FACTOR 1: Choose The Right Fryer

The first step in The 4 Factors for Fit Frying program is to find the right fryer for the foods you fry. This not only helps produce higher-quality and more healthful foods, but also extends the life of the oil. To find the perfect fryer for your operation, evaluate your menu to determine which fryer is best suited for the foods you fry.

The right fryer is the one that is designed to cook the foods you offer on your menu. In the broadest sense there are two categories of fryers—those with sediment zones and those without. Sediment zones optimize the fry cycle by allowing particles from the food to precipitate away from the cooking area into a location at the bottom of the fryer called “the cold zone”. Different types of fryers offer different “cold zone” collection options.

	Open-pot fryers have heating conductors outside the frypot and deep internal sediment collection zones. They perform well in many frying applications, but are ideal for light- to medium-breaded items such as French fries and prepackaged foods. This type of fyer allows every inch of the frypot to be easily accessed and cleaned.
	Tube-type fryers have heating conductors inside the frypot and wide sediment collections zones below the burners and although a good general-purpose choice, foods that are fresh battered or heavily breaded, such as fresh fish and onion blossoms, are best cooked in this type of fryer.
	Flat-bottom fryers have no sediment collection zones making this type of fryer best suited for food items that float on top of the oil during the fry cycle. Wet battered fish is ideal for this fryer.