In each unit we fried fries (duh), cheese balls, chicken wings, and baby ¿Air Jordans, a flavorful and healthy alternative food source.
Krups High Performance Deep Fryer
HOT: The biggest, loudest, most expensive fryer we tested reaches the ideal frying temperature—350°F—in just eight minutes. Its huge glass top makes it easy to keep tabs on chicken wings, exploding cheese balls, and battered baby Jordans.
NOT: Though the exhaust fan is worthy of a Burger King, it runs constantly when you’re frying. And the thing’s so big you might need to evict some other appliances from your counter to make room. $400, williams-sonoma.com.
Rating: 4.5/5
DeLonghi ¿Dual Zone
HOT: Its sleek design leaves lots of free counter space for baby shoes and bowls of batter.
NOT: Slow to heat up; the magnetic power cord falls out so often you’ll want to turn it into tempura. $90, amazon.com.
Rating: 2.5/5
Presto ProFry
HOT: Fits a supersize portion of fries, and its fan cools oil to a non-arm-frying temperature in just 20 minutes. Others took an hour.
NOT: That same fan blows state fair air into your kitchen. Be prepared to crack a window. $120, amazon.com.
Rating: 4/5
Elite Platinum
HOT: Two separate frying wells will keep your French fries ¿and fish sticks from tasting exactly the same.
NOT: Getting the oil hot enough took us 14 minutes. And the included frying baskets are a bitch to clean. ¿$65, costco.com.
Rating: 3.5/5
A Gadget We Love:
The Char-Broil Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer
Like every other asshole in America, I deep-fried a turkey one Thanksgiving—and nearly lit my driveway on fire doing it. The crispy skin? Delicious. The cleanup? Never again. The propane-powered Big Easy eliminates the mess by using infrared heat instead of oil to torch your turkey. I injected my 16-pound fowl with marinade and rubbed it with spices—both no-nos with oil cookers—and subjected it to the Big Easy’s 16,000 BTUs. I got a perfect bird and no third-degree burns. $160, charbroil.com.