Fall is here

Fall is here and that means football season is upon us. I have to apologize for not posting more often on the blog but I will be adding recipes to it on a regular basis.

One thing we did get done this past summer was canning. We canned salsa, marinara, dilly beans, dixie relish, chutney, and mustard pickles in August. I will have the recipes up on the blog for all those tasty items over the next few days.

The Char Broil Infrared Turkey Fryer

One of the cooler things we purchased in the last year was the CharBroil Infrared Turkey Fryer. You can pick one up at Costco, Sam's Club, or a number of other retailers.

It looks like a large deep fryer but there the similarities end. This is a propane powered infrared roaster, black steel on the outside and stainless steel on the inside. It doesn't cook as fast as a deep fryer would. Typically a fryer cooks at 4 minutes a pound while this unit is closer to 9 minutes. This means you can get a 16-pound turkey (largest recommended size) in about 2 1/2 hours. Still much faster than you would get out of your oven. One of the advantages is that you can load up this bird with injections, rubs and even stuffing before it goes into cook.

Frying a Turkey in peanut oil is expensive and it can be dangerous if you have had a few cocktails and don't know what you are doing. Oil runs about thirty dollars a batch and that greatly increases the price of a turkey. We have done a number of turkeys in this thing and every single one has turned out perfect.

With any turkey I recommend that you brine it for 12-24 hours before you cook it. Brining makes sure the bird will stay extra juicy. We also are big fans of injecting the bird with an oil or butter based marinade of your choice and stuffing fresh herbs under the skin.

I did a bird for the Washington at Notre Dame football game a couple of weeks ago and it was a big hit. Surprisingly though the biggest hit was a spiral cut ham with a Jack Daniels glaze which wasn't shabby either.

Anyway if you don't have one of these things you need to buy one. We fry a bird and smoke a bird for thanksgiving out on the deck without giving up any oven space which is crucial for all the great sides you want to make!

Check this puppy out here.