How not to fry your Thanksgiving turkey
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Before and after pictures. Firefighter Rashard Montgomery drops a frozen turkey into super-hot oil. Photos: Courtesy of Austin Fire Department (left) and Asher Price/Axios (right).
If you're deep-frying your turkey this year, be careful.
- Yes, you want a crisp, juicy bird — but you also want to keep your eyebrow hairs unsinged.
What's happening: The Austin Fire Department on Tuesday demonstrated how not to fry your turkey.
The big picture: U.S. fire departments respond to more than 1,400 fires on Thanksgiving, more than three times the average of any other day during the year.
- Texas ranks first among states for the most grease and cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day.
What not to do: The main causes of deep-fryer fires include:
- Too much oil in the fryer pot. Oil spilling out of the pot can hit the burner and cause flare-ups.
- Dropping a frozen or partially thawed turkey — which has a lot of frozen water inside it — into oil. "Water and oil are explosively destructive together," Angela Martin, a lieutenant with the Austin Fire Department, told reporters at the demonstration.
- Frying too close to buildings. Cook away from flammables and keep your distance from wooden structures.
What they did: "We did pretty much everything you're not supposed to do to get an amazing, cool flame," Martin said.
- They overfilled the fryer pot and heated it to 500 degrees — and dropped a frozen turkey into it.
Be smart: Martin recommended deep frying with an apron.
- "Nobody wants to cook bacon naked. It's the same thing."