Starting off with the correct deep fryer for your restaurants application is the first step in ensuring that your fried foods deliver the high quality taste that customers demand and meet the health requirements that federal and watchdog agencies are pushing for. Finding out which deep fryer will work best for your restaurant will not only deliver a better quality and healthier fried food but help extend the oil life in your deep fryer. To find the right fryer for your restaurant equipment needs you must evaluate your menu.
There are numerous types of fryers on the market today, so much so that choosing the right one can be an overwhelming task. It is best to start at the most basic level and the your way down to determine what type of fryer you need when looking at restaurant equipment. At the most general level there are two types of deep fryer, those with sediment zones and those with out. Your menu will decide what type of fryer that your restaurant will need. The sediment zone enhances the fry cycle by allowing pieces the pieces of breading on the fried food that separates from the main bulk to drift away from the cooking area into a cold zone. We can break this down again into three basic types of fryer, each with it’s own benefits which are again determined by the type of fried food on your menu.
Open-Pot Fryers have a deep, almost V shaped, sediment zone at the bottom of the fryer with the heating elements located on the outside of the frypot. This type of fryer performs well in a range of applications but are best used for lightly breaded items like prepackaged foods and french fries. A nice side benefit to an Open-Pot fryer is the fact that cleaning is relatively easy as the entire pot is accessible.
Tube-type Fryers have a wide cold zone located all the way across the bottom of the frypot with the heating conductors located above the cold zone but again all the way across the frypot. With such a wide zone to collect sediment, the tube type fryer is a good choice for wet and heavily battered items like fresh fish and onion blossoms.
Flat-bottom Fryers have no sediment collection zones. The frypot sits directly on top of the heating element and any sediment that falls off the food item stays in the fry area. Like the Open-Pot fryer, the Flat bottom fryer is easy to clean and are generally best for cooking items that float on the top of the frying oil during the fry cycle Wet battered fish would be a prime example of an item that this type of fryer would work best for.