3 Comments on “Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact 1.1-Liter Deep Fryer, Brushed Stainless Steel Review
  1. 657 of 668 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Good Things Do Come In Small Packages, February 7, 2009
    By 
    Dan Lebryk (Chicago) –
    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)
      

    This review is from: Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact 1.1-Liter Deep Fryer, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
    Wow, I’m a big fan of fried foods, homemade french fries especially fried in Canola Oil. I’ve used industrial restaurant sized fryers and worked from a stove top. This little puppy is probably one of the best little friers I’ve ever seen.

    Most of the negative view of this fryer can be solved by simply reading the instruction booklet. Number one complaint, the cord falls off. Well yes it does, and that is by design. The cord is held into it’s socket on the fryer side with a magnet. This is so you can unplug the unit without pulling the fryer over and burning yourself with hot oil. It’s a common mistake, thinking the cord is broken. If you plug this in, attach the magnet end and don’t move the frier, it will not come unplugged.
    Number two complaint, the basket is flimsy and falls over itself. It does not do that if you install the handle correctly. You have to squeeze the two sides and slip the pins into two holes and under a tab – the handle will never ever move in this position.

    Here’s what I love about this appliance, it uses a small amount of oil – around a quart / liter. We don’t have fried foods very often, and I don’t cook a whole chicken at once. It’s just perfect for those side dishes – appetizer mozzarella sticks, egg rolls, jalapeno poppers, etc. You can do chicken fingers, fish sticks, donuts in here. Food cooks evenly and quickly. Heat up time is around 3 or 4 minutes. Cooking time varies a lot, but can be around 3 or 4 minutes.

    The cover is ingeneous – it closes down tight around the top and the basket so no splashing of oil happens. Cook on the counter top with no fear of splashing oil everywhere. The carbon filter shouldn’t be cleaned every use, and it prevents splashes from coming out of the lid. The clear window, can see that oil will cloud that up over time, but it’s handy to see inside.

    Frankly, I love this unit. It’s well built, solid construction, feels good in use. Cuisinart built a good small fryer in this unit.

    January 27, 2013 Update: We still use this fryer. It still works after all this time. Some of the non-stick material in the bottom has rubbed off, but that doesn’t change how well this works. No question, this is for 1 or 2 servings of food. When I need to make more food, I simply turn on the oven to keep warm and fry in small batches. Pretty simple to do. Wouldn’t change a thing with this fryer after almost 4 years.

    January 16, 2014 Update: Another year and it still works. Nothing new to report other than I’ve replaced the carbon filter now. I cut one out myself from the carbon filters on an air purifier we have.

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  2. 260 of 271 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    As Good As It Gets, Really. Some design peculiarities, for a reason., May 26, 2011
    By 

    This review is from: Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact 1.1-Liter Deep Fryer, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
    I confessed I read the 1 star reviews first, and had some reservations, but tried it anyway.

    First things first. My initial experience with deep fryers are with restaurant-grade fryers, at an uncle’s restaurant when I was a kid. I thought: if the oil is so hot, let’s throw something so cold into it and see what happens. So I tried an ice cube. You all know what happens next. Don’t do it.

    Still, I had a chance to see how that thing worked. For those who are complaining about this heavily scaled down version, you have to remember that’s just what this is.

    The filter in the lid (removable and washable) is greatly appreciated. In the past, my husband got annoyed when the air in our home smells greasy, even with all the fans running. This unit greatly reduces the odor of cooking oil frying. We use either peanut oil, soy, and safflower. Much less odor than corn or vegetable, but the filter helps even more! Remember to read the instructions and squeeze the basket handle in and release inside the “ring” for a proper stiff handle.

    The tininess of the unit is the real draw of this appliance. With the bigger deep fryers, you are left with tons of oil with nowhere to go. Those units (my neighbors have the larger ones) take up counter space, even if you decide to keep the oil in the fryer.

    Now, the gripes: Some people said it takes progressively longer to heat each time. I wonder if they are starting with fresh oil. The more you use the same batch of oil, the “dirtier” it becomes. Subsequently, it takes longer to heat. Alton Brown mentioned this on his special on frying.

    That dastardly magnetic power cord that is long enough to stretch across a nail head : It’s a pain, but the designers are trying to look after you. The shorter the cord, the closer you will keep it to the wall, the more out of reach from children the unit is. It is magnetic for a reason. Have you tried pulling something towards you with the cord still attached near the base? It tips over. IN YOUR DIRECTION. I first thought it didn’t make a difference whether it was plugged on unplugged. Hot oil still burns. (Trust me, I learned young!) But the magnetic attachment is there for a purely physical reason. If you pull it towards you, it releases from the base and keeps the unit from pivoting on your fingers and dumping the contents onto you.

    Having said that, we cheated with a short industrial grade extension so I can get the unit directly underneath the hood vent. I have to stress “industrial grade” extension, because the point of connection does heat up fast if you use a household extension…which the instructions warn against.

    As for cooking. It does fine. Not equal to a restaurant deep fryer, I can vouch for that. But apply some common sense.

    1. Julia Child always said Crank it up higher than your recipe calls for, if you are dropping in frozen items. The coldness of the item will drastically reduce the temperature and kick it immediately from green (ready) into orange light again (heating up).

    2. Watch the light carefully. The moment it switches to orange, lift up the basket and set it on the rim (great feature) and STOP YOUR TIMER. Once it turns green again, lower the basket and restart your timer. This doesn’t hurt the cooked items in anyway. This deeper fryer isn’t Marcel Proust. It won’t recall the down time. If anything, it aerates the surface and makes it that much crispier.

    3. Frying something with the lid close may have different results compared to doing it open, depending on what you are cooking.

    4. Never cool your fried items on paper napkins. Do it on a mesh grill (cooling rack) to let air circulate underneath and around your food. Paper napkins just soak up the grease drippings and your food sits in that saturated paper and loses its crispiness.

    That’s it. We’re happy with the product. Go forth, and may the grease be with you!

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  3. 138 of 146 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Gets the job done, March 27, 2010
    By 
    ESOL Teacher (Silver Spring, MD, USA) –

    This review is from: Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact 1.1-Liter Deep Fryer, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
    This deep fryer is great for many reasons:

    1) First of all, it is small and fits nicely on a crowded kitchen counter. The ONLY way I would recommend positioning it is with the dial facing you, allowing for at least 6 inches of empty space on either side of the fryer. If you are using the basket, this is the only way you can simultaneously reach the basket handle and the lid handle without reaching over the hot oil and burning yourself. (I mention this because some people who wrote negative reviews complained about burning themselves, but you can avoid that by using the fryer in this position.)

    2) Secondly, the oil is heated by a heating element that is hidden away under the frying bowl. This means that there is no heating element directly in the oil for food to stick to or get stuck under. Therefore, you can just place your food directly into the frying bowl instead of placing it in the basket first. If you are adept at using wooden utensils (chopsticks, spoons, etc.), you will have no problem getting your food out, and you won’t need the basket at all. I HIGHLY recommend using the fryer this way, since in my experience battered (i.e. shrimp) or soft (i.e. tofu) items will stick to the basket, but won’t stick to the bottom or sides of the frying bowl. (The basket is useful if you want to fry batches of things that you know won’t be sticky. For example, I used it to fry 4 spring rolls at a time, and it worked beautifully.)

    3) Thirdly, the lid and filter really do what they are supposed to do. The lid is NOT spring-loaded and not heavy, so opening and closing it is safe and easy. (The lid stays securely on the hinge if put on properly, yet will come off when you need to clean it.) The filter in the lid significantly decreases the odor released into the air. (I say DECREASES, because of course it’s not going to totally eliminate it.)

    4) Finally, the fryer gets the oil hot enough, and doesn’t burn it. Some people have complained about this fryer not getting hot enough, but in my experience it is perfect. Before I used this fryer, I deep-fried with oil in a pot and it was such a hassle to maintain the temperature. I would occasionally overheat the oil and it would burn. This fryer only goes up to 375 degrees, so I always just set it to the highest setting, wait until the light sensor turns green, and then start frying. After a batch of food, I have to wait until the light turns from red back to green, but it’s not a problem. I have cooked batches and batches of food for a large party with this fryer and not had any problems with temperature.

    Some minor flaws with the fryer are: 1) the temperature dial isn’t precise if you want to set it to a temperature that is lower than the max setting; 2) the basket isn’t non-stick. However, these flaws don’t detract enough from the entire product for me to deduct any stars from my rating.

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