DrCool - 8:26 pm on Nov 27, 2002 (gmt 0)

One trick is to use the right type of oil. Regular vegetable oil starts smoking and scorching at around 360-375 which is about the temperature you need. Peanut oil is by far the best. It can go to over 400 degrees without any adverse effects.

Case in point: A friend of mine wanted to try the deep fried twinkie thing a few weeks ago. He had the oil in a pan on his stove and all of a sudden the pan of oil caught fire. It was shooting 3-6 foot flames straight up. Water is a no-no with grease fires and they only had a small box of baking soda do dump on it. The kitchen was so full of black smoke that he couldn't see his wife who was about 3-4 feet away. His only choice was to take the flaming pan of oil down three fligts of stairs to the parking lot outside his apartment and wait for the fire to go down. Moral: always use peanut oil when deep frying.

Another advantage of deep frying the bird is it only takes around 90 minutes to cook a 15 pound turkey. The skin is crisp and the inside is moist. Also if you inject some flavoring in the turkey before cooking it comes out all the better.