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Fryer Newbie Questions

T

TexasRookie

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We are in the process of relocating our current store into a new location around the corner from our current location. We are moving because we have outgrown our current space & we will own the real estate in our new location.

With the expansion of our dinning room & kitchen we will be adding a cook line that will allow us to start producing our own in-house toppings. (We currently use the best pre-cooked product toppings we can buy but we know we can do better.)

One of the equipment items we will add that we currently do not have is a fryer. We currently cook wings & fries in our impingement oven and we will be moving them to the fryer. We also plan to add some simple bar food like fried pickles and corn nuggets.

Now for the fryer questions.

  1. []Do you recommend one brand over another?
    [    ]Auto filtering vs. Standard issue and filter on your own.
    []Gas vs. Electric
    [    ]What question do I need to ask that I am not?
  2. What do I need to know about fryers that I don’t?
We are a very well oiled operation at this point and I want to make sure the fryers help our speed/quality and do not hurt it.
 
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Pitco fryers are great.
Auto filtering is what I have and I love it!
Gas is a lot cheaper and more efficient. (It is cheaper here in Pennsylvania).
I would stay away from “smart” fryers. The computers go bad and are expensive. A nice programmable timer will last forever and save you $1,000’s.
I would recommend considering how much volume you intend to do and how many different products you will fry. You will want to consider the amount of baskets you will have in your fryers at the same time.
 
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Btu’s! Make sure you get 115,000 at least!!
I bought these and they are fantastic
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ava...floor-fryer-4-tubes-120-000-btu/177FF400.html
Easy to clean, they keep up with us and we push them to the max. Dont try to save the $200 a 90,000 btu unit would save, you will end up hating how slow they take to recover.

Also always buy the cheapest frying oil you can. Dont listen to the salesman telling you this ‘special blend’ of cottonseed blah blah will last longer- it doesnt-

Also super clean oil DOES NOT make the best tasting food. The oil is at its best the day after its been cleaned and used for a day. My homie GotRocks showed me a trick that Mcd’s did back in the day you keep a small amount of spent oil(a few pounds) and put it into the clean oil, trust me it works! Now you have consistent fryer foods

Fryers can make you a ton of money! But its not all gravy.
  1. They make your store dirty be ready to scrub ceilings WAY more often than before.
  2. Spilled oil sucks to clean up.
  3. Frying oil is still pretty cheap but its still a cost make sure you consider that in your pricing.
  4. Youre now going to come home smelling like french fries, on top of the garlic and onion smell you probably already reek of from the pizzas
 
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Heres a list of my best sellers for fried items

Chicken tenders
French fries
Mozzarella sticks
Onion rings
Poppers
Sweet potato fries
Spicy fries
Fried portabella mushrooms
Broccoli cheese bites
Fried pickles
Fried dough bites

These items sell, but not great for us
Fried zucchini
Corn fritters(got rid of)
Onion petals(got rid of)
Green bean fries
Potato skins(replaced with bacon cheese fries… Way more popular)
 
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Pitco fryers are great.
Auto filtering is what I have and I love it!
Gas is a lot cheaper and more efficient. (It is cheaper here in Pennsylvania).
I would stay away from “smart” fryers. The computers go bad and are expensive. A nice programmable timer will last forever and save you $1,000’s.
I would recommend considering how much volume you intend to do and how many different products you will fry. You will want to consider the amount of baskets you will have in your fryers at the same time.
Click to expand...
agreed…after 10yrs of 2 individual basic gas fryers we just switched to this energy efficient Pitco Solstice battery that is programmable and has filtration built-in and I wish I has done this 10yrs ago…idiot proof!
 
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Pitco fryers are great.
Auto filtering is what I have and I love it!
Gas is a lot cheaper and more efficient. (It is cheaper here in Pennsylvania).
I would stay away from “smart” fryers. The computers go bad and are expensive. A nice programmable timer will last forever and save you $1,000’s.
I would recommend considering how much volume you intend to do and how many different products you will fry. You will want to consider the amount of baskets you will have in your fryers at the same time.
Click to expand...
Right now we would be putting about 30 orders of wings in them a day along with probably at least a case of fries. With our new dinning room I think we will probably add about 30 additional appetizers to the volume daily. How many baskets would you recommend?

Are the auto filtering systems really worth it? They seem to run about 5x as much as a basic fryer.
 
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We sell on an average week
360lbs french fries
400lbs chicken tenders
40lbs mozzarella sticks
30lbs onion rings
10lbs poppers
I use about 70-80lbs of oil a week
Id reccomend buying at least 2 units

2 units can have 5-6 baskets
 
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TexasRookie said:
How much do two of those units cost? With the built-in filtration, how often do you need to change the oil?
Click to expand...
The battery I have is 2 fryers in one…I got a great deal on a scratch&dent (brand new) for only $8K as opposed to approx $15 brand new
 
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if you can afford it up front, get the fryer with the filtering built in, over time it will pay for itself in shortening longevity.

We started cutting our own fries about a year ago, Our french fry sales have quadrupled, our costs are about 25% , there is some labor with cutting/blanching them, but well worth it IMO.

As December stated’ “Cheapest oil possible” if you filter daily, and do not beat it up with ice crystals, it will last way longer and save you tons of money annually over the “Extended use” crapola.
I do not like to fry in Canola, I hate the stuff, just plain old clear fryer shortening is my fave, when it is on sale for $16 a container, spend a dew hundred bucks on a pile of it
 
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