[on_the_fly]

had a friend of mine tell me i was nuts because i only use my grease once when i deep fry a turkey. he said he just strains it out and puts back in the jug it came in and reuses the next time. anyone else reuses their grease for their turkey? am i throwing money away by buying new grease every time i mean realy its what 25 bucks for a 5 gallon jug of peanut oil. i always though that it would be contaminated and no good for reuse. and well he just wasnt seeing my point because he said when you reheat to deep fry temp it would kill any thing anyways and sayed lok at him its never made him or anyone else sick. but realy i would just be too scared to try. just thought i would throw that out and see what a few of my DHC friends thought about this

 

[buckfever]

Ive never reused before only because I very rarely deep fry a turkey but can really see why folks do. I have some friends that do the same thing as your bud.

I look at it like this.. In any resturant you eat at that fries any of their food usually does not use fresh oil each time.. Back when I was a young whipper snapper at Taco Bell I had to fry all the shells, cinnamon twists for that day. I never once cleaned out the grease. I just added more when it got low. And that machine I used would be heated up for about 2 hours in the morning and then just sat there until the next morning until it was heated up again.

Just my thoughts but I dont think there is anything wrong with it.

 

[on_the_fly]

well one of my first and only food job was at an buffett resturant and i fried lots of chicken and we changed the grease twice. new grease to start the day and bout half way till close rechanged. i always thought it was because the poltry and exsess batter that feel off. but its one thing to use over and over till scorched but i think a hole nother ball park to us the oil on a bird jug it back up and use it next year, and over and over. surely the poltry has got to taint the oil.

 

[tator]

I personally have never tried frying a turkey myself... though I have eaten fried turkey and it's awesome! This Sat. my father-in-law is going to try out his new oil-free turkey fryer! It's made by butterball and the whole fam got it for him for Christmas. Pretty neat deal, no oil used, yet it still fries it like a deep fryer! (or so they claim) Will let you know how it turns out as I'll probably be the one in charge of cooking it...

 

[gargoyle]

If you plan on using the oil in a week or two, I don't see a problem. Stored in the jug and sealed, it should be fine.

Since the oil is heated to 300 degrees + it will kill any bacteria.
Strain the oil when warm (not hot) thru some cheesecloth to remove any food bits.
Other than cross contamination of food flavors (chicken vs. fish vs. french fries, etc.) the oil has worked on several meals for me.

Long term storage..I wouldn't try to store the oil that is used for more than a month. But that's just my opinion. Grandma stored her grease for months in an old coffee can for years, and she lived to 80.

I worked in a kitchen years ago, and the oil was reheated for days at a time. Add fresh oil as needed (the food absorbed some). Routinely changed every week or so. We did strain the oil daily. Maybe the rules/laws have changed since then, but that was standard practice.
The fryers were used for french fries only. With my home fryer, the oil will retain some flavors from previous cooking. So, if I want the fish to taste like fish..

 

[tator]

My mouth is salavating while the turkey is 'frying' this morning! We're using the butterball oil-free fryer for the first time. Done everything by the book, so hopefully we'll have some good bird in about 2 1/2 hours!

 

[on_the_fly]

well how did that oil free bird turn out?????

 

[tator]

SORRY I didn't get back to you all quick enough! That bird is AWESOME! My mind was thinking, though, that it'd have a crispier crust (skin) than it did though. BUT, with these you don't coat them in anything. You can inject butter marinaide or any marinaide for that matter. The best thing about it was the JUICYNESS of the turkey! WOW! It was awesome fellas!
I do recommend, however, using the smoke chips, they made the turkey have that smoky flavor! and I recommend keeping the bird in there for the complete time.
The book said to cook the bird for 10 min per pound, which for our bird (16 lbs) was 2hr and 40min. BUT the book said if the turkey reaches 170degrees you can stop cooking it, and it's done. Well ours reached 175 at 2hr and 20min. So we went ahead and took it out. I think if we would've kept it in the entire time, it would've been a little more crispy on the outside.
Make sure you do this outside, as the cooker does sweat some and you don't want to stain your carpet or floors. It's a neat cooker, really easy to clean up and the DRIP PAN caught some grease for AMAZING gravy! My mouth is salavating now thinking about it..... I strongly recommend it!