The concept of having a small appliance size deep fryer sitting on the countertop is a fantastic idea in of itself. Visions of golden brown French fries, perfect cheese sticks and crunchy onion rings served up in a matter of minutes lures us to Wal-Marts everywhere in search of the best deep fryer. I too was fascinated by these gadgets and coveted one for a year and half before I finally took the plunge and bought my first deep fryer, the T-Fal Maxi Deep Fryer. It was a nice size, not too small and not too big and better yet it was in my price range at a measly $39.99. I would have liked for it to come in a variety of colors other than white but I guess in that price range one can’t be too picky about the color of their appliances. I took it home and popped it out of the box ready to deep fry all the contents of my refrigerator. I spent glorious weekends raising my family’s cholesterol level with great fatty deep fried treats and after dunking everything but my children in boiling oil I have come to the conclusion that this is not a bad little fryer. It’s surely not the greatest you’ll ever find but for the “you get what you pay for” theory, I’ve gotten every dime and maybe even then some.
The Good, The Bad and…Everything In Between
One of the greatest things I discovered about the T-fal Maxi fryer is that it really is a time saver. You can fry up several of your main dishes for a meal in a matter of minutes. Chicken patties and tater tots takes twenty minutes tops, leaving you plenty of time and little mess to prepare any other side dishes. Frozen burritos are a snap with this handy little device, you’ll never have to endure soggy micronuked burritos or wait half an hour for your oven to make them just the right amount of crunchy. Simply pop them in the fryer and in a few minutes you’ll have them sizzling on your plate. Word to the wise though on burritos; I found the best results came when I defrosted and partially warmed them in the microwave before frying.
Another neat little feature of this fryer is the timer mechanism. If you want to, let say take a shower while you are frying, all you need to do is load the food into the basket, drop it in the oil, set the timer and go freshen up. The fryer will automatically shut itself off according to the time span you have the timer set for. The downside to this is that with any type of enclosed cooking, the food continues to cook long after it’s turned off. So until that oil cools your food is still frying in hot oil waiting to be removed.
In my family size is of the utmost importance. We have a fairly large family, more people than the average and so we tend to cook a lot of food. When I bought my fryer I compared the different sizes and looked at how much food each fryer could hold during one frying session. The T-fal Maxi deep fryer came in tops with being able to hold twelve cups. The basket is pretty large when placed against other fryers such as the Rival Cool Touch Deep Fryer which only holds ten cups or 2.5 liters. I didn’t realize how much food my family really eats until I started cooking in cups and even though this is a large basket two cups doesn’t really stretch that far. This is one feature that made me wish I had spent the $69.99 on the Elite Gourmet 4 Quart Brushed Stainless Steel Immersion Deep Fryer. Four quarts would have given me an extra four cups to cook in one setting. The basket of the T-fal is nice overall; it has a handle that folds down so that it’s not in the way while you are cooking and its dishwasher safe which is a plus for anyone.
Probably the only thing about the T-fal Maxi fryer that I would change is how to get rid of the oil. You are unable to detach the oil reservoir from the machine and so dumping the used oil can be quite a chore due to the weight and shape of the fryer unlike the Rival Cool Touch Fryer which can be dismantled and put in the dishwasher. The sides of the reservoir isn’t as easy to wipe clean as the instruction manual implies that it is but the upside to the downside is that you can store and reuse oil in the T-fal for up to three weeks.
One of the main reasons I bought a deep fryer was because I had seen Good Morning America do a segment on deep fried twinkies. I know of a lot of other people who bought fryers for that very same reason; and because I also found out the hard way that there were things not mentioned in that segment or in the instruction manual, I’ve decided to share my final deep fryer tip with you the reader. That tip is deep fry anything freeze it overnight. Almost everything you fry in any deep fryer should be frozen. This is one of those deep frying lessons that you’re never taught, it’s something you pick up along the way by hearing what other’s have said about the deep frying process. If your foods aren’t frozen before hand, the outside will be cooked sooner than the inside of your food. For that shake and bake chicken you’ve been waiting to test out, make it a day early and freeze it first, for those egg rolls you’ve been dreaming about, freeze them; the majority of foods have to be frozen, after you roll those twinkies in batter, freeze them.
If and when I decide to purchase another deep fryer these are the criteria I would use to make my decision. I now know that there are more deep fryers out there than what was offered at my local Target store and now that I now what I can do with one I’ll be better prepared next time. Next time I plan to buy one that has an incredibly large basket, cool touch exterior, detachable parts and a reservoir that lifts out for easy cleaning.
