Last Monday the awesome Lowell Ave. cook decided to cook a chicken for dinner, and Jeff had the most tasty idea of deep-frying it in his turkey fryer. Yum! For anyone out there that hasn't had a fried turkey or chicken, please, please eat one before you die. It's fantastic!
If you're not familiar, you have to heat 3-4 gallons of highly flamable peanut oil between 325 and 350 degrees. If you heat it much more you'll reach the flash point of the oil and Kablooey! So far, far away from any flammable substances (my house) I cranked up the burner. 100, 150, 200, 225, 225, 225.... Hm, it was really smoking like a bastard and it didn't go above 225 for an hour. I pulled out the thermometer, jostled it a bit and the temperature shot way past the maximum of 550 degrees. Turns out the thermometer was broken so I had no idea the oil temperature was double the flash point!
Taking great caution in a T-shirt and sandals, I pulled off the lid and as soon as the air hit the oil -BOOM! Up she went.
Now, having just taken my fire extinguisher course 4 days prior, I knew that we couldn't put it out ourselves. Nick tried, with a handful or two of baking soda, which burnt up before it even hit the surface of the oil.
Having admitted defeat, I called the Newton FD. Their first try was putting a lid on it which put the fire out as long as the lid was on it. As soon as they took it off - Boom! again. The first extinguisher they tried was empty (makes me feel secure), and the second sprayed flaming oil all over the backyard, but did put it out. They sprayed the outside of the pot with the garden hose to cool everything off.
We did end up cooking the chicken in the oven, which was done at about 11:30, but after we all had hotdogs and bagels for dinner.
( Notice the handle that melted off of the pot.)
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