What's In A Fryer
What's In A Fryer
Sep 10Food, Time, and Space
In any commercial application, a fryer is essential to quickly and effectively cooking food to get to your customers. But with so many options, what is truly important for your needs? We will break it all down in this guide.
Selecting the right fryer for your needs depends on several issues:
- Types of food – What foods will you cook in your fryer?
- Production requirements – How much food per hour do you plan to cook?
- Space allocation – How much space can you allocate to your fryer?
French Fries
For most restaurants, 80% of the foods fried are French fries. To cook French fries properly, so they are browned and crisp on the outside but dry and soft on the inside, it is critical that the temperature of the oil increases to its normal level quickly after the fries are immersed in the oil, which is called temperature recovery. If the temperature does not increase quickly, the fries will be heavy and limp from absorbing excess oil while the oil’s temperature is increasing to the optimum level. The quality of the thermostat in the fryer will determine how quickly the temperature recovers. In a lower end fryer, the temperature will change as much as 10° before the thermostat registers the change and the heat elements turn on. In a better fryer with solid state controls, the thermostat will register a change of 2-5° to trigger an increase in heat. The manufacturers’ standard test of recovery rate for a fryer is to cook four pounds of frozen fries in two baskets for three minutes and repeat that process for a few hours to determine average recovery time.
Breaded Food
Food with breading, like chicken, fish and onion rings or flowers, will produce a high sediment load, which includes things like salt, breading, other spices, batter, and general debris. When the sediment load is high, the oil must be filtered or changed often or the fryer must contain a larger cold zone. A cold zone is a space below the cooking area where crumbs and sediment can accumulate without continuing to cook. Also, the cooking area should be large, so that each piece of food has its own space to float in to cook thoroughly.
Flavor Transfer
Flavor transfer is a consideration when cooking foods with strong flavors, like onion rings and calamari. Ideally, a separate fryer should be used for these types of foods to ensure that the stronger flavors are not transferred to other foods. Another option is to use a very high quality shortening, which helps to reduce the flavor transfer.
Production Requirements
The size of your fryer is a critical consideration in producing consistently high quality fried food. The size is based on your maximum usage per hour. Most manufacturers base their recommended usage in terms of pounds of frozen fries per hour. To determine the right fryer for your operation, you need to estimate how many pounds of fried product you use during a normal rush period.
Because every restaurant serves different portion sizes, it is difficult to determine usage based on customer counts and portions sold. A simple method of estimating usage is to keep track of the number of bags of raw or frozen products used during a normal rush period, then divide that number by the length of the rush period. For example, if you use six cases of fries and each case weighs eighteen pounds, you would cook 108 pounds during your peak period. If your rush period is two hours long, then you use 54 pounds per hour. Do the same calculation for other fried products like onion rings, cheese sticks, etc. When you have a total of the pounds produced per hour, you will have a good idea of what size fryer you need. Remember, that production rates for the fryers are based on perfect conditions in a lab and may not be entirely accurate when the fryer is operating in a restaurant.
Space Allocation
Match your production requirements to the available space in the kitchen to determine the optimal capacity and number of fryers to purchase. Consider space for the filtration system, too. A filtration system that provides a space for a dump station, if you have room, is recommended. A space-saving filtration system that is self-contained with an easy-to-use process can be used, and it requires less floor space.
Schweppe offers everything for the professional kitchen, including fryers.