If she doesn't respond to this thread, email trailrunner. She has one, uses it all the time, and loves hers.

I think Trailrunner's is a Miele. You might (or might not) find her posts about it in the Kitchen Forum.

What impressed me is that there's a thing in the bottom for collecting the stuff that falls off or something like that. ACK!! Never mind my total inarticulateness. Here's a newer thread with her fryer, though I can't find the earlier one that talked about actually using it. If she doesn't see your post, do e-mail her.

We have a Waring.

We use it fairly often until it's time to change the oil and then we dump the oil, clean it out, and put it away for a while. We like it.

The Waring looks like what I was thinking of. Plus, it has a lid. How long can you use it before dumping the oil?

I read trailrunners' thread. Very inspiring. Sansabelt, here I come. I don't think i'd have the space for a dedicated built-in like hers, though.

Oh! You meant one that sits on the counter, rather than in it? That's lots easier!

I researched them for a friend last summer. There are a lot of features to look at: Temperature gauge and the method by which heat is maintained, draining, window (to see color of food), cover, lift basket, odor filter, oil filter, ease of cleaning. Unfortunately, I don't remember the results really well because he decided to just get whatever they had at Target. I think it was a CoolDaddy.

Yes I did't post as you wanted one on the counter. I think that the storing of the oil though should be the same as what I said for mine. The rule is how messy the food is. I never store reuse the oil from fish or meat. I do those things when I am getting ready to change the oil anyway . I am sure it would be fine as a restaurant doesn't throw out all their oil every time they fry seafood or chicken but then I don't do that volume of food in mine. We go for days lots of times and never use it ( can have all elastic clothes LOL) but the oil has never ever gone bad. I keep it for weeks and weeks if as I said it hasn't had meat/fish in it. Always smells fresh. Also you can strain and refrig your oil if you want. My does have the junk fall to the bottom where the temp is cooler so it doesn't burn in there. It is called a "cold zone" not sure if the countertop fryers have this feature.

Good luck !

The most important thing is how fast the oil gets back to frying temperature after you put the food in. The Waring was the best of the ones I thought were reasonably priced that also reheated fast.

We use peanut oil, and we sometimes use it for a couple of weeks. We often use it for chicken wings. I've never noticed it smelling bad or smoking. It's more like "hmm we should probably dump this" instinct which is hard to quantify.

That Waring has great reviews on Amazon etc. And it is cheap! Thank you for the recommendation - I think I've found my fryer.

Unless you're a vegetarian, I have two words: chicken wings. Cut them into sections, put them in a plastic bag with some flour and shake them. Deep fry them. For a traditional sauce it's just butter and Franks hot sauce. We do a weird asian thing with honey and soy and ginger and garlic that's wonderful. But you've never had better wings.
And, depending on your age, Tater Tots that taste like you remember.

Mondragon, how long do you fry the wings and at what temp? They sound great!

Here's a fairly relevant side story!

Here is a link that might be useful: Healthy (Deep Fat/Wok) Frying

Bevbran: 15 min.

I have a counter top deep fry that I love but I really don't remember the brand. I can look tonight. It comes with one large basket and 2 small baskets. I can fry 7-8 strips of fish or 5-6 chicken drummetts at a time.

The only thing I don't like is it uses about 1/2 of a large bottle of oil. I re-use the oil once or twice but it still gets expensive.

KH - if you don't fry fish you can reuse the oil for a lot more than once or twice. Like I said before, when the fryer has oil we tend to use it a lot. You could also keep an old oil bottle and strain/funnel the oil into it and keep it there until you want it again.

Great article Martha...but DON'T use olive oil in a fryer...never ever...as they say use only canola or best is peanut oil as it will never burn or smoke...think Chinese stirfry ! They use it for that reason. And you can use the oil for weeks and weeks....good luck. c

A presto multicooker is about the only deep fryer that will let you set the temp to 400. all the others limit temp to 375. I'm sure this will get lots of comments from the safety natzis, but I like my french frys browned and that just doesn't happen at 375. (well they will eventualy get brown but only after they turn into chrunchy dried out toothpicks!) 400 also works much better for things that you don't want to get hot on the inside, like fried cheese sticks, and cheese stuffed jalepenos. It would also likely be better for fried twinkies and fried milky way bars although I haven't tried those yet.
It is big enough for 2 servings of french fries.(they advertise 6 servings)

I looked for a smaller fryer a while back but couldn't find anything that would get hot enough.