Howto Deepfry a Turkey

It has been a new tradition for our group of friends to have a Thanksgiving dinner amongst ourselves the weekend after the actual Thanksgiving weekend. So, this year, my roommate and I decided to do the turkey (last year, assuming everyone had been turkeyed out, we did a London broil). I had read jr's discounting of deepfriend turkeys as being greasy, and he went on further to mention the idea of grilling a turkey. This piqued my interest, but in the end, considering this was our first foray into the preparation of an entire turkey, we decided to go ahead with the deepfrying. After all, I had never had one and wanted to try one.

Let me say, for the record, it was the greatest turkey I have ever had. Damn that thing was good. But, in the course of preparing to embark on the task and during the actual activity, I learned a couple of tips and tricks I thought I would share.

1. The Water Trick. Before beginning, put the bird into the deepfry pot, and fill the pot with water all the while keeping track of how much water you are putting in to the pot. Fill the pot to the point that the turkey is completely submerged (if the turkey floats during the process, no big deal, just push it down for accurate measuring) and the top of the water is about 2" above the top of the turkey. The amount of water used is the amount of oil you will want to use.
2. People say that you have to use peanut oil. We used vegetable oil with no ill effects.
3. After defrosting the turkey and before seasoning it, completely dry it off. Pat it down with paper towels. Water is your enemy.
4. During the preheat stage, heat the oil at full propane flame blast. Heat the oil to 400°. Once you get to that temperature, tweak the flame setting to get it to the point where the oil sustains itself at a constant 400°
5. Prepare yourself because when you drop the turkey in (do this slowly, by the way) the temperature is going to drop, I shit you not, 100°. Tweak the flame higher but be careful. You want to get everything running smoothly at 350°. So, give it a little more flame, but once you reach 335-340°, scale it back. And, as a side note, the oil seems to heat up way faster than it cools down.
6. Keep an eye on it. Make small adjustments to keep the temperature at 350.
7. We cooked our 12-14lbs. turkey for about 45 minutes at 350°, and it turned out just about perfect.