Many people like to fry their turkey on Thanksgiving, but that can be a dangerous endeavor. It’s all fun and games until something goes wrong and a grease fire happens. 8 On Your Side has some safety tips to keep your family safe.
The first step to a successful turkey fry is getting your turkey ready days before Thanksgiving.
“You’re going to want to make sure that turkey is 100 percent completely thawed out all the way through. You don’t want any ice, you don’t want it frozen, not only is it not going to cook thoroughly and cause health problems but the water can react with the oil causing a grease fire,” said Corey Dierdorff with Pasco County Fire Rescue.
Once your bird is thawed you’ll want to determine how much cooking oil to use by first measuring with water.
“Put that turkey in first, put the water up to the safe fill line which is indicated on the inside of the pot and you’re going to pull the turkey out. What that is going to do is give you the amount of oil you need to stay within those safe limits,” said Dierdorff.
Grease should be at 350 degrees and your bird should cook around three minutes for every pound.
Fires happen when too much grease is in the pot, the bird is still frozen and grease gets too hot.
“Our biggest message is don’t get distracted. We want to makes sure that no one is in the kitchen that shouldn’t be in the kitchen. Because that is where we see a lot of our burn injuries happen around the holidays, everyone is together, it’s a great time, the last thing we want to do is spend it in the emergency room,” said Dierdorff.
Watch the accompanying video to see Pasco County Fire Rescue crews demonstrate the danger of deep frying a turkey that is not thawed in a deep fryer that has too much oil!
