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I have fried a turkey now for Thanksgiving going on three years. It is great. I just hate spending $60 on oil. I am seriously interested in the Infrared turkey fryer but I am not sure how it compares in texture and flavor with oil.

As far as the oil goes cost wise, it is used several times. Its strained and put in the garage refrigerator. Peanut oil is much different than other oils. We used to fry them for our church parishioners and youth group on New Years--upwards of 30 birds. There is no oil retained in the bird, thus not oily. The correct color should be a dark golden brown or mahogany and no, its not like fried chicken. Much better. I'm like the other writer upthread, if you had it and did not like it, then it wasn't cooked right. At a luncheon last week our bird was gone in minutes and the roasted bird was left over.

@ frenzels: That is a tragedy! I would have banned the grandparents from the house after that.

I really want to try it but don't have the budget to spend on all the equipment yet. Maybe next year. And I loved Alton Browns turkey frying videos!

Another saftey tip for folks in Socal (or other warm weather spots), flip flops are not proper attire for deep frying.

As good as they look and sound, I just can't get past the thought of spending the money to buy the fryer and the peanut oil(which is expensive),just to fry a bird on T-giving. I'm not a big turkey fan, so it would definitely be a once or twice a year thing.

I have yet to tackle the actual process of frying a turkey, but have eaten some over the years and they are delicious. There is a guy in my hometown known for selling deep-fried turkeys for Thanksgiving; he prepares them and you pick them up. You literally have to order months in advance because he gets extremely busy during holidays but his turkeys are well worth it!

I've done it several times now, and as long as you are smart about it (stay away from flammable material, make sure the bird is absolutely dry, and lower the bird slowly, no matter how much your brain screams to drop it and run away), it's an incredibly tasty way to cook turkey, and extremely popular with the family. I'm considering trying the method with other foods one of these days - read somewhere about trying it with a beef roast, and also wondering how duck or goose would turn out (although I'm a little concerned about their higher fat content and how that would react with the cooking oil).

my grandparents are notorious for their obsession with low fat cooking. one thanksgiving, my aunt fried a turkey and put my grandfather in charge of carving it. while no one was looking, my grandfather trimmed every sliver of crispy golden fried turkey skin and threw it in the garbage. tragedy!

Kenji, if you're still reading the comments on this...

"This is very similar to the gunk that seeps out of the surface of overcooked salmon."

When you did the poached/steamed salmon on ATK, you had white gunk, but made a point to say that it didn't mean the salmon was overcooked. Why the discrepancy? Was that a special case because of the cooking method?

Also, thanks for this and all of your articles on here. They've been great.

I adore soft boiled eggs!! I could eat 10 at a time for sure!

I may have missed it, but I didn't see any comments about baking "hard boiled" eggs. I didn't think it would work when I saw the article, but just set the raw eggs on middle rack of a cold oven, (they recommend a little foil on the bottom of the oven in case one is cracked and breaks - never had it happen) set oven temp to 325, set timer to 30 min., when timer goes off, drop in very cold water. I've done it several times, worked perfect everytime. Tried pulling some out at 25 min., yolks were not completely set good enough for devilled eggs, but perfect for eating with a little salt and pepper. One complaint about this method is wasting electricity just for a few eggs. I had my potatoes wrapped in foil, some bread rolls rising, and some jalepeno poppers that I bake as an appetizer ready to go in at appropriate times once full temp was reached. Egg salad sandwiches, potato salad, some appetizers, and probably hashbrowns for breakfast in my future. What energy waste?

@pookay - yes, you're right. I jumped the gun in my response there. I stand corrected.

But at the risk of putting my foot in my mouth again, I'm going to ask you another question: my immediate reaction is that your statement that the rate of heating is inversely proportional to the distance is not quite accurate, because it does not take into account the heat transfer coefficient of the egg. In a vacuum, yes, the rate of heating is proportional to only the distance, but an egg has mass, and so there is a coefficient involved, and that coefficient is proportional to thickness of the egg that the heat has to pass through, so does that not turn the equation into an exponential one instead of a linear one?

And one more question: are we losing the other SEers here? :)