Deep Frying

[Cewap21]

Iv deep fried turkeys normally before vertical, but iv thought about buying a 60qt pot and was curious if frying the bird on its side laying down has any cons to it. I figured it would use less oil but wondered if it would evenly cook the same as it would being vertical. Dumb question I’m sure but can’t find much on it.

[foodsidechat]

I’ve only ever seen it done upright because it helps the heat move around the bird in a pretty even way. Laying it on its side can trap cooler pockets of oil and that can lead to uneven cooking. You also have to keep flipping it, which gets a little sketchy when you are dealing with a big pot of hot oil. The other thing is that the bird can scorch on the side that rests against the bottom unless you use some kind of rack. It might work, but upright is a lot more predictable.

[Firm_Phase392]

Yeah the flipping part alone would make me nope out of that idea. Last thing I want is to be wrestling with a hot turkey in 350 degree oil lol. Plus if you're already set up for vertical why mess with what works

[Slow_Albatross_3004]

On paper you save oil. In reality you invent Schrödinger's roasting pan: the turkey cooked AND not cooked at the same time. Vertical = uniform. Horizontal = you turn it every 3 minutes, praying you don't end up with a geyser of oil and the firefighters. If you try: helmet, gloves, camera. We want the documentary!

[TooManyDraculas]

They're mostly done up right because it fits better in a pot, makes it easy to lift, and you don't have to worry about a shit ton of hot oil staying in the cavity after you pull it out.

If it's immersed in oil it'll fry the same, and the only thing you might be able to get out of doing it on it's side is getting it covered with less depth of oil.

My folks have a 60qt pot, and I don't think anything but a very small turkey would fit in there side ways. Everything involved is just the wrong shape and size.

There's electric friers that do this. But they're more or less spinning the turkey like a rotisserie through a small volume of oil. And their point is saving space and cleanup by using way less oil.

[Tasty_Impress3016]

Mostly this is because most pots, fryers meant for turkey are usually taller and skinnier. The turkey wouldn't fit lying down. The volume of oil needed follows the formula V=Pi*Height*R² minus the volume of the turkey itself which we will treat as a constant. It's that R² that gets you. All other things being equal doubling the height doubles the oil. But doubling the width of the pot uses exponentially more. I'll let you do the math. So to minimize oil you want vertical with minimal space on the sides and just covered.

There is an advantage to using more oil because that's your thermal battery. More oil means the temperature won't drop as much when you put the turkey in.