Nearly all customers enjoy the crisp, flavorful experience of eating fried delicacies. To provide your patrons with the food they love, you must outfit your commercial kitchen with deep frying equipment. Having the right tools to fry food will enable your staff to not make a mess in the kitchen, and also safely work with hot oil. While commercial fryers are certainly an essential tool in the business, deep frying can be safely performed using several different utensils and equipment that lead to just about the same result.

The Importance of Kitchen Equipment & Tools In Cooking

Outfitting your kitchen with the tools that are pertinent to your menu is extremely important. A compromise in the quality of tools and equipment is not an option if you wish to provide the best to your customers. The nature and performance of kitchen equipment affect the end product, and ultimately - the customer’s opinion of your establishment. Investing in the right commercial cooking equipment is sure to enhance the skill of your chefs and staff, and will make sure every dish that leaves your kitchen is relished to the last morsel by all of your patrons.

Everything You Need To Deep Fry at Your Kitchen

Here are some of the essential tools you will need to set up an efficient deep frying station at your commercial kitchen:

Baking Pans & Sheets

Baking and sheet pans are useful for transferring fried food from the hot oil. Sheet pans come in handy while you’re preparing a variety of fried delicacies. To make the setup even more efficient, couple the sheet pan with a drying or cooling rack so the excess oil can drip through the grates. Make sure the cooling racks are the same size as your sheet pan to avoid complications when cooking. You can buy sheet pans in a variety of sizes depending on the amount of space you have in the kitchen.

Cast Iron Skillet

Cast iron skillets are perfect for deep frying. The thick walls are great at retaining heat and distributing it uniformly - this is integral as fried foods require uniform temperatures throughout the volume of cooking oil. Depending on the size of the foods you’re planning on frying, you might require skillets with both short and tall walls. While the former makes food more maneuverable in the oil, the latter provides depth.

Utility Tongs

Tongs are very handy instruments when you need to handle foods that are in unconventional shapes. They allow you to single out and grab onto foods in the oil and enable you to flip them over precisely. Tongs can also help you to avoid splatter by aiding you to lower food into the hot oil. You can use two pairs for comprehensive frying - one for lowering the food into oil, and the other for pulling food out of it.

Dutch Oven

A dutch oven’s tall walls allow for a considerable volume of oil to be placed in it, along with the food for frying without the risks of spillovers. The walls also contain the splatter coming out of the hot oil, ensuring there’s no mess in the surroundings. The cast iron it’s made of retains heat, whereas the enamel coating makes it non-reactive and easy to clean following use.

Stainless Steel Strainer

A stainless steel strainer with a durable and heat-proof handle is essential for all your deep frying needs. Strainers can fish food out of hot oil, and allow for the excess to drip away. These kitchen tools are available in a variety of sizes, so you can procure a number of them based on the types of fried dishes you intend on offering to your customers.

Neutral Oil

A large volume of oil is required to deep fry food. The best options, in this case, include cost-effective oils with high smoke points. The neutrality of taste is integral because the dish is altered in case the oil imparts its taste or smell to the final product. The best options include sunflower, canola, rice bran, and peanut oil.

Deep Fry Thermometer

Placing a thermometer on the side of the dutch oven or deep skillet is essential to monitor the temperature. For food to cook evenly, the oil needs to be uniformly hot. The temperature of the neutral cooking oil often drops once you add the food into it, and temperature adjustments can be made as and when needed based on the readings on the thermometer.

Paper Towels

Paper towels are necessary to maintain cleanliness, and also for soaking up the excess oil from the fried food. Place paper towels underneath the cooling rack over a sheet pan so that the excess oil doesn’t create a greasy mess. Avoid placing the fried food directly over the paper towel, lest they get soggy - resulting in a loss of texture.

Quality kitchen tools and equipment are the backbones of your operation. Investing in high-grade frying equipment will ensure you create a dedicated section in your kitchen that serves customer favorites and fast food. Supplementing your existing fryers with these tools will enable your staff to enhance its capabilities and serve customers better.

Author BIO: Damon Shrauner, Senior Sales Consultant and VP on B2B Sales at CKitchen, working in the food service equipment sector since 1994. With his expertise in market analysis, product placement, sales and project management, he will always tell you what to do for the best of your business.