Over the festive season, many people enjoy a roast turkey dinner, and some people will prepare a dedicated oven cleaning session just to ensure that their turkey cooks through and roasts perfectly.
However, there are other ways to cook the giant bird, however, and one that is particularly popular in the United States (although less so in the UK) is deep frying a whole turkey.
When it goes right, it leads to a delicious meal, crispy skin paired with tender meat. When it does not, especially if the turkey is frozen, the result is often a fast-moving fireball.
Why is this? The answer is largely the result of water density, and how it changes when the ice in the centre of the frozen bird rapidly thaws and then that water evaporates.
This is the reason why if water is put into a pan of hot oil it can sometimes start to spit, and both of them come down to several physical effects happening at the same time.
First of all, the ice in the turkey quickly thaws and becomes water, which sinks to the bottom of the fryer because oil is lighter than water. This is also why grease rises to the surface of a bucket of water when cleaning dishes and pans.
Next, because deep fryers tend to operate at 175 degrees Celsius, a temperature much hotter than the boiling point of water, that water quickly becomes a gas, which expands by as much as 1700 per cent compared to its volume as water.
This leads to a geyser effect where oil seems to erupt out of the frying pot at a very intense rate. As soon as that hot oil comes into contact with a fire or a hot enough surface, it quickly ignites, taking the rest of the oil and most of a person’s kitchen with it.
It is easier to simply roast your turkey in the oven, but if you want to try deep-frying this year, make sure your turkey is completely thawed out and patted down.