Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Getting Down to the Nitty & the Gritty...

After a long, cold winter and, arguably, too many uses, it's time to drain the oil and clean out the deep fryer!! Though this chore sucks major ass, it's mandatory for anyone who owns a fryer! Just be happy it was me scrubbing away on a Sunday afternoon and not you!
















Note: Hold shift, then click on any pic to open it larger in a new window! :)

We've finally got half-way decent weather out there, and I've certainly put off cleaning this fryer long enough...

...so, it's time to get some crappy clothes on and scrub this baby clean!

Ugh!

What a putrid mess!

Every batch of fried food sheds breading and other bits, which gradually accumulate at the bottom.

First thing I have to do is drain out as much oil as possible!

I hang on to my old oil for a friend who uses it to run a Lister generator... and make all of his neighbors hungry bec it smells like fried food as it putt-putt-putts along! Check one out here!

Mmm..... fryer sludge!!
AYCS, there are recognizable chunks of sausage, french fries, and tortilla chips that had managed to get out of the baskets and lost at the bottom... until now!

It's far easier to tip the unit on its side than to try to get the sludge out of the one inch drain hole.

 I usually do this at the back of the yard in an area where it can be easily rinsed out w/ a hose.

Ugh!  Gnarsty!

A few rags, a roll of PT, some gloves, and, don't forget...

...the oven cleaner!
A little sodium hydroxide will eat right through this caked on grease!

At this point, it's time to spray the entire can on the fryer, then give it time to do its magic!
Be sure to hydrate well when working this hard!

Give it a quick hose-down to get the big chunks out first!

Once you've sprayed out as much as possible, drain the remaining water and soak up any excess that pools at the bottom.

The NAOH does a better job when there isn't any excess water.
  Oven cleaner eats right though the grease and I wouldn't attempt to clean this thing without it!

Unf, I have no action shots of me elbow-deep scrubbing this thing with robot pubes bec I didn't have a cameraman and I couldn't shoot pics w/ caustic on my gloves!

This is for those of you wondering what the hell robot pubes are!

Now, look at that!!  Nice & shiny!!

Time to add the oil!

This big bad rig holds 9 gallons of frying oil!
It's also made right here in America!

Get your own giant deep fryer on Amazon!

That's half of it!

In goes the rest!
The second jug of oil I had stored out in the cold garage over the past few days, so the oil had started to solidify slightly, thereby making it look... funny. Not haha funny, just funny. :)

Time to clean up those gross fryer baskets!

Over time, these too get gnarsty!

Time to hit 'em w/ our favorite caustic agent!
Let's hear it for NAOH!

A little time & a lot of elbow grease later (as well as some quality time w/ robot pubes again!)...


...and they're lookin' like new!


Well??  What am I waitin' for?!?

Time to fire this sucker up & make some grub!
I've worked up an appetite!

Neighbs!!  Where the hell are ya goin'??
We're only 30 mins from down-chowing on glorious food fried in fresh oil!

Well, at least Guba's still hungry!!

Guba: "Why does this f@$%ing oil seem to take so long to heat up when we're hungry!"
D-troit: "Patience! By the time we're done with this next round of beers, it'll be time to..."

"...dunk some tots, yo!"

Ah, yessss... now that's some clean-lookin' oil!

They done yet??

Meh, not quite!  Give 'em another minute!

Now they're done!

Time to hit these tots w/ some garlic & herb seasoning and a buncha parmesan cheese!!
Though cleaning the deep fryer is a royal pain in the ass, the results are always well-worth the effort!
Typically, I can get about 6 weeks or so out of it before it needs another cleaning!
Now that I've got all this scrubbing out of the way, who's hungry for some deep fried deliciousness?! :D


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