Grate machine for your operation

From Menu to Maintenance

Sillari uses the deep fryer to make everything from homemade chicken cutlets and mozzarella sticks to deep-fried lasagna sticks, pizza fritta and cookies-andcream fried dough desserts. “We also use it to make our famous sweet sriracha chicken wings,” Sillari adds. “We’re always using the deep fryer to come up with new appetizers. Some of our most popular are the homemade mozzarella sticks, fried Bolognese lasagna sticks, and fried mac and cheese balls. The sky’s the limit on appetizers when you have a deep fryer. It’s an important tool when it comes to menu development and creativity.”

Meanwhile, Bogedin recommends getting creative with items like fried turkey and ice cream balls. “Fried foods allow you to be quite creative—for example, you can prepare fried ice cream and top it with all kinds of delicious toppings,” she says. “If you offer a good peanut butter sandwich on your kids menu, try a crispy fried peanut butter sandwich for something that’s one-of-a-kind.”

Hays agrees that pizzerias can fry up everything from appetizers and entrees to desserts. “Wings have been a very popular addition, and by using a variety of different wing sauces, one base fried product offers customers a lot of options for enjoying different flavors,” he says. “A lot of foods can be added with very little additional labor—there are a large number of freezer-to-fryer foods that require no preparation.” Plus, chefs can use ingredients already on hand to dress them up—think french fries or mozzarella sticks served with pizza toppings, wing sauce and/or cheeses.

Once you have your deep fryer up and running, make sure that proper maintenance ensures it’s working properly and will last over the long haul. The most important daily operation, Hays notes, is filtering the oil and cleaning the filter pan. “It’s also a best practice to do a boil-out on the fryer once per month,” he says. “After disposing the oil, you fill the frypot with water, add your boil-out product and heat the water. Let the solution sit overnight. In the morning, scrub the frypot, drain and rinse the frypot, and then dry it out well before adding fresh oil.”

Sillari similarly stresses the importance of changing the oil regularly (depending on the deep fryer’s amount of use) and filtering the oil daily. “It’s important to have clean oil at all times so the food you’re serving tastes fresh,” Sillari says. “Give your deep fryer a good cleaning after every shift: Wipe down the front, back and sides of the fryer so you don’t get built-up grease—once it gets caked on, it’s very hard to get off. If you do these few simple things, your deep fryer will last you for a long time.”