Do you still use a pan filled with oil to fry chips?

[BatFaceOwl]

Or maybe you've got one of those deep fat fryers that would sit on the side filled with rancid old oil (although I'm remembering my grandmas here and maybe they wasn't the norm with them!)

Anyway, with the rise in popularity of air fryers I wondered if anyone still did stuff the 'old fashioned' way?

I've never cooked chips in anything other than the oven or an airfryer

I used to love chips from the fish and chip shop near us, but think they've changed their oil, as they taste different. Taste like Chinese takeaway chips, so I'm guessing they might have switched to peanut oil. They just don't taste that nice.

I had a (long-ish) spell in hospital as a kid after an accident and on a children’s ward full of long stay recuperating patients. The girl in the bed next to me was on the ward for severe burns - the chip pan exploded next to her. She was 10 and just standing near the cooker. Horrendous scars and infections she battled and screamed and screamed in pain when her dressings were changed. Oven chips all the way here.

We just do wedges in the oven. Now there is a lot of evidence tying the reheating of oil to cancer due to the release of acrolein I wouldn't use a chip pan.

We make chips sort of like how you make roast potatoes - chip the potatoes, parboil, then season with salt and roast in a generous amount of sunflower oil at a high temperature. They are as good as fried.

I do deep fry other things though. I make pakora, samosa, tempura, and katsu various things like tofu, cauliflower, aubergine and mushroom. I don't have a deep fryer, I just use a stockpot with oil about 2 inches up, and a thermometer.

she's overloading the pan. Chips deep fried at the correct temperature are not greasy.

Absolutely. Fried in olive oil in a frying pan.
I live in Southern Europe and almost everyone does this 😋

My MIL does. Makes going to dinner there worthwhile. Occasionally 😁

Extra virgin Olive Oil. Ignore all the naysayers who claim this isn't possible due to the smoke content (been done this way since the invention of the chipped patata 🤓)

@HarlanPepper I just love the controllability of a deep fat fryer-I'm rubbish at keeping the temperature even with a pan and thermometer! But I do have a useless for anything else spot in my kitchen where it lives.

How do you fry an egg in a chip pan?

I wonder if some of the danger was because in the late 80s a lot of people had switched from manual to automatic turn off appliances.
Twin tubs > automatic washers
Hob top kettle > electric kettle
Oven > one with a timer / microwave etc
So some got into the habbit of been able to leave the kitchen while cooking .
As I said up thread I have always had a chip pan and have never had a fire / spil but I never leave the kitchen while is on the hob.

Quickly ! 😂

Tbh , I haven't the foggiest!

I grew up with my mother deep frying chips in lard on the hob in a chip pan. She kept the pot of lard next to her pot of pork dripping.

My ex had a deep fat fryer. I got rid of both.

We now either have oven chips, or go to the chippy. I don’t deep fry at home. We do T have an air fryer as I can’t justify the cost.

I think the problem with a chip pan fire is that even if you're standing right there it can go up very suddenly. I suppose you'd notice it reaching its smoke point if you were standing there though, assuming you weren't really drunk/high or something. But if for example you use a pan that's too shallow, on a gas hob and a drop of oil splashes over the edge and ignites, it can send the whole pan up in a split second.

I have never known anyone to use a chip pan. I thought they were phased out in the 70’s.

We do. I don’t use it, dh does all the cooking. I prefer the electric kind but he prefers the pot on the hob kind

I have never known anyone to use a chip pan. I thought they were phased out in the 70’s.

How would you phase out a chip pan?

Shops sell them so there must still be a demand for proper chips.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8615088

We used to have a chip pan filled with lard. It just sat on the hob. I'm not sure how often the lard was changed. The chips were anazing. I used to help by cutting them using a crinkle cutter. Mum used to chuck sausages in with the chips too. God knows how I'm still alive.

My mum did this too - I’d stand and watch fascinated as the solid lard melted to a liquid. Best chips ever.

Does nobody watch Masterchef? There's someone deep frying something in every episode- tempura everything. Scotch eggs, bhajis, beignets, haggis bon bons..

I do deep fried mini donuts at Christmas, my Norwegian grandmother-in-law's recipe

Chip frying is passé but deep frying in general is alive and kicking amongst the middle classes...

I do them in a frying pan, filled with oil almost to the top. I also fry spring rolls, fried chicken etc this way. I just take things out with a slotted spoon.

Used to have a standalone deep fat fryer, but I found it impossible to clean. Plus it always sounded like it would explode when I opened the lid and the condensation dripped into the hot oil. Air fryer fries just taste like oven chips to me, which is a waste of potato.

I sometimes wish I had a deep fat fryer, they look much safer now than the chip pans of the past.
But as I only cook fried chicken or fish nuggets a couple of times a year, I think the oil situation would be a faff so I just heat oil in a pan when the fried chicken urge takes over.

ChocChipHandbag?

Does nobody watch Masterchef? There's someone deep frying something in every episode- tempura everything. Scotch eggs, bhajis, beignets, haggis bon bons..

Funnily enough, it was seeing that sort of thing that inspired me to get mine.
I very rarely use it for chips - make triple-cooked chips once or twice a year - but it's come in useful for lots of other things.
The last thing I did was Cauliflower 65, steamed cauliflower florets, dipped in spiced yoghurt, dusted with cornflour and fried in the deep fat fryer.
The recipe suggests frying them in a wok or similar in 2 to 3 inches of oil, but that's basically deep-fat frying anyway and, imo, the dff is safer.

We have a chip pan but it's not rancid.

We allow the oil to cool, then filter it into an airtight container - with date of opening and uses noted on a sticker.

The pan, lid and basket then go through the dishwasher and get put away until next use.

I have an Actifry by Tefal and chips are cooked in there unless I'm making stir fry noodles with sweet chilli chicken served on a bed of fried chips. That dish does not taste right with airfryer chips.

Sounds delicious'