This review is from: Hamilton Beach 35034 Professional-Style Deep Fryer, Silver (Kitchen)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
The first thing I used this fryer to make was homemade steak fries. The unit comes with three baskets (two side-by-side baskets to use for cooking two foods at once, and a big basket to fry one food). I don’t eat much fried food, so this was my first time using an electric fryer. The instructions were pretty simple to follow, and recipes are included. It took about ten minutes for the oil to heat up (I used sunflower oil, as my online research indicated this is the healthiest choice for frying), and I dumped in the cut-up potatoes (I used russet baking potatoes) and set the timer for 12 minutes. I tried closing the lid, but it fogged up too much to see what was going on, but there was very little odor or smoking of the hot oil, so it really didn’t matter. In twelve minutes, I pulled up the basket and let it drain for a minute. The fries were a gorgeous golden brown. I spread them out on a paper towel and let them drain a bit more, then sprinkled them with salt and sampled. Oooooo! They were delicious! Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Better than restaurant fries, I think. After I was done, I let the oil cool in the unit overnight with the cover on, then transferred the oil into a plastic container for reuse. I put the interior insert of the fryer in some soapy water and let it soak for a few minutes, wiped off the edges and inside of the fryer lid. The heating element is removable and wipes clean easily. Pretty easy cleanup! My biggest problem was finding storage room for the fryer, which is kind of big, but I moved some stuff around and got it stored in a kitchen cabinet. It’s not very heavy, way less heavy than my Cuisinart, so it’s not difficult to move around. I’m very happy with this fryer. I won’t use it often, I don’t think, but when that fried-food impulse hits, I’ll be ready to cook. I’m thinking hush puppies!
0
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Hamilton Beach 35034 Professional-Style Deep Fryer, Silver (Kitchen)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
First things first. I washed the baskets in the dishwasher. The rest was hand washed. Dishwasher safe is nice, if only it would all fit.
Three baskets. We can use just the large one, or fry with the two smaller ones at once. I love that. The lid keeps the splatter down. It has a vent but no filter, so odors come right through. That’s okay. I don’t think filters help much with odors anyway, the way we have to keep opening the lid to scoop out our food.
For safety, the power cord magnetically attaches to the deep fryer and tears away with barely a tug. It measures about two feet long. If we want to avoid using extension cords, we need to place the deep fryer next to the outlet.
I made tempura shrimp today. Easy, easy. The oil heated up as I prepared the shrimp. I dialed up the temperature (i.e., not digital), so it’s not exact. It was about 350 °F. I checked with my infrared thermometer. Yep. 360 °F.
I thought the timer was supposed to ring to remind me to check the food. Actually, it’s for people like me who might forget to turn the machine off. If you are blessed with a good memory, the makers provide an option to keep it always on.
How did the shrimp turn out? Delicious.
PROS: + three baskets included + large size means we can cook more food at once + lid keeps grease splatter down to a minimum + timer turns off deep fryer automatically + dishwasher safe baskets + breakaway cord + food cooks well
CONS: – large footprint/storage issues – uses a lot of oil (15 to 19 cups) – no filter included – have to find a place to put lid when adding or removing food (would prefer a lid attached to the body) – no cooking timer included to tell me to check my food – temperature dial not precise – heating element can’t be washed
0
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Hamilton Beach 35034 Professional-Style Deep Fryer, Silver (Kitchen)
Vine Customer Review of Free Product(What’s this?)
If you’re used to the small counter top fryers (such as the Fry Baby and the like) this will seem like a restaurant-sized frier. It’s big! It holds a max of 19 cups of oil (the suggested minimum is 16 cups), so be sure to stop by the warehouse club for the huge jug of oil you’re going to need.
The build quality is pretty good. It’s not commercial quality, but it’s reasonably sturdy and solid. The outer cladding is all stainless, which looks very nice. The lids and handles are plastic, but feel sturdy and solid. The baskets are decent, although the basket mesh and the handles would benefit from thicker gauge metal. It’s OK, but when full you feel the baskets and handles rack and twist somewhat (especially the single large basket).
The other build-quality issue that I’m not fond of is the magnetic power cord attachment. I have those on a couple of other appliances and I find them to be a pain to deal with since the plug can pop out of place easily. I guess it’s there for an extra layer of safety so the frier would shut down if it’s jarred out of place, but I’ve lived for more than half a century with the old fashioned appliance plugs and still have all body parts intact. I would prefer to take my chances with the old plug-it-in-and-it-stays-put variety of power cord.
Setup is straightforward as are the controls. It’s helpful to read through the manual, but there’s nothing in terms of operation that you can’t figure out by simple common sense.
There are only two controls: a timer and a temperature dial. The knobs are nicely sized and the markings are legible. I like that the timer turns the frier off when it counts down to zero (not that a frier should be left unattended in operation, but it’s nice to not have to flip a switch to turn it off when the timer counts down).
My only complaint, and it is a significant one, is that the frier doesn’t hold its temperature well. It hits the set temp without a problem (although it does take some time to come up to temp) but when you are using both baskets, the temp swings down when the food hits the oil and takes a long time to get back where it should be. I was monitoring the temp with a frying thermometer since temp control is critical with frying. Too low of a temp results in oil seeping into foods and making them greasy; too high and you burn the outside but have raw food on the inside.
While this is sized to produce enough food to feed a crowd, the heating element is in definite need of getting up-sized as well. If you only cook one basket worth of food at a time it’s OK, but if you intend on getting this with the idea of using it to max capacity, you’re not going to get good results. Five stars for overall look and build quality given the price point, but the sluggish temp reaction pulls my rating down to 3 stars (average). Worth considering, but not an ideal product.
0
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Fabulous Fries With First Attempt!,
0
Was this review helpful to you?
|Some Good and Bad,
Three baskets. We can use just the large one, or fry with the two smaller ones at once. I love that. The lid keeps the splatter down. It has a vent but no filter, so odors come right through. That’s okay. I don’t think filters help much with odors anyway, the way we have to keep opening the lid to scoop out our food.
For safety, the power cord magnetically attaches to the deep fryer and tears away with barely a tug. It measures about two feet long. If we want to avoid using extension cords, we need to place the deep fryer next to the outlet.
I made tempura shrimp today. Easy, easy. The oil heated up as I prepared the shrimp. I dialed up the temperature (i.e., not digital), so it’s not exact. It was about 350 °F. I checked with my infrared thermometer. Yep. 360 °F.
I thought the timer was supposed to ring to remind me to check the food. Actually, it’s for people like me who might forget to turn the machine off. If you are blessed with a good memory, the makers provide an option to keep it always on.
How did the shrimp turn out? Delicious.
PROS:
+ three baskets included
+ large size means we can cook more food at once
+ lid keeps grease splatter down to a minimum
+ timer turns off deep fryer automatically
+ dishwasher safe baskets
+ breakaway cord
+ food cooks well
CONS:
– large footprint/storage issues
– uses a lot of oil (15 to 19 cups)
– no filter included
– have to find a place to put lid when adding or removing food (would prefer a lid attached to the body)
– no cooking timer included to tell me to check my food
– temperature dial not precise
– heating element can’t be washed
0
Was this review helpful to you?
|Very large capacity; decent build quality; struggles to maintain temp,
The build quality is pretty good. It’s not commercial quality, but it’s reasonably sturdy and solid. The outer cladding is all stainless, which looks very nice. The lids and handles are plastic, but feel sturdy and solid. The baskets are decent, although the basket mesh and the handles would benefit from thicker gauge metal. It’s OK, but when full you feel the baskets and handles rack and twist somewhat (especially the single large basket).
The other build-quality issue that I’m not fond of is the magnetic power cord attachment. I have those on a couple of other appliances and I find them to be a pain to deal with since the plug can pop out of place easily. I guess it’s there for an extra layer of safety so the frier would shut down if it’s jarred out of place, but I’ve lived for more than half a century with the old fashioned appliance plugs and still have all body parts intact. I would prefer to take my chances with the old plug-it-in-and-it-stays-put variety of power cord.
Setup is straightforward as are the controls. It’s helpful to read through the manual, but there’s nothing in terms of operation that you can’t figure out by simple common sense.
There are only two controls: a timer and a temperature dial. The knobs are nicely sized and the markings are legible. I like that the timer turns the frier off when it counts down to zero (not that a frier should be left unattended in operation, but it’s nice to not have to flip a switch to turn it off when the timer counts down).
My only complaint, and it is a significant one, is that the frier doesn’t hold its temperature well. It hits the set temp without a problem (although it does take some time to come up to temp) but when you are using both baskets, the temp swings down when the food hits the oil and takes a long time to get back where it should be. I was monitoring the temp with a frying thermometer since temp control is critical with frying. Too low of a temp results in oil seeping into foods and making them greasy; too high and you burn the outside but have raw food on the inside.
While this is sized to produce enough food to feed a crowd, the heating element is in definite need of getting up-sized as well. If you only cook one basket worth of food at a time it’s OK, but if you intend on getting this with the idea of using it to max capacity, you’re not going to get good results. Five stars for overall look and build quality given the price point, but the sluggish temp reaction pulls my rating down to 3 stars (average). Worth considering, but not an ideal product.
0
Was this review helpful to you?
|