I remember in the early 60s the price of bologna went up in price. Why? Because a lot of people were buying it. One of the rules of economics is that price is based on demand. If masses of people were buying bologna it surely was in demand – right?
Wrong? It was the cheapest sandwich meat. When the price went up people quit buying it. Duh!
Now, I am wondering if the same will happen with the deep turkey fryer and peanut oil.
Twelve of us gobbled the gobbler yesterday here. I was the chef. As I have done many times before I deep cooked my turkey in peanut oil.
Before price wasn’t a consideration. It think the oil must have been fairly cheap, because as frugal as I am… well, I know me.
A few days ago we priced the peanut oil at Costco and their large container was $48. That was too much. At Walmart the price was $39 for their large container. I am assuming both containers were the size. We bought the Walmart brand.
Yesterday morning when I was preparing to cook I poured the peanut oil into the large container and it was three inches short of coming high enough. The mark I made with the turkey and water was 9 inches and the peanut oil came to 6 inches. Damn!
I hustled to Krogers and the manager told me they sold the last two. Publix was closed.
We took a chance with some old used peanut oil I used twice before for the remaining 3 inches, it worked fine.
I have read that using peanut oil twice is really not recommended because the oil can turn rancid. I guess we were lucky.
But, I could have easily spent $96 at Costo or $78 at Walmart for the cooking oil for a one time meal… $39 is bad enough.
Another thing about deep frying a turkey: After the cooking time was up my son Adam helped me left the bird out of the bubbling oil. It just about takes four hands for this feat (get it, feat? – hands – yuk yuk). When we got it up something went wrong and the turkey fell.
It could have fell on the ground and get dry leaves, bits of earth matter, and dogs’ bathroom stuff all over it and Adam and I would hose it off and keep swear ourselves to secrecy or it could have fell back into the bubbling oil and splash 350◦ peanut oil on both us.
It fell back into the bubbling peanut oil but both Adam and I had quick reflexes and jumped out of the way of the splash.
And everybody enjoyed the turkey – and also the spiraled cut ham and other goodies Anna made and people brought.
Rocky and his fiancé Sabrina brought a DVD-slide show of their trip to South Korea and treated us with what all they saw and the story behind the scenes which included customs, laws, and history of the Koreans. It was very enjoyable and interesting.
We have a lot to be thankful for – just for that morning.
I think my deep-frying turkey days are over. Now watch the price of peanut oil go down.
2 comments:
I am glad that you are OK. My friend, a former volunteer firefighter, told me that deep frying turkeys for T day are the leading cause of fires and burns on that day. But it does sound delicious.
Suzanne,
It was delicious. All the juices and spices are sealed in with the deep-fry system but I think I am calling quits on the deep-frying system. Too expensive!
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