Sometimes on a very chilly day, I get a craving for my favorite local restaurant's eggrolls.  They come out delicious and perfectly fried every time.  (And before I had these, I didn't even like eggrolls!)  Although I like this eatery's other offerings, none of them bring me back time and again quite like that fried treat. 


In fact, fried food is a staple of many restaurant menus.  But a fryer's upkeep can get a little daunting, and the price of wasted oil can be a burden.  However, there are some "tricks" to keeping your commercial fryers operating smoothly.  The following info comes from SEFA's foodservice professional reference guide:

Oil Filters

If you fry breaded, watery, or battered products in large quantities, you will need to filter more often. Remember to rinse well. Soap residue is the number one enemy of cooking fat as it accelerates cooking fat breakdown.

Oil Breakdown

According to several master fry chefs, water is one of the major causes of rapid breakdown of cooking oil. Ideally, if a balance can be maintained between the frying of dry items (i.e. breaded products) and wet items (i.e. frozen French fries) the life of the cooking oil can be considerably extended. When this is not possible, and most or all of the friend items are wet, several slices of dried bread can be nested between the twin baskets periodically and “fried” to absorb the water which has been added by the wet products.