Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Turkey Frying

Can anyone share some their expertise in this area? My biggest question is what type oil to use. There seems to be several choices, including peanut and cottonseed to name some. What do you guys and girls use?

I have used a couple of vegetable based oils including cottonseed but have found that peanut seems to taste best and it doesn't pick up a burnt taste easily.

One caution, DON'T overfill the pot. When you add the bird, the oil will overflow or boil over and catch fire from the burner.

I usually put the turkey in the pot and add water until it's covered then I mark the side of the pot with a pencil. I drain the water and dry the pot - then add oil to the pencil line.

My turkey fryer has marks that indicate the level of oil for the weight of the bird. I also use peanut oil. A few words of caution on using a turkey fryer. DO not setup anywhere close to anything burnable like the in the garage or under the patio cover. Also when you are lowering the bird into the oil use heavy work gloves incase you get spatter. The last thing you want to do is to drop the bird if you get hot oil on your hands. Another thing is to lower the bird slowly and give the oil time to fill the body cavity. tom

Oh and make sure your propane bottle is full nothing worst than running out of gas before the bird is done.

Pumpgun gave good tips. Peanut oil has the highest smoke-point so it wont burn under long hot frying conditions.

Also, make sure you take a paper towel and pat the bird dry in and out before you season it. It will have enough moisture to hold any seasoning or rub, but too much moisture will increase teh popping and spattering.

Another thing, put the turkey on the frying spit and let it rest INSIDE your house for about 2 hours before you fry. This will allow the bird to come to room temperature so as not to lower the oil temp when it is put into the fryer.

That too!