you put product in and move that basket around. Fryer oil is not like a stone deck in an oven with hot and cool spots. Imagine a lava lamp. it is the same principle. Warm oil rises while cooler oil sinks.
Nick did a great job of describing it. Old oil browns food faster. It gives fried foods the appearance of being cooked. You are confusing darker fried foods with quicker cooking. Everybody experiences darker foods coming out of week old oil, but that doesn’t change the chemistry of frying or make old oil fry faster.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Sorry for the double post, but I just came across this article on oils and the relationship to obesity. I guess I had always assumed (evidently incorrectly) that lard and tallow were in the unhealthy transfat category.
Re: What kind of oil lasts the longest for the $ in deep fry
Yes, it is a bit like saying light cigarettes are healthy cigarettes. The flip side is that we would all be in trouble if we tried to educate customers.
There is a decent case for mentioning no trans fats though. Customers are going to order 2000 calories worth of french fries and soda anyway. Might as well make them feel like they chose the ‘healthy fat’ alternative.
) We also use a donut fryer for fish. We can cook 20-25 pieces at a crack because the fryer is shallow it recovers quickly. We paid a lot of money for ours $250.00. :o keep the temp around 360 -370 and look out . Donut fryers are a great way to go.