People love fried food. That’s not a controversial statement. Just think about how many of the most popular appetizers and sides are fried – French fries, onion rings, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes. But most men and women feel fried foods are too much of an indulgence to justify buying a fryer for in-home use.
That is why they’re all too excited to order the fried up foods they find on the menu in a restaurant. If you’re able to provide them one of their favorite indulgences that they cannot get in your home, you can rely on happy customers.
Commercial fryers are consequently an important investment for many commercial kitchens to make. Provided that you get one that’s big enough and heats fast enough, you can supply your clients with all the yummy fried foods that they could desire and keep them coming back. To a large degree, fried foods are hard to find wrong, but it doesn’t mean that you can just buy the very first business fryer you happen upon and hope for the best. You want to find one that is right for your establishment and your specific needs. So for that, you need to visit a reputed and trusted restaurant supply store like restaurant supply Dallas.
This buyer’s guide can help you gain a thorough understanding of what to look for in your search.
Factors To Consider When purchasing a Commercial Fryer
Not all companies have the very same priorities when looking for a commercial fryer. Your budget and preferences may seem entirely different than those of a colleague starting their hunt in the identical time. You have to determine what’s ideal for you and your kitchen. Listed below are the main classes to keep in mind to help you discover the best fryer for you.
- Cost
Most commercial deep fryers fall someplace in the price range of $500-$5,000. That’s a fairly big range — as you’d imagine, there is a lot of differences between the fryers that fall at the low end and those at the high end.
Open pot fryers usually cost significantly less than tube fryers, however, the latter can manage hardier frying jobs that the former won’t perform as well with. Flat bottom fryers can also get costly, but if you will be making the specialization things they function best for, then they’re likely worth the investment.
Besides considering the cost of this fryer itself, you should think about the long-term costs involved with commercial frying. You’ll be spending money to fuel the appliance. Gas usually costs less than power over time, but you can seek out electrical fryers that function much better on energy efficiency. The other huge cost that accompanies commercial frying is your oil. Fryer oil is expensive, and if you go with a high-capacity machine you can count on using lots of it.
- Size
Just like any commercial kitchen appliance, you have two main considerations in regards to size: how the fryer will fit in your kitchen, and just how much food will fit from the fryer. You cannot make your kitchen bigger than it is, so be sure you understand precisely how much space you’ve got so that you can take care to choose a fryer that you can get in the kitchen.
Kitchens are filled with items that can potentially become hazardous, and boiling oil goes high up on that list. You cannot simply consider where the fryer will fit physically, you also need to be certain it’s at a spot where workers can reasonably operate with and about it with no serious safety hazard.
- Fuel Type
Commercial fryers all use either gas or electricity to function and keep the oil warmed. For many clients, the choice for which fuel option to go with will largely be based on the sort of hookups you’ve got in the kitchen today. If you are replacing a commercial fryer and opt to change from one fuel type to the next, you’ll be facing higher costs to modify your kitchen installation accordingly.
If you are buying a brand new commercial fryer and therefore in a position to decide for the first time, gas fryers usually cost less to operate over time (though this varies based on the cost of natural gas locally ), but can place you back a little more upfront.
- Uses
As the types section makes clear, among the most important factors you must know about before you start your search is exactly what you’ll be using your fryer to make. If your menu includes fried meats or anything heavily battered — or if those are items you’re considering adding to the menu — then you need to decide on a tube fryer.
- Recovery Time
When you drop anything into a commercial fryer, especially something frozen, it is going to cool your boiling oil down. How quickly the oil can get back up to boiling to fry your foods is a significant element in how fast you are going to be able to find those orders from individuals. Fryers which have a good recovery period also save on energy costs, since they don’t need too much energy to re-heat back up every time you use them. Electric fryers generally fare much better than gasoline in regards to recovery time, though they take longer to heat up when you first turn them on.
- Ease of Use
Efficiency at a commercial kitchen is vital and any appliance that’s difficult to use can slow down everything and turn a smoothly run kitchen into a busy one. Before buying a deep fryer, carefully consider how it will fit into the kitchen as it runs now. Can there be anything about it that your workers will fight with? Does this have any attributes or a design which will make it a lot easier to work with safely and quickly? Your commercial fryer can’t only be operational, it needs to be useable.
- Ease of Cleaning
Cleaning a deep fryer is not fun, whatever the kind you get. But some are easier to wash than others. Tube fryers are some of the worst contenders in being a pain to clean, though flat bottom fryers don’t fare far better. One of the big appeals of open pot fryers is they’re easier to clean than other types. The sort of drain you’ve got for the oil and where it is located on the fryer may also play a role in what the cleaning process resembles.
Maintaining your fryer reasonably clean is essential to make sure it lasts longer and the flavors of the foods that you fry don’t suffer. You don’t have to empty the oil every day — that would be wasteful in addition to dull — but you do need to do so every few months or so to give your machine a proper scrubbing.
- Security
Boiling oil may do any real damage if it’s not treated with the proper care and safety issues. Security should influence where you consider placing your commercial fryer in the kitchen and the kind of procedure and coaching your staff has for utilizing it.
A commercial kitchen necessarily moves fast, but no one should be rushed when working with something as delicate as boiling oil. Staff should use gloves at all times when working with the fryer to avoid skin burns, and your commercial fryer must be located close to some vent hood to keep carbon monoxide from building up. No-slip pads should be used to lower the risk of falls, which can be an issue at any moment, but immediately made more serious in case a team member falls in the path of the fryer (or any warm surface at the kitchen). And you should be careful to not overfill the fryer, therefore splashes and splatters don’t happen.
Conclusion
There is no question your patrons will be happy to have the choice of fried food. The only question is what you and your staff will need to do to get it to them. The right commercial fryer can ensure you create all of the orders that you need as quickly as possible, without sacrificing security or quality.
Main Auction Services, Inc. is a family-owned and operated company bringing more than 35 years of combined experience in the restaurant, foodservice and related industries to the internet sales marketplace. Main Auction Services offers a wide variety of quality, new and used restaurant equipment, kitchen supplies, appliances, furniture and decor.