Turkey Frying - Safety

What time is it?  TURKEY FRYING TIME!!!

The most juicy turkey I have ever ate is deep fried turkey.  Frying the turkey really doesn't add much in the way of calories to the turkey either.  Because it isn't breaded, when the turkey is lowered into the pot, the hot oil instantly sears the surface of the meat closed.  All the moisture that was in the turkey before it went in, stays in.

They purpose of this blog post is to detail safety tips you will want to keep in mind if you decide to fry your own turkey.  In subsequent posts, I will chronicle this Thanksgiving's turkey fry.

It is awesome.

I know they show scary videos of fryer fires every year.

Don't be afraid.

Buoyancy Test

I don't want to minimize the danger, because what you are doing is using an open flame to heat up a flammable liquid (cooking oil) that you are going to use to cook the turkey in.  The trick is to keep the flammable liquid away from the open flame.  You accomplish this and there will be no fryer fire.

There are three main reasons turkey frys can turn into turkey fryer fires.


Fire Cause #1:  Too Much Oil
How do you avoid putting too much oil in the turkey fryer?  Its simple:  do a buoyancy test.  Days before the turkey fry, take the frozen turkey and put it in your fryer pot.  Fill the pot with water until the level reaches the top of the turkey.  The first thing this does is give you an idea how full your pot will be when you are frying your turkey.  If you have very little freeboard on the sides of the pot above the water level, you will probably want to get a bigger pot or a smaller turkey.

Water Level After Turkey Removed

Remove the turkey.  Mark this water level on the outside of the pot with tape.  This is exactly how much oil you will need to fry your turkey.  When you go to heat up the oil for frying your turkey, YOU DO NOT NEED TO FILL IT ABOVE THIS LINE FOR ANY REASON.

If you fill it above this level you risk oil running up and over the sides of your pot and touching the flame from the open burner on the fryer.

Fuel + open flame = fire.

Fire Cause #2:  Turkey Not Thawed
When you fry your turkey, the oil temperature is going to be between 350F and 400F.  Water boils at 212F at sea level.  I live at an elevation of 5500-feet, so my water boils at about 200F.

Marked Water Level

If you heat oil to 400F and toss an ice cube into it, the water evaporates so quickly that the ice cube will literally explode.  If your turkey is not completely thawed, it still has ice in it.  The skin of the turkey will not be able to sear properly while the ice and water boils out of it.

The surface of the oil will become extremely turbulent and oil can splash outside of your pot.  If oil is splashing out of your pot, then it can come into contact with the open flame.

Fuel + open flame = fire.

Fire Cause #3:  Lowering Turkey Into The Fryer Too Quickly
There are two ways to enter a swimming pool:  slowly wading into the pool and doing a cannonball dive.  You don't want your turkey taking a cannonball dive into the 400F oil.

Some people think they can lower the turkey into the oil with their hand.  This is not advisable.

Imagine yourself in the moment of lowering the turkey into the oil.  The heat is coming off the oil.  The oil is churning.  The turkey hits the surface and starts sizzling.  The oil starts frothing.  You panic because now you are afraid of getting burned by the oil and drop the turkey into the fryer.

CANNONBALL!!!!

Oil is rapidly displaced by the weight of the turkey, it flows up the inside of the pot, over the edge, and down the outside.

Fuel + open flame = fire.


Now that you have read these safety tips, re-watch one of those turkey fryer fire videos.  You can see that in these extremely scary videos, to ensure a spectacular fire is caused, they intentionally make all three of these mistakes:  over fill with oil, use a frozen turkey, and cannonball the turkey into the fryer.

If you are don't make these three mistakes, your risk of starting a fire are dramatically reduced.

Turkey Fryer A-Frame

When I fry a turkey, I set up a metal ladder over the fryer pot like an A-frame.  Since my fryer uses a grappling type hook for holding the turkey, I tie a nylon rope to the hook after the bird is placed on it.  I then run the rope over one of the rungs of the ladder like a pulley.  I can then stand as far away from the turkey as I want to when I lower it into the oil.  I typically stand about 6-feet away from the fryer when I do this.

Other safety tips:
1.  Whenever anything goes in or out of the pot (such as the turkey), turn the flame off the burner first.  Even if you think you've done everything correctly, you could still have a boil over and a fire.  If you pull the turkey out and the oil drips excessively, it could drip on the burner and start a fire.
2.  Use an oil with a high smoke temperature.  Peanut oil is frequently recommended.  I use vegetable oil because my father is allergic to peanuts.
3.  I have a pair of elbow length welding gloves I wear when lowering the turkey into the pot and removing it from the pot.  I also keep them next to me while the turkey is frying.
4.  Do not leave the fryer unattended.  If you are not watching the pot, it may be catching on fire and you don't know it.  My fryer actually requires me to press a button every ten minutes to verify that I am still there.  Otherwise it shuts itself off.
5.  Don't put your fryer on a flammable surface (i.e. wooden deck).  I do mine on the concrete driveway.
6.  Do not let children (or drunken/stupid adults) play near the fryer.
7.  Keep a fire extinguisher nearby.  You take every safety precaution bad things you can't control can still happen.  A freak microburst of wind could happen right over you and your fryer and knock it over.

Good Luck and Safe Frying!