Owning a deep fryer can be a great experience for those who love fried food. Maybe for those who love it a little too much, like me. Fried food is both tasty and generally quick to cook.
Using a deep fryer can be a whole other story, though. An issue you may face is when your fryer is smoking while you cook which can smoke up your house.
So, why does your deep dryer smoke? A fryer smokes due to the heated oil and water escaping from the food you are cooking. The heat from the oil and pan, in turn, heat up the water, which creates compounds that become smoke. This can be harmful if you are using an oil with a low heat point, like olive oil, to fry food.
We’re going to get into detail about why your deep fryer might be smoking and what you can do to prevent it. We will also talk about additional tips you can use to eliminate smoking in the future.
This article should give you some much-needed information to help solve your deep fryer problems.
What’s With All The Smoke from My Fryer?
The oil that hits its heat point will smoke more. Different oils have different heat points. Most oils smoke between 410°F and 450°F. You can find more specifics about different smoke points here.
Olive oil is one of the oils that has the lowest heat point, so it is one of the worst to fry with. You’re better off using peanut, canola or sesame oil to fry foods.
Poor ventilation of your cooking area. An exhaust vent above your stove can alleviate some of the smoke problems you may be experiencing. Opening a window if the weather permits can also help move some of the smoke out of the area.
This can help control the amount of smoke, thus lessening what you can experience while cooking.
Using too much oil can cause excess smoke. A good cooking tip with oil is to cover the food with it rather than the whole fryer.
The excess oil will only burn and create more smoke. So, keeping your oil levels down to only what you absolutely need will help better your frying experience.
If your temperature is too high, the oil can burn and start smoking as well. Heat is one of the main portions of deep-frying that can make or break your recipe. Too hot and you can burn your food.
Too cold and your food won’t fully cook. Too much heat can also cause the smoking that you may be experiencing when using your deep fryer.
What to Do to Prevent Your Deep Fryer from Smoking
Choose the right oil for frying. Various foods need to get to a certain temperature to fry properly. You should be sure to pick the right oil that has a similar heat point so that it doesn’t burn and ruin your food.
This will also reduce the amount of smoke the fryer gives off while cooking the food.
Turn off your machine when not in use. Leaving your deep fryer on can cause the machine parts to stay heated when not in use. It can cause your oil to overheat, which can burn it or cause the smoke to fill your room.
So, be sure to unplug or turn off your deep fryer when you aren’t using it, so the parts stay cool and heat up naturally the next time you use it.
Clean out the oil once you’re done using it. Contaminated oil can cause smoking when you deep fry food. So, once you are done with your fryer, be sure to take out all the oil.
Or filter out the food particles if you want to reuse it. You can only reuse oil after a short time. You’ll also want to wash the vets and machine parts to be sure you get all the oil off of it.
Filter your oil while it’s still cool before reusing it to your fryer. Reused oil can have food particles in it which can cause smoke to fill up your kitchen. If you try to filter the oil when it’s heated, you won’t get much out of it compared to if you filter it when it’s cool.
When you do so, there will be less mixing in which will help decrease the smoking that happens.
How Do I Know What The Problem Is?
Check your machine temperature. Similar to cooking, the oil too hot can cause smoking; having your machine too hot can also cause smoking. This can be rectified if you make sure not to let your machine heat up and leave it unattended.
You want to be sure to watch it and use it once it is the right temperature immediately.
Clean the materials of your fryer regularly. Cleaning your fryer will prevent any contamination of oil or food that can cause burning or smoking. You want to keep everything clean but also dry.
Water can cause foaming as well as dirty materials, so combining these can cause even more smoking when you cook.
Be sure to watch the food you’re frying as well. The color of your food as it is frying can be a giveaway of where it is in the cooking process. Generally, you want a golden-brown color while frying.
That color can quickly turn black and smoke if you leave it too long in your deep fryer. Keep an eye on your food to prevent unnecessary smoking.
Watch your oil! Another possibility of smoking issues with deep frying food is assuming you can walk away from it. Even if it seems like you’ll be right back to check on it, food can cook and burn much quicker than that.
Only fry food that you have the time to watch and check on, or you’ll have a smoke-filled kitchen in no time.
Any Tips I Should Know About Fryer Smoke?
Use the right kind of thermometer to check on the temperature of the oil. Be sure to use a glass candy thermometer rather than a meat thermometer to monitor hot oil correctly.
You generally want your oil to be between 350-375℉ at its highest. Any hotter and you’re sure to experience smoking while cooking your food.
Smoking oils are bad for you, and inhaling it can be harmful. While smoking can be inconvenient and unwelcome, it can also be dangerous.
Smoked oils have compounds within them that mesh with the food you’re cooking. Thus, you are ingesting these compounds that your body can’t necessarily break down easily.
Don’t heat the oil too quickly while frying. If you heat up your oil by pouring it over a super-hot fryer, it can start smoking much quicker than expected.
You’re better off taking your time to let the oil heat up rather than try to rush it. This will decrease the amount of smoking that occurs and promote the overall health of the food you’ll be eating afterward.
Summary
We’ve discussed just why your deep dryer may be smoking when you cook with it. We talked about how to prevent that smoke from your deep fryer. We also talked about various techniques and tips you can use when deep frying.
As well as some extra tips to take into consideration while you are working to prevent any more smoking while you are frying.
Hopefully, this article was helpful, and you will have a great deep-frying experience!