[Sca-cooks] Deep Fried Turkey, was FW: [TY] Elizabethan Turkey

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Christianna wrote: 
> My kingdom list has been discussing the merits of deep-frying turkeys in the
> last couple of days.  A lady asked for tips, and what she got was a long
> round of "DON'T DO IT" which was not what she wanted to hear at all.
> After that, the discussion has degenerated (as these things tend to do). I 
> posted this just this morning, and thought I would send it along here.  I 
> know most of us have seen these, but thought it might be a good way to start 
> the inevitable "What are you making for Thanksgiving?" discussions we usually
> go through here :-)

All i know is that several local fire departments here in the San Francisco Bay Area say that every Thanksgiving they are called out to many kitchen fires and outdoor cooking fires. And they are have produced videos for local news shows showing fires caused by inept attempts to deep fry turkeys. In one they show what happens when a turkey is dropped into a turkey fryer with too much hot oil in it, apparently a common cause of fires, as the oil sloshes out of the pot and ignites. Not to mention the number of people seriously injured by the masses of hot oil.

They caution that if one absolutely must deep fry a turkey, to do it outdoors, to do it on a surface that is NOT wood, to do it far from the house, far from overhanging trees, far from anything else that could catch on fire.

Here's a link to a web page from the Los Angeles Fire Department. It has a list of known problems with commercially available turkey fryers and a video produced by the Underwriters Laboratory (which certified products for safety) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) demonstrating what can go wrong, horribly wrong.
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2007/11/your-turkey-or-your-life.html

As far as what i'm doing for Thanksgiving, well, i'm travelling to Southern California to visit the family and we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner in a local restaurant. If i've understood correctly, it's a Chinese restaurant. My Mom hasn't been... mentally able for a few years and my brother's wife can't cook. And since no one told me this was happening until yesterday, well, i've got a great collection of Thanksgiving recipes, but i'm clearly not cooking.
--
Urtatim (that's urr-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita