Fish Fry Failure on the Q


 
Bob Correll

Bob Correll

R.I.P. 3/31/2022
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Well, I decided to take tonight's Tilapia fish fry outside to the Weber Q 220.
Pulled out the old camping Coleman griddle, fired up the grill, poured in some oil, and waited for a frying temp.

The temp seemed a bit low, but after going to this much trouble I was determined to proceed.

They fried up, but the temp should have been at least 15 to 20 degrees higher.
Still plenty edible, but not the best.

Failures are a learning process too
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Interesting concept Bob!

Being redneck cookers, we've got a few home-built "fish fryers" and one thing that they all share is that the heat source is very close to the cooking vessel. On the Q, the grill level is a lot further away from the burner. Reckon that makes it harder to get your oil up to temp???

Phil, what do you think?

Pat
 
Well at least you learned something and still got edible -- if not great -- food out of the deal. Though they look pretty good to me. ;-)
 
Thanks for the comments guys!

The Coleman griddle is heavy steel, but I wonder if a CI griddle would help bring the oil temp up.
Or maybe I still didn't give it enough pre-heat time.
 
What about a CI dutch oven or even a 12" CI skillet, it won't have as much cooking capacity as a flat arrangement but it might work out better for frying fish in batches.
 
Hi Bob,

Nice outside of the deep-fryer thinking! I don't know much of anything about the Weber Q 220. As mentioned, it might be difficult to get the oil up to temperature. Perhaps not.

This could be a good time to use an infrared laser thermometer. I know a couple of us have this model: Mastercool MSC52224A Infrared Thermometer. With one of these, you could rather easily determine if your oil was at the desired temperature.

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So DL, I guess you're saying that my spitting into the oil to test for sizzle may not be accurate enough?
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Sorry, I've been dying to tell that after reading a story about an old, grizzled Northwoods fishing guide doing just that to test his fish fry pan temp.

Thanks for the IR therm rec.
I love new toys, er I mean tools
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Ken,
If I try it again I'll probably try using my CI skillet.

Turning fish in a shallow griddle, with oil, over an open flame was a bit scary.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob Correll:
So DL, I guess you're saying that my spitting into the oil to test for sizzle may not be accurate enough?
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bob, the spit test is probably accurate enough as long as you calibrate your spit every now and then...

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Heres my thinking on this subject for what it is worth as I don't "Fry" fish, I grill them.
It takes about 12 - 15 minutes to get my Q220 bouncing over 550 F. If I was to add a grddle the preheat time will increase to about 15 - 20 minutes If I was to add oil to the CI pan then the time would increase again. The temp will get up there you just need to increase the preheat time.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago on my Q220 that it was taking longer to get up to heat and the temp wasn't as high as before. I gave it a thourough cleaning and cleaned the spider guard and brushed the burner tube with my brass brush. There was a build up of crup on the spider gaurd and on the burner tube which had restriced the gas/air flow. Now I get full flow and the correct mix ratio, we are now back to clocking over 550F.

Cheers
 
Thanks for the input Phil.
I didn't time the preheat, but most likely about 20 min. total.

The grill is pretty new, so gunk is still minimal.

IF I try again, it will be in a CI skillet, and the oil temp will be taken.
 
Hi Folks,

I think by nature of it's design and purpose, the Q series grills may not ever get to a high enough temperature for lid open frying.
As Phil stated,we here downunder much prefer to grill our fish whether on the grill bars direct or on a griddle/hotplate with lid down.
I think the only way for any of the Q series to hold the heat is keeping the lid down during the cooking process.It may work well with some of the larger gas grills in the Weber range or use the side burner.

Cheers

Davo
 
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