Fryers- love them, hate them… but they’re still a mainstay of many restaurant back of the house hotlines. We’re often asked to give overviews and technical info on fryers, so here is a short buyers guide on commercial fryers courtesy of One Fat Frog Restaurant Equipment, call us at 407-480-3409 or stop in our showroom and warehouses at 2416 Sand Lake Road • Orlando, FL
Fryers and Hoods
There are some types of fryers that do not require hoods according to our understanding of Florida code. These fryers are either simple 115 volt electric countertop fryers which are built for low volume cooking, or actual auto-fryers that have a built in circulation system similar to a built in hood. The Auto-Fryers are built to produce high volume food service in an establishment who does not have a hood system and does not want to put one in. It is also used in a facility that may have certain build out limitations such as a historic preservation society.
Standard natural gas and LP gas fryers do need to be under a hood. We encourage you to talk to your local jurisdiction about the needs of hood overage- 6 inches on each side is generally the rule of thumb to pass inspection.
Size Matters!
One Fat Frog Restaurant Equipment sells a full line of new and used commercial fryers from: Dean, Pittco, Keating, Frymaster, American Range, Tri-Star, Imperial, Vulcan to Wolf- you name it we have it! Now what we call a “standard” fryer stands under a hood system and holds 30-50 lbs of oil (generally referred to as a 40 lb fryer). These standard 40 lb fryers hold two baskets for product. Please note you would not want to fry high volumes of different product in the same fryer (ie- sweet breads, fish and wings) due to the cross contamination of food tastes. It would result in extremely poor product quality at our food service establishment. In this case, our restaurant owners will purchase more than one fryer and sit them side by side and different fryers will be dedicated to different products.
Now the next common size up in commercial fryers is the 60-80 pound fryer. This larger commercial deep fat fryer is perfect for high volume food service providers. This larger capacity fryer is great for meat products- in fact most of our wing restaurants and bars have them. The larger sized fryer typically has a faster recovery. Recovery is what the food service industry cooks refer to as the time it takes for the fryer (or other hot line item- like convection oven or pizza oven) to heat back up to temperature after the door is opened and the food product is removed. This means a piece of equipment with higher recovery time once you submerge your frozen french fries or wings. This directly translates to increased production (see our earlier article on American Range Fryers) since there is a minimal drop in overall oil temperature and less need for the heating elements in the fryer to bring it up in temperature (saving time and energy).
Caveat: why is it is important to have a fryer with good recover? Well obviously thru-put is important. You want to maximize the production in your kitchen. However fryers with poor recovery will often produce fries that are sodden with oil and just plain greasy.
Sediment Drop Zone
When you’re frying a lot the sediment drop zone becomes extremely important to you. This sediment drop zone is where the sediment or extra food settles. So if you have those lonely fries or crusty pieces of friend chicken that end up in someone’s basket when they order fish….. eeeew! So in basic there are different sediment drop zones also know as cool zones in the better fryers. This means that the sediment will drop into an area where it will not cook and burn.
Different Fryers for different needs- did you know there is actual model for high volume funnel cake sales? Increase your through put at events and increase your profit- bottom line. Minimize lines at events and maximize the money coming in!
Need a great deal on a new or used fryer? Call the experts at One Fat Frog Restaurant Equipment, 2416 Sand Lake Road • Orlando, FL Call 407-480-3409