Archive for the ‘Cookware’ Category
Now that we’ve talked about indoor fryer safety, it’s time to move outdoors.
Having a turkey fryer or any outdoor propane deep fryer is fun. It adds flavor to your holidays. It’s an extra versatile cooking appliance for backyard barbecues, and a great added piece of cooking equipment for tailgaters. You can deep fry, steam, boil, simmer, and stew with a traditional turkey fryer. When it comes to hot oil and flames, always remember…safety first. This goes for any outdoor cooking equipment, but especially when frying oil, flames, and propane tanks are involved.
Now as I said having an outdoor fryer is fun, but it is also a serious business. Caution and common sense play a big role here.
Wearing appropriate clothes, like having shoes and sleeves are a great idea. Having all of the proper tools from your fryer kit right on hand is a necessity. You don’t need to search for the grab hook or basket lifter when the time comes to use it. Other important equipment to use and have on hand when using any outdoor propane deep fryer, are heavy duty long gloves, safety goggles, a bucket of sand and an all purpose fire extinguisher. Remember…water and hot oil don’t mix. A hose used on any grease or oil fire can just make matters worse.
Always use your propane fryer outdoors. An open area is best, away from houses, garages, wooden decks, trees, and shrubs. Find a nice, flat, level piece of ground. Make certain that children and pets have another area to play in. You also want to be certain that your deep fryer will not be in a walk through area. Always make sure that there is at least 2 feet of space between your propane tank and the fryer burner. Make sure that no one is going to try to walk between the tank and the burner. Place your tank and fryer so that any wind will blow the heat of the burner and fryer away from your LP gas tank. Keep in mind that there are some outdoor electric fryer units on the market. The same goes for these units. They are intended for outdoor use, not in your kitchen or on your wooden porch or deck. You also want to make sure that your cord will not get walked into, yanking the cord out of the wall or flipping your fryer over.
Never leave the fryer unattended. This goes for any type of deep fryer, indoors or outdoors. You always need to keep a careful watch during the deep frying process. If a grease fire occurs, turn off the gas immediately and cover the stock pot with a lid. Sand and again an all purpose fire extinguisher are great to have on hand. Also if your oil begins to smoke badly, immediately turn off the gas.
Being sober while deep frying is pretty important. You will have time afterward when the cooking is done and the oil has cooled or been stored away. Keeping your friends that are partying, safe and away from the hot oil is important too. Just like the kids and the dogs, make sure that any rowdiness, rough play or an over zealous drinkers have there own place far from gas tank lines, burners, and hot oil.
Make sure that your stock pot or Dutch oven is properly centered over your burner. You don’t want food or hot oil upending because the pan just wasn’t centered.
Remember to use the tea bag dunking method. Any time you add something in to hot oil, it is going to bubble and spit. Just dropping a turkey or whatever you are frying, right in to the stock pot is just asking for trouble. This will result in a major boil over and a possible fire hazard. If you are really worried, when the time comes to put the turkey in the pot, shut the burner off for a couple of minutes until your bird or other food, is safely nestled in the pot. Then turn the burner back on.
Always give your fryer proper time to cool down before straining or disposing of the oil. Even though the unit is turned off, the oil will remain hot for quite a while. You still need to keep the kids, big and small, and dogs away from it while it cools. With a traditional turkey fryer, get a battery operated pump or enlist a friend or two to help strain and funnel the oil. The oil can be used again if stored properly. Once the oil is cooled, you can strain and funnel the oil into storage containers with ease. If tailgating, funnel empty warm oil into clean, metal Gerry Cans. The cans will still be hot but they may be stored out of high traffic areas. The fryer will cool down quicker allowing you to put it away sooner. That way you may enter the stadium and enjoy the game, without the danger of someone stumbling into your hot fryer while you are away from it.
Don’t be scared of your deep fryer. Have fun with it! Just use caution, think safely and use sober, common sense.
Using caution while deep frying, whether indoor with a Presto counter top deep fryer or an outdoor propane deep fryer, is just common sense. And using your own common sense will often help with being cautious and staying safe.
Always use your indoor deep fryer indoors. When using a counter top deep fryer you should always position your fryer well back from the edge on an even, level, cooking surface, table or counter top. Do not let the cord drape over the edge of the counter or table. Keep the cord out of reach of children and out of walk through areas.
Always make sure that foods are properly thawed before deep frying. Ice crystals on frozen chicken wings can cause a boil over of hot oil that you will be cleaning up for days!
Try to dry any wet or watery foods as water and oil don’t mix. When wetness hits the hot frying oil, splattering will occur. Remove excess moisture by blotting wet foods with paper towels.
Use good oil or all purpose shortening for deep frying. Deep frying foods in butter, margarine, or animal fat is not a good idea due to the low smoking point. (A smoking point is the temperature at which the fat or oil begins to break down and produce bluish smoke. After smoke point you near the flash point. Flash point is where the the oil ignites. Since deep frying foods is a very high temperature process, it requires a fat or oil with a high smoke point, like refined soybean or peanut oil.)
Always preheat your frying oil. Your oil should be at a proper temperature before lowering foods into the cooker. If the oil is not at a proper temperature to deep fry, your food will absorb oil instead of creating a protective barrier that cooks food, seals moisture in and crisps the outside. Also do not overload your fryer basket, as too many items at one time can also significantly lower the temperature of the cooking oil and allow for oil absorption. Frying pieces that are similar in size will also help in getting everything fried around the same time, rather than having to leave smaller pieces in the basket until the larger pieces finish cooking. Remember that smaller amounts of food will cook faster, so placing uniform pieces in a single layer 
in the bottom of the basket will result in quicker and more even browning and doneness.
Always work slowly when lowering a fryer basket into hot oil. NEVER drop the basket in. You should dip the basket like steeping a tea bag, until the oil settles down. This also helps keep some of the food from getting totally fried together. Dunk the basket raise it and shake a little to separate any pieces that have a potential to be deep fried together. Then continue this process until you can safely submerge the basket completely without an oil boil over.
Always use the equipment that comes with your fryer, like the basket and the lift/drain hook. Always wear protective gloves and having protective eye gear is a great safety measure as well.
NEVER leave your deep fryer unattended. This goes for turkey fryers, safer fryers, counter top fryers, and stove top deep fryers. You always need to keep a careful watch during the deep frying process. Should a grease fire occur, turn off gas immediately and cover the pot with a lid. Most counter top units have an emergency release cord, so unplug and cover. Baking soda and an all purpose fire extinguisher are great to have with electric fryers.
Deep frying food is tasty and fun. Using caution and common sense while deep frying can make for a very pleasant culinary experience.
Smoked food without a smoker you say? How do you smoke food without a traditional outdoor BBQ smoker? Why with smoker bags, smoker cans, or one of three different stainless steel “smoker” units by Camerons Cookware.
Do you live in an apartment that has rules regarding grills and smokers, but love the taste of smoked foods?
Do you tailgate often but hate having to load up a big bulky grill every time you go to the game?
Do you live alone or have all the kids finally left home?
Are you an amateur gourmet that likes to add smokey flavor to garlic, cheeses, or salts to add to your latest recipe?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions then one of the Camerons products may be right for you.
With a smoker bag you can smoke a whole meal with the subtle smoke flavor of mesquite, hickory, or alder. The bags can be placed in an oven, on a grill, or even right in a camp fire. And clean up is as quick and easy as removing the food and throwing away the bag.
Feel like something different in your smokey flavor? Tired of the usual hickory and mesquite? Flavorwood cans come in the traditional flavors but you can also get, apple, peach, cherry or pecan. Good for one to 
three rounds of food smoking right on your grill, charcoal or propane.
Now we come to the smokers. These can be used on a stove top, in the oven, on your camp stove or even on a picnic table with a sterno can. In fact you can use them on any heat source – gas, electric, flat top or induction, sterno, grill or campfire. They are stainless steel, durable and easy to clean. Great for camping and tailgating. Components stack together for easy storage. Light enough and compact enough for back pack cooking equipment.
The Camerons Stovetop Smoker, Mini Gourmet and Li’l Smokey all come with a sample pack of special made, kiln dried, all natural wood chips. The flavor assortment of wood chips available contains the traditional smoke flavors as well as other hardwood and fruit woods and even a bourbon infused wood chip.
Fall is in the air. It’s time for tailgating again. Time to pump up that tailgate menu of yours.Why not add a deep fryer to your tailgate gear?
Scared of taking a deep fryer to your next tailgate party? There are plenty of safer fryers out there that are worthy of the stadium parking lot.
A perfect example is The Cajun Fryer by R & V works. These fryers are portable outdoor propane deep fryers. They are made safer by their design & construction. Metal tubes inside these fryers contain the flames, but still get the oil perfectly hot enough to fry whatever you like. Any spillage that may occur would happen in the front of the fryer, well away from any exposed flame. Therefore, no oil should ever touch the flames. And, as I said, they are portable. Wheels with a rolling caddy. The Cajun Fryers can actually be removed from the caddy for easier transport, storage, and for table tailgating. They can also be made with special trailer mounts should you decide that you want to permanently attach your fryer to a tailgating trailer.
Cajun fryers come in many different sizes too. From a 2 1\2 gallon for smaller tailgates, perfect for wings for your group, all the way up to a 17 gallon size. The 17 gallon size, or FF6, is technically 2- 8 1\2 gallon fryers put together. 6 baskets, 3 for each side. If you have a larger tailgate going on you are able to use the whole unit. If you have a smaller crowd or away game that not everyone could make, just fire up one side. There are plenty of other sizes in between.
If you are worried about hot oil being left in your fryer while you are in the stadium, no worries. After the oil cools a little, you just need a radiator hose and an appropriate hose end. Attach it to the drain valve & store the oil in cleaned, metal Gerry Cans. The metal will still be hot, but you will be able to store it out of harms way while you and your friends enjoy the game.
Traditional turkey fryers are great too. Turkey fryers are very versatile. The big stock pot allows you not only to deep fry in them, you can also steam, boil, stew, etc. Steam up a bunch of corn on the cob while you are cooking steaks on the grill. Make chili or sausage and peppers for the big game. Steam up some lobster before the Race to The Chase. The options are endless. Deep fry a turkey for the pre-game party. Great for those Thanksgiving Day games!
This holds true for All-In-One cookers too. Not only can you deep fryer, steam, boil, and stew, these units are also a bbq smoker & grill. Everything you need to change up your tailgating menu throughout the season!
So, why not take a Cajun deep fryer tailgating? Your team playing against Buffalo? Make Buffalo wings. Eat the competition before the game even starts!! Deep fry some mozzarella sticks for that Cheese Head game. Fry up some catfish for A Ragin’ Cajun game. Eagles fans…make up a mess of Philly Cheese steaks. Your menu can be as imaginative as you are. Get out there and start cooking!
This past week, there was an article in the Washington Post Express called “Campfire, Rewired: Gadgets to Make Cooking While Camping A Breeze” written by Nevin Martell. He discusses some products to make camp cooking easier. Trailer camping and tailgating with grills and smokers are always an option. Tenting and hiking are a completely different entity. I mean it’s not like you can pack up a BBQ smoker in your back pack and hike into the woods with it.
One of the products featured by Nevin in his article was The Li’l Smokey by Camerons. The manufacturers at Camerons have a few products that make tenting and cooking a breeze. The Li’l Smokey, The Mini Gourmet Smoker and The Stovetop Smoker. These are stainless steel cookers that can be used outdoors using sterno, your campfire or a gas burner. Great for camping or backpacking as they are much lighter than your cast iron skillet. The lighter the better. These “smokers” can also functions as a steamer, a poacher, a roasting pan or a stovetop oven. All the components nest together inside the base for convenient storage and clean up is quick and easy.
And they aren’t just for outdoor cooking. You can use them at home as well. Apartment rules against barbecue grills got you down? With these smokers you can smoke food anytime you want.
Are you an amateur gourmet cook? Want to add some smoked garlic or smoked salts to zest up a recipe? These indoor smokers are perfect for this application.
The uses here are endless. With the specially ground, kiln dried, all natural smoking chips you can add many different flavors to whatever you’re cooking. The traditional hardwoods are available as well as some fruit woods and specialties like bourbon soaked. You can even mix and match some of the flavors to make unique flavorful blends.
Smoking foods made easy. Cooking in the great outdoors or just like the great outdoors right on your stovetop!
I am reflecting today. It is coming up on the 10th year since that dreadful day that all Americans will never forget.
I refuse to call it an anniversary. An anniversary is a happy and blessed occasion.This day was far from that!
I was living about 60 miles outside of Manhattan at the time on the south shore of Long Island. I’m still not sure if it hit home harder for all of us in the tri-state area than the rest of the country. Many of us were directly involved or knew someone personally that was.
Ten years later and we still are experiencing aftermath. Many of the men and women that were there that day or that worked the many weeks afterward, searching and clearing are now sick. They have developed incurable and fatal diseases.
Life certainly changed for many people that day.
This is just a remembrance in honor of those that were lost that day and in honor of the many heroes that stepped up, putting the lives of others ahead of their own. We will never forget!
As Irene approaches the North Carolina coast, I have to revisit the importance of emergency preparedness. I happen to be in the very coastal region of eastern North Carolina. We are as prepared as we think we can be at this point, but one never knows.
The regions of eastern Pennsylvania and Long Island are in the path of Irene as well. They have been totally saturated with rain recently. That means that if Irene is still packing a significant punch when it arrives, trees are going to fall. That will mean lots of power outages.
I know that the folks on Long Island are scrambling for D cell batteries right now. No one seems to be able to find them. Now if you already had an emergency preparedness kit, odds are you won’t be out searching 
for batteries and will be focusing on more important things like having a full gas tank, etc. If you have an emergency kit, make sure everything is up to snuff. Revamping your kit say every 6 months or every time you change batteries in your smoke detectors is a great idea. That way you are always sure to have working batteries for the flash light or lanterns that you have in the kit.
Get yourself some good outdoor cooking equipment if you have none. Like a Volcano Collapsible Grill, Brinkmann grill, or other outdoor propane or charcoal grill. That way if you loose power for a few days you will still be able to feed your family.
I have been finding more and more people coming to the food vending or the catering business. Many people either lost their jobs or found such a lack of work that they needed to recreate themselves. Everyone has to eat, right? In this turbulent economy, having some comfort food to make the heart and soul feel better, is not such a bad thing. The recreated people that I have been finding are now cooking, grilling, and\or deep frying food for festivals, farmer’s markets, events and catered parties.
Some of the people that I have recently met were lawyers, contractors, carpenters. Their career industries have not been doing so well. They have chosen to take up deep frying and food vending as side income or as an out and out career change. The food vending industry has blown through the roof right now. The West Coast of America taking a great leap forward with the food truck industry. But food vending has spread it’s fingers far and wide throughout the U.S. and even into Canada. And not just food trucks either. Caterers, street vendors, food carts, mobile trailer vendors, event and festival vendors.
And, we are not just talking about the typical hot dog truck or coffee truck anymore. The more your fare varies compared to the cart next door, the better off you may be. You want something interesting and tasty. Not the same old, same old. People are not just using griddles and steam trays any more. There are mobile grills and BBQ smokers. Panini and sandwich press machines. Mobilized trailer pizza ovens. Portable outdoor propane deep fryers 
have become a huge added cooking appliance to some vendors. With so many different nationalities and palates in North America, the food fare options are endless!
I spoke with someone the other day. They do bratwurst for festivals. They have decided to add a deep fryer to their outdoor cooking equipment to hopefully bring in more business. They will be adding a sort of thick potato chip with different spices.
I know of another company that all they do is deep fry. They work a farmer’s market in Oregon, once a week for the whole season. They deep fry empanadas, sort of a meat and vegetable pastry.
Potato twisters, a deep fried spiral cut potato on a stick, has become huge. Originating in Korea, where it has become the number one street food, it has hit the streets and fairs of America with full force. I saw a program on TV where a vendor at The California State Fair has taken the twisted potato and tweaked it. He put a hot dog on the stick first, then placed the spiral cut potato around it before deep frying it. Sounds odd right, but interesting. I would try it!
Fish tacos have taken the country by storm. Odd as they sound, having deep fried fish in a soft shell tortilla is all the rage. Even some of the bigger fast food restaurants have picked up on that.
There are endless ways to make money while selling food. Time and effort are involved, but ingenuity, honesty, integrity, and a little brains can get you places that you never thought you could go. There is a man the started a deep fried food tent at the Texas State Fair. He deep fries anything and everything. It brings people back for more. Just to see what they are deep frying today. This gentleman makes enough money through 
the fair to now sustain him for the rest of the year. Now, that’s deep frying for a living!!
Like I said before. Everyone has to eat. If you are looking for a way to make extra money, and you can cook fairly well, maybe it is time to jump on the comfort food vending band wagon. Get a deep fat fryer and start making french fries at the local festivals. Take your grill to the farmer’s market and roast corn on the cob. When the weather starts getting cooler, get yourself a turkey fryer, or a large stock pot and propane cooker and make some chili for the apple festival or fall leaf and craft fair. With a great idea and some time and effort, you could be on your way! The American dream starts here!
As of July 1, 2011, Barbour International, ie.: Bayou Classic has decided to discontinue the turkey fryer kit.
A turkey fryer kit is everything that you need to deep fry turkey. A stock pot with a lid, an outdoor propane cooker or patio stove, the hose and regulator, a poultry rack and lifter, a thermometer, and seasoning injector are typically included. Some of the more deluxe models would include other perforated baskets and pans for smaller deep frying adventures, like a Friday night fish fry, or a large perforated steam/boil basket for Low Country Boils.
Turkey fryers are versatile in that you can, steam, boil, stew, and deep fry in them. These kits are ideal outdoor cooking equipment for tailgaters. You can change up your menu for every game and not just be grilling all the time. You can make chili one week, or just steam corn on the cob the next week while you grill steaks for your tailgating crew.
Some units are made of aluminum, some stainless steel. This part is all preference. Stainless usually cleans up easier than aluminum but the aluminum turkey fryer stock pots tend to be less expensive. If you are just starting out in the turkey frying fad, aluminum may be the way to go for you. After you gain some more experience, maybe you want to upgrade to a stainless steel model.
Luckily, Barbour International is still carrying all the items that were in all of the turkey fryer kits. The items must all be purchased separately now. This is good in one sense, as not everyone wanted everything that came in some of the kits. On the down side, purchasing all of the original items as compared to everything in one box as one kit, is considerably more expensive. I see this as being a bad move for business, especially in the economic times we are experiencing right now. People are looking for a great value with a great price tag. People are still going to fry turkeys, they just may be looking elsewhere for a better deal.
This past week there was an article regarding deep frying in The New York Times. Not something that you would expect to see in The Times. There were even a few recipes as there was also a discussion of different types of breading that may be used when deep frying.
The article entitled “Everybody Outside With the Deep Fryer”, by Melissa Clark, made some great points regarding outdoor use of a deep fryer. When you deep fry indoors, whether using a cast iron, stove top deep fryer, or a counter top deep fryer, you always end up with a lingering odor in your house, not to mention a nice coating of oil on everything. Melissa’s husband decided to take their counter top deep fryer outside. They invited their friends to a deep fry party. Having a whole party devoted to deep fried foods allowed Melissa to play and experiment with different kinds of foods and different types of coatings. From sweet to savory, appetizer to entree, Melissa got to have fun, feed her guests, and didn’t have an oily, smelly, messy kitchen to deal with afterward.
Using an electric deep fryer outside is OK, but typically not recommended by the manufacturer. It is not an item that you could ever keep outside permanently. Some units can handle the outdoor exposure, but the heating element would need to be taken off after every use and brought indoors. If you really do deep fry all of the time, and you have a nice back yard, why not consider an outdoor propane deep fryer? These units are made to stay outside and range in size from small to large professional grade. Even if you don’t deep fry all of the time, having a propane fryer can add to your BBQ menu. While you are grilling steaks you can fry a batch of onion rings as a side dish. While grilling a nice tuna steak or some nice stripped bass you can deep fry a batch of french fries, hush puppies and clam strips. After smoking some delectable delights all day on your BBQ smoker, you can deep fry some candy bars, cookies, or fried dough for dessert.
Deep frying outdoors, especially in the hot, sultry summer months is an excellent idea. Whether you decide to get a propane deep fryer or just take your counter top deep fryer outside. Happy frying!