Propane burners?

[AaronM]

Looking to get a duel or single propane burner that people bring on shorelunches, but I'm not sure where to pick one up or which ones can get HOT enough. Any advice from the cooking crew?

[Big Dave2]

I think Cabella's has some in the catalog?

[AaronM]

Right. How many BTU's are needed for most normal applications like cooking fish or cooking steaks over? I've seen around 40,000 so far.

[Jim Almquist]

Most burners on today's stoves are under 15000 BTUs. If you have something around 10000 BTYs you should have more then enough heat to deep fry fish. I have used my turkey fryer to deep fry fish and have more problems trying to keep the temp down to a decent level without burning the fish. I find that the pan is as important as the heat source and that is why I like to use a cast iron pan so once you drop the fish in the oil your oil temp will rebound quicker.

[AaronM]

Most burners on today's stoves are under 15000 BTUs. If you have something around 10000 BTYs you should have more then enough heat to deep fry fish. I have used my turkey fryer to deep fry fish and have more problems trying to keep the temp down to a decent level without burning the fish. I find that the pan is as important as the heat source and that is why I like to use a cast iron pan so once you drop the fish in the oil your oil temp will rebound quicker.

Really? 15,000? I don't doubt you at all, I'm a little surprised that type of heat can cook fish.

[blue_healer_guy]

-+

hes right, its in the pan

[Jim Almquist]

If you look at a low end stove that runs off of gas it will have a high output burner that is around 9000 BTU natural gas and it will be 7500BTU propane but if you get a $1000.00 stove now you can get up to 17000BTU with natural gas.

I have a 8 quart dutch over that really works great for deep frying and you will have a nice heavy lid to prevent any slop when moving. The only down side if you decide to use it for shore lunch it will take longer to cool down vs a fry pan.

[Phred52]

fishingfrenzy, As jimalm said earlier, the biggest trick is to have good heat control. A cast iron skillet or a large C.I. Dutch-oven would be your best bet. The cast will recover temp faster, heat more evenly and once seasoned properly will be about as non-stick as any other pan on the market. It can be used on a burner, in a camp fire, on the stove, in the oven, or even on your grill!!. Regarding the 1 or 2 burner stove BTU output, Too many Btu's can easily be worse than not enough! The worse thing you can do is to let your oil 'burn', once that happens, you might just as well dump oil and food into the trash, and start over. Everything will taste like it just went through a house fire, and that's just a waste !! Ideally, and to stay in the safe area, 350* (at the top end 375*) will be the temp you want your oil at for cooking. As said earlier, too hot will burn your oil, food will be crispy/burned on the outside and raw inside because it cooks too quickly. Phred52

[AaronM]

Thanks much for the replies. I do have cast iron pans so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll keep my eyes open!

[chaffmj]

I use a turkey fryer and dutch oven for frying fish. Works great and you can easily control the heat. I like frying at 350.

[delcecchi]

The burners on a gas kitchen stove are typically 10,000. The fancy "pro style" get to 15,000. The specs are on the Sears web site among other places.

10,000 BTU (per hour) is 3000 watts. 8 inch coils are typically 2600 watts on an electric range.

My furnace is 100,000 btu input or maybe 80,000 btu output.

The main burner on a classic coleman stove is 11,500 BTU

hope this helps.

One of those 60,000 btu jobs and about a 3 foot wok and you can have your own chinese restaurant. :-)

[Jim Almquist]

Quote:

One of those 60,000 btu jobs and about a 3 foot wok and you can have your own chinese restaurant. :-)

Those super hot burners are great but they can cause problems. Some friends of mine were throwing a party at a park so I let my friend's wife use it and my aluminum deep fry pan to warm up some roast beef for sandwiches but the beef was frozen and there was no moisture in the pan and it burned the pan right up and the beef was still frozen for the most part.

[delcecchi]

They are supposed to cook the food before tapping the keg. :-)

I think that is on page two of the quick start guide.

[Jim Almquist]

They are supposed to cook the food before tapping the keg. :-)

I think that is on page two of the quick start guide.

Sure wish that was the case but we were just getting things setup and I was over helping her hubby get some tables setup when the "accident" occurred. Thank goodness I brought a couple different pans so it was just a matter of swapping and turning down the heat.

[Big Dave2]

Wow! How dumb I have been. I never even thought about using a dutch oven to fry fish. I always just use the aluminim fish pan that I bought for my turkey fryer burner. I can see where the DO would work so much better!

Do you guys who use the DO just put the fish in and use some sord of a scoop to retrieve it? Or do you use some sort of a basket? HMMMM........I wonder if the basket from my fish pot would fit in a DO?

[Jim Almquist]

Dave I like to use a oriental skimmer for dropping and picking up my deep fry items.

[atvlaska]

jim u got her rite! and don't put the cooked/fryed stuff on paper towels!!! get some of those pizza mesh grates...let it drain= no more "soggy bottems", like these: there cheap so look around...i pay about 2.50 each 16". http://www.bakedeco.com/dept.asp?id=198

[Big Dave2]

jim u got her rite! and don't put the cooked/fryed stuff on paper towels!!! get some of those pizza mesh grates...let it drain= no more "soggy bottems", like these: there cheap so look around...i pay about 2.50 each 16". http://www.bakedeco.com/dept.asp?id=198

Now you tell me! I had a chance to have a bunch of those this summer for free!

Looks like a great idea!