Thanksgiving is coming soon, yet again and the minds of food aficionados everywhere are all undoubtedly trained on the same topic: delicious, incredible turkey dinners. If you had to make a list of all of the qualities that really illustrate why Thanksgiving is such a beloved holiday, that traditional family meal would no doubt be right at the top. Turkey dinner isn't just a great opportunity to indulge in one of life's finer pleasures, but it's also a great chance to unwind with your friends and family members at the same time.
When you're getting ready to prepare that gorgeous bird for serving, however, there are a few key things you'll need to keep in mind. There is nothing more depressing than an over or under-cooked turkey dinner, so a few key tips will help keep everyone satisfied (and stuffed) all holiday long.
Turkey Preparation Safety Tips
According to the Centers for Disease Control1, the number one rule of Thanksgiving turkey preparation involves the use of a food thermometer. Always use a food thermometer to help make sure that your turkey was actually cooked at a temperature that is safe to eat before serving or you could make everybody sick, which you obviously don't want.
Always ensure that your turkey is thoroughly thawed before placing it into hot oil. Failure to do so can cause fires and potentially a B.L.E.V.E (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion). Any ice or water on the turkey will quickly flash to steam and expand after contacting hot oil, throwing oil out of the fryer which can burn bystanders and potentially catch on fire. Be sure to use the proper amount of oil for your fryer and turkey. Overfilling increases risk of splashing and fires. Operate fryers well away from any buildings or other flammable materials. http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2008/11/turkey-fryer-fire-tactics.html
If you need help figuring how much time you need to thaw your turkey use our Time to Thaw a Frozen Turkey calculator. This calculator will tell you:
When working with frying oil, always make sure that you're taking the proper precautions to help protect not only those around you in the kitchen, but also yourself. Frying oil becomes very hot very quickly (which is a large part of the reason you use it in the first place), which means that it coming into direct contact with your skin can be devastating in a matter of seconds. Always make sure that you're using rubber gloves when working with and around hot frying oil and you would do well to use goggles to protect your eyes, too. Whenever you're taking the bird out of the fryer to check the temperature, make sure that everyone around you stands back to a safe distance so that they don't get accidentally splashed.
Because raw poultry like turkey can also contain harmful bacteria, you need to make sure that you're decontaminating EVERYTHING before serving. This means all utensils you used, all work surfaces in the area and your hands must be thoroughly washed before you can continue to use them to avoid getting everybody sick.
Turkey Fryer Oil Calculator
If you're planning on deep frying your turkey, you can use basic math and a straightforward formula to help determine exactly how much oil you will need to bring all of your dinner-related dreams to life. If you use too much or too little oil you may end up with a bird that nobody actually enjoys, so keep good, old-fashioned mathematics by your side all day long to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.
The amount of oil you'll need for proper turkey cooking is based on a few key variables. You'll need to know:
- The volume of the deep fryer that you're working with. The three most common fryers with differing volumes are circular fryers, rectangular fryers and bird fryers.
- The weight of the turkey you're about to cook.
Therefore, the equation for proper oil use then becomes:
Oil = f(Fryer Volume, Turkey Weight)
The type of fryer or pot that you should use will obviously depend a lot on the actual size and shape of the bird you're planning on cooking. Rectangular fryers, circular fryers and even dedicated turkey fryers are all available and all have their fair share of advantages. First and foremost you'll want to pick an option that your turkey rests comfortably in and allows for the amount of oil you have to use at the same time. Regardless of fryer, you'll still be working with a specific amount of oil and if you choose an option too small you'll lose some of that oil to displacement, which you absolutely don't want.
Calculating the volume of your fryer will vary depending on which type you're working with. For a rectangular fryer you just need to focus on multiplying the length, width and depth. For a circular fryer you need to multiply the diameter by the depth, while for the dedicated turkey fryer you'll need to multiply the two different length calculations by the two different width calculations by the depth to come up with the right number.
As a hint, this volume is also probably written somewhere in the instruction manual that came with the fryer or pot, but using math is a lot more fun.
Once you've determined the volume of your fryer or pot, calculating how much cooking oil you'll need is very simple based on 350° oil temperature. Say you're using a fryer or pot with a 1000 oz volume and you're cooking a turkey that weighs 16 pounds - perfect for the average family.
Using our equation, you would then calculate f(1000 ounces by 16 pounds), which ultimately means that you would need roughly 766.3 ounces of oil to give your bird all of the tender love and care it needs to come out just right by the time dinner rolls around. So long as you've properly calculated the volume of your deep fryer, the rest just falls right into place.
Fry a Turkey Calculators
- Frying a Turkey Information Article
- How big of a Turkey for Group
- Time to Deep Fry a Turkey
- Time to Thaw a Frozen Turkey
- Time to thaw a turkey in water
- Time to thaw a turkey in a refrigerator
- Oil Displaced by a Turkey
- Volume of a Bird Fryer
- Volume of a Rectangular Fryer
- Volume of a Circular Fryer
- Oil needed for Turkey Fryer
- Volume of a Turkey
- Convert Kitchen Units This helps you use different measuring cups in the kitchen to correctly add up to the prescribed volume.