Avoiding smells while deep frying

Question

I'm going to try adding some chicken katsu to my usual curry, which will involve deep-frying some breaded chicken breast cutlets for 3 minutes each. I saw this question about removing odours after the cooking happened, but as a deep-frying novice, what steps can I take to prevent them while I'm cooking?

My hood vent does not vent to the outside (an appalling situation I hope to fix next year) so I can't rely on it to do much, despite the mesh and charcoal filters in it. I was going to cook the chicken with a lid on as much as possible, pull out the crumbs after each piece to prevent burning, and then remove the pan from the house right after I'm done cooking. Any other magic tricks I can do?

Answer 1

I hate to be defeatist, but frying, especially deep frying, is one of the messiest and dirtiest processes that occur in the kitchen, if not the worst.

It is not just the tiny splatters of hot oil that cause the problem, the "Steam" that escapes during frying is a mixture of water vapour and oil particles, and as such, it has the ability to travel throughout your house and linger for days afterwards. Part of the difficulty is that not only are solid surfaces affected, but soft furnishings and carpets etc, which are difficult to deodorise.

To make matters worse, covering a pan without sufficient ventilation on the lid will hinder effective frying, as moisture will be trapped in the pan, something that the oil is desperately trying to expel via steam etc.

Apart from all the valid suggestions about adequate ventilation etc, if the smell is really troubling you, I would recommend using an air fryer with just a touch of oil (No more than a tablespoon or so). Not only will this cut down on odours, but will reduce the amount of physical steam. While maybe not quite as tasty as fully fried food, it is a good compromise, and less fattening too !!

Answer 2

Take the pot outside.

Apply heat in some outside-appropriate manner

• electric deep fryer or electric skillet, if that's all you need, plugged into outside outlet
• propane burner
• side burner on a natural gas grill set-up
• fancy new-ish high tech low-smoke wood gasifier burner
• good old Coleman white gas camp stove...

And keep the whole business far enough from your house that you don't mimic any of the folks that burn their houses down while frying whole turkey.

Huge pot of oil, open flame burner, sure, let's set that right next to the house, what could possibly go wrong?

Answer 3

You say you have a recirculating hood. I used to as well, though it was mounted on an outside wall and I replaced it with a vented one.

It is fairly beneficial, but you need to:

Either

• change disposable mesh/foam filters more often than you think

or

• wash metal mesh washable filters frequently and thoroughly (a dishwasher on hot, or domestic spray degreaser followed a few minutes later by hot water and a brush, rinse well and allow to dry). You may even need to do this after each deep-frying session to remove lingering smells from the oil stuck to it.

and

• replace carbon filters frequently. The manufacturer might make expensive ones in plastic housings. I never found them any better than the universal cuttable carbon fleece.
• turn the fan up to maximum. You'll wish for ear plugs.

A spatter guard as I suggested in a related question might help a bit, because there will be less used oil around the room. But that will need washing well as well.

Note that there are electric deep fat fryers with filtered hoods, if this becomes a habit. They should help, but won't be an instant fix unless you can take one outside

Answer 4

• Improve ventilation as much as possible by using an extractor fan and opening windows.
• Where possible close that kitchen door so that smells don't get to the rest of the dwelling (yes, this is probably a trade-off with the first point).
• Clean surfaces as soon as possible after cooking as aerosolised oils carrying odour can settle and become progressively harder to clean.
• If there are particular objects you're worried about don't have them in the kitchen while frying – for me I potentially wouldn't wear a shirt to cook bacon if I wanted to go out in that shirt afterwards. I guess the same might apply to upholstered chairs or things like that.

But really, don't overthink it, especially given you're just frying some breaded chicken.