It's Turkey Frying Season

I'm an avid turkey fryer.  I don't know who first came up with the idea of taking one of the leanest, healthiest meats and dunking it in a vat of hot peanut oil, but I salute you sir. 

I also always enjoy seeing this Allstate commercial around Thanksgiving.  I like the matter-of-fact way that Dennis Haysbert (a/k/a President Dennis Palmer and Pedro Cerrano) talks about how plenty of people will burn their houses down when they try to fry a turkey.  My suspicion is that this most often occurs when someone uses too much oil, and it overflows when they lower the turkey into the pot (not that I have any experience with that...).  If you want to see a great illustration of the danger (and in the interest of providing equal time to State Farm), check out this video. 

Does this risk make a turkey fryer a defective and unreasonably dangerous as a product?  Of course not.  However, you do need to be careful.  WMFB news ran a nice story last week about turkey fryer fires (and other deep fryer claims).  Unfortunately, South Carolina ranks tenth in the country when in comes to deep fryer fires. 

So...when you fire up that oil this season, do be careful.  You can find a link to the article here, and the actual article is cut and pasted below.  (A few years back, I did a summary for a friend of how I fry a turkey.  If I can dig it up, I'll try to post it tomorrow).

SC ranks in top 10 for Thanksgiving cooking fires

Posted: Nov 14, 2012 12:07 PM EST Updated: Nov 15, 2012 4:30 AM EST

While turkey frying is very popular, it puts people at risk for fryer related fires and injuries.

SOUTH CAROLINA (WMBF) - Thanksgiving produces more cooking fires, according to insurance claims, than any other day of the year, and South Carolinians are starting many of them.

According to State Farm claims data, grease and cooking-related claims more than double on Thanksgiving Day compared to an average day in November. South Carolina ranked in the top 10 states for cooking fires according to claims made over the past five years.

While turkey frying is very popular, it puts people at risk for fryer related fires and injuries. In fact, fire departments across the U.S. respond to more than 1,000 fires each year where a deep fryer is involved.

The National Fire Protection Association reports that deep fryer fires cause more than $15 million in property damage each year, not to mention the burn dangers related to splattered grease.

According to State Farm, the top 10 states for grease and cooking-related claims on Thanksgiving Day for the past five years (2007-2011) are:

1. Texas
2. Illinois
3. New York
4. Ohio
5. Florida
6. California
7. Louisiana
8. Pennsylvania
9. Minnesota
10. South Carolina

Copyright 2012 WMBF News. All rights reserved.