ATTN: All Fry Cooks .... Feedback on Open Shelves

sabjimata

14 years ago

For people who cook with grease and have open shelving for dishes, any problems with gunk building up?

Comments (18)

User
14 years ago
I have the Miele built-in deep fat fryer as well as the 36" Caldera gas cooktop. We do LOTS of frying and stirfrying. The key , of course , is your vent system. I have a Tradewind 54" remote 1400 cfm hood liner. It is so quiet on the 2nd setting that I can listen to NPR from across the room while in use. This hood liner has to be cleaned...takes 10 min once a week, as the baffles are golden/brown with grease every Sunday night. I have yet to wipe down the wood hood surround except one time in 4 YEARS to prove that the grease goes into the baffles and then the odors etc go all the way out. My open shelves have never had a drop of grease on them...dust yes...this is 120 year old house after all .

If you get a hood sufficient to your cooking needs. If you mount it appropriately, if you TURN it on 5 min before you start to cook, if you let it run at least 10 min after you cease cooking...you will have a clean, quiet, odorless kitchen. Of course if you don't do this you will have grease on everything and your home will smell like week old fried onions LOL. Here are pics to help in your decision...

note where the HOGS go ( heat, odors,grease,steam )

HOGS go up !

not on the shelves you see over the sink. I hope this helps in your decision. It is better to have a larger hood CFM and use it on low or med ...a law of physics dicates that you will have turbulence in the duct and the HOGS come back at you ....so go big or be sorry. Also it is not necessary to have a hood wider than your cook area...you need to have enough CFM's to compensate and you need to mount the hood the right height...it takes a lot of figuring but believe me it is worth it. If I can answer any questions please just ask...email through GW if you like. c
sabjimata
Original Author
14 years ago
first, i love your kitchen. second, i love that you can. third, holy freaking deep fryer! that thing is totally insane. you are definitely serious about your fat!!! i am interested...what do you fry in?

so do you think a 1200 cfm blower would be insufficient?

thanks, trailrunner!
Related Discussions
people with open shelves or no uppers
Q
Comments (34)
breezy, i am looking forward to seeing your backsplash sooner rather than later. a not so subtle hint :-) michaelmcc, looking forward to seeing your kitchen! i agree grout is very tricky. i am struggling with grout right now in my bathrooms. artemis, do you think 19" is higher than usual for hanging shelves? i wasn't sure how high to put the shelves, but assumed that it should be at the same level as bottom of uppers. but if i hang it lower, i can access the items more easily.. rococogurl, those tiles are so pretty close up! though not sure i can swing ann sacks in the budget. i never knew their tile used to be more affordable. allison, that's good to know there are no splatters. but you are seriously going to redo your tile?? gorgeous as is, though i must admit, i would love to see you do it first so i can see how the morroccan tile will look (these are tiles that i have been dying to use, but am afraid to use) rosie, i am also only 5'2 so you bring up good points. i had been thinking to do two shelves one, on top of another, but it sounds like a good idea to maybe limit it to only one shelf and hang artwork since the top shelf might be out of reach for me. firsthouse, I love how clean your kitchen shelves are against the white. just curious, what is the benefit of having just a 1 inch backsplash versus no backsplash? i am getting quotes for countertops so i need to figure out what I should ask for now.
...See More
Have you put in open shelves and then regretted that decision?
Q
Comments (35)
So many comments...you probably don't need an additional one! But I, too, love our open shelves. I'm certainly no great chef, but I've tried to keep the "things" we have down to a minimum. My open shelves on the wall hold bowls/trays that I use almost every day. They're very versatile..I don't have to worry about whether or not things will fit inside a cabinet if I need to shift them around. I don't use the bowls on the top shelf as often, but haven't noticed much in the way of dust. I also have an open shelf in my stainless prep table we use as an island. It stores pots and pans and bowls. I notice more dust here because it is closer to the floor, I think. And sometimes crumbs. :) But it just keeps me honest in terms of cleaning! I also have white floors...that'll cause you to clean more, also! But I love just reaching up (or down) to grab things and not trying to remember what cabinet they're in or mucking up the cabinet door handles with my messy hands during cooking.
...See More
Calling all cooks...who's gone from gas to induction?
Q
Comments (32)
This wouldn't work for a lot of you, but it's a near-ideal setup for our household of two: I have a 30" gas cooktop, with a Max Burton portable induction unit sitting on an aluminum cookie sheet over the rear left burner (which was a rarely used and unreliable small 'simmer burner'). The induction top is where all boiling operations happen, from daily water boiling for the coffee press to pasta to blanching veg to (frequent) pressure cooking. A big advantage of this setup is that the placement at the back corner of the stove, directly under the under-powered vent hood and slightly elevated, ensures that steam is carried right up and away. Before, we had to use the front right burner, the most powerful, for boiling, and it's too far forward for the vent hood to capture the steam efficiently. In the heat of summer, the combination of dramatically less heat from the burner itself plus the steam removal makes a huge difference in kitchen comfort. A second big advantage of the induction rig here is for long, low cooking -- simmering down apple butter, or ketchup, or making carnitas. Our cheapo gas stove has real problems with the flame guttering out at low settings, particularly if another burner is in use; the induction unit makes a long simmer worry-free. Likewise, some pressure cooker operations, like chicken stock, spend 45 minutes to an hour at pressure, and it's a blessing to be able to regulate the burner precisely and with no worry about the effect of using any of the gas burners while it's going. This arrangement frees up the powerful front right burner for the more hands-on kinds of tasks it's suited to: searing, stir-frying, browning meat & veg before braising, crepe-making, etc. There are a lot of reasons I'd be very reluctant to give up gas: I've cooked for forty years on nothing but, I have some wonderful copper and aluminum pans that take maximum advantage of the flame, it works when the power goes out (several times a year in our rural area), I regularly toast tortillas directly on the burner, and (for me, at least) skillet operations are induction's weak point. But the 'hillbilly hybrid', while not a thing of beauty, gives us the best of both worlds, seriously increasing the usability of the existing cooktop at an extremely low cost. If I were to get a completely new kitchen, I'd probably go with an induction cooktop: Full induction cooktops have much finer-grained power levels than the portable, with the lowest settings much more usefully low. But I'd add a big gas burner for all the reasons in the paragraph above.
...See More
Attn: Username: buehl/Just want to bounce my plan off all of you guys!
Q
Comments (21)
You mean it'll be a pony wall at the R end of the FP? The prep sink would work there on the kit side. From Sena's LO there'd be about 4' of prep space between it and the stove. I'd still use a shallow pantry on the wall of the laundry room at the end. (that'd also eliminate the deep lower corner cabinet area problem) I'd put in an EZreach upper cab on that corner to butt up to the shallow pantry. uppers usually run about 15" deep, don't they? I'd want a long area of prep space on the other side too instead of a deep pantry. Having the window side not so deep by the door and shallow on the stove side would make it more open at the doorway. Easier to see little ones coming in too. Having a prep area on both sides would be great when you have help in the kitchen by family/friends. On the window side, how about the fridge next to the dw? You could even move the sink/dw to the L maybe another foot - that'd give maybe 3' or so to the R of the fridge for the desk area. (before the doorway to the sunroom) Try putting this in the layout/or 3d pic and post here so we can see how it looks. I like the idea of the 6' between counters when a number of people will be working in that area - and possibly someone going out or coming in that laundry area door. Less congestion. The wall ovens - those are good for those who have problems bending down to the oven on a stove. Really tall people, those with a bad back... or those who often use oven and stove top at the same time. Many don't like standing at the stove top with the heat of the oven so close to them. I'd love to have one but I so seldom use the oven, it doesn't seem worth it for me. I probably don't use the oven 2x a month. Maybe once a month. btw, I tried bolding my '2x a month' above and it did. I didn't hit submit tho, so maybe it would bonk me if I did that. Or maybe it is the phone or just when editing a post? I'm gonna go ahead and click on submit so we'll know. Saving my post first tho...
...See More
rjr220
14 years ago
Holy comoly, I think that if I used a 1200 cfm it would suck my windows in! The neighbors would know what I was cooking -- "Honey, look! Rita must be fryin' tonight -- their walls are bowed in again!" ; )

Funny, Trailrunner, when Sabjimata asked this question, I immediately thought of you. And loosened my top button on my jeans.
Buehl
14 years ago
Love the "HOGS" reference! I think it should become an official Kitchens Forum acronym! Maybe HOGSS (Heat, Odors, Grease, Steam, Smoke)...the smoke is added for those of us who aren't as good a cook as you and your family TrailRunner!
User
14 years ago
rjr you are a HOOT...why do you think I have the "trailrunner" name ???? I was on my bike every day this week, ridin to the gym and back...went a second time this afternoon...gotta work off the french fries !

buehl ...haha...see those steaks, there was a little smoke in there otherwise you don't get that great outdoor taste!!

sabjimata: are you going to be stirfrying, have a gas cooktop with high BTU's, a fryer ? These are all things that make a difference. As I said before you want more CFM's than you are going to use. I never use mine on high...the smell comes back in, remember the turbulence in the duct. Buehl is right , the neighbors know what we are cookin every night...I can't smell it in the house at all :) My contractor had laughed and said I would need to wear weights in my shoes when I used the blower haha.

The fryer was DS1's idea as he and his wife are chefs. It has been great. We turn it on at lunch lots of times and in minutes we have hot homemade tortilla chips...they are so much better than the ones from the store and taste just like the ones from your best Mexican restaurant. It heats very quickly and returns to heat also very quickly. It is very easy to clean...has a drain hole inside the cab and I place a plastic bucket under and open the spigot and voila...empy,wipeout and close...refill. Takes 1 gallon of oil. We use peanut oil. If you always use peanut for frying and stirfrying you will have clean smoke free cooking as it has the highest temp range w/o burning. All Chinese cooks use it for that reason.

The key to frying w/o greasy food is....oil at right temp, clean oil, dry food before it goes into the oil. I am sure that is why we like our fryer so much is that we follow these rules. Please do ask if you have other ??? I will be glad to share. I have lots of pics of the fryer cooktop in use :)
lisaslists2000
14 years ago
OK, you are a Southerner, lol. Whatcha got in that fryer, bacon grease? Just kidding - I saw it's peanut oil. Seriously, How often do you clean the fryer? Surely you don't use a whole new gallon of oil each time you use it? And how do you disposed of old oil. I'm sorry - I think I've hijacked this thread. Is that OK with the OP?
Lisa
User
14 years ago
Hey lisa...of course OP will be pleased as all info is good info and I didn't address the questions you ask.

I wish I could afford leaf lard in the fryer but that ain't gonna happen ! We have found over the past 4 years of use that it depends on what you are frying in the oil as to how long it lasts. If I do calamari it won't last long so we do seafood a lot for a few days and then out it goes. The beauty of the deep fryer is that it does the same as the commercial fryer, in that the area below the heating element is the "cold zone" thus the stuff that falls down there does not burn and mess up the oil. If we are doing french fries and chips and non messy things then I leave the oil for weeks at a time. If we do fried chicken I do it or the seafood when I am planning on changing the oil anyway. With the heat that is generated , as in restaurants, there is no "growth" of bacteria etc in the oil as it stands.

As to disposal I take the oil, which I place in the new oil's jug, to a local restarant , and they dispose of it in their grease trap. I wish I could run my car on it !!!
Hope this answers the questions...let me know. c
allora
14 years ago
Totally off subject but....what is the gorgeous color on the walls? I'm lovin it.
User
14 years ago
Hey allora, it is Thyme, an Olympic paint color made up in BM Regal Matte. I used almost all Olympic colors in the downstairs when we finished our remodel. The ones I chose are all in the same brochure that Lowes carries for Olympic, I think it is called Nature's colors...you can see it at Lowes. If you have other questions please ask. I am so glad you like it, thank you, c
allora
14 years ago
Thanks. I'm off to Lowe's!!
wolfgang80
14 years ago
Great looking kitchen, Trailrunner.

Do you mind saying how much you paid for your hood set up? I'm specifically interested in the hoodliner portion.

Thanks.
User
14 years ago
Hey wolfgang..no problem . The remodel was 4 yrs ago so of course things will be different but it is a wonderful setup. I love the Tradewind quality and after 4 years it is just as good as it was at the beginning. The baffles are very easy to clean and the efficiency plus quiet are worth the cost. Also no matter what the dealer says all blowers that are 1200 cfm and up are Thermador made. They may rebrand them but only Thermador makes the large blowers. I have the 1400 cfm. Ok here are the prices:

damper- fits 10" round pipe $50
noise reduction mounting clamp $39
duct silencer for 10" duct- $220
Thermador 1400 cfm ventilator - $669
3 speed control switch - $109
PSL754BFSS ( this is the 54" stainless steel pro liner with baffles ) - $950 so $2037 for the whole set up. The actual 10" duct is cheap and the install was $35 hr and they took maybe 1/2 day to do it. My cab guy built the wooden frame. Let me know if I can help with anyother questions. And THANK YOU !

Allora let me know what you decide about colors. c
ellabee_2016
14 years ago
Grease isn't the only issue; all kitchens have dust.

I completely love the look and ease of access of open shelving, but I very much don't love dusting and washing items that are just on display for the sake of display.

So my rule of thumb is: nothing out on counters or open shelving that doesn't get used at least once a week. That way, exposed items are getting washed regularly in the course of events -- and it's an easy-to-develop habit to swipe off the shelf when replacing them after use.

This applies to utensils in crocks, appliances, serving dishes, anything you might store out in the open.
wolfgang80
14 years ago
Thanks so much Trailrunner.
I have one more question that I hope you can answer:

1) On a website (universal) for the Tradewind hood liner, it lists 1360 CFM in the specs. In your post, you include a hood liner and the Thermador blower as two different items. I'm confused as I thought for $1K+ (especially because it lists a CFM spec) that the Tradewind includes the blower.
User
14 years ago
I have the remote blower on my roof...I am thinking you are looking at a single unit that contains the whole works in it. I wanted the remote and the inline silencer...all to try and achieve the most quiet while getting a system that really sucked...LOL. You can get units with all in the one piece or go with the separate components...like a stereo. Hope this helps...ask away if it doesn't. Here is the web site where I got all my info...I have the PSL 54...look at the drop down box and you can read everything you ever wanted to know about inline silencer etc and see all the specs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tradewind liner
wolfgang80
14 years ago
About your assertion that running a high CFM fan on medium will outsuck a lower CFM fan on high. I'm not an engineer and this confuses me. I was thinking that if you have a 1400 max CFM hood running on medium, it will clear let's say 1,000 CFM. If you have a 1,000 CFM fan on high, it will also clear 1,000 CFM. The fan speed is the fan speed regardless of how maxed out the blower is, no? Aren't both fans working at the same speed and thus drawing up the same amount of air? I don't understand how just because one fan is working harder, it becomes less efficient. In car terms, it may be harder on an engine to run at 6,000 RPM to go 120 mph, but you aren't moving any slower than another car whose engine is spinning at 3,000 rpm to go 120 mph.
Thanks again for all your help.
jusey_aol_com
14 years ago
Trailrunner.. Lovely,lovely kitchen...made me happy to see something so cool.
Question..buying a 36"Vulcan gas-6burners(Wolf is parent)..It has what would be a well used 13"D shelf at the top of a 48" rear rise stainless splash..
My range hood ONLY projects 19" with a 860CFM...It is a direct vent going straight out a wall to the exterior.I have 15 windows in 1000 sq/ft so there is a lot of cross ventilation if needed(don't know if that matters)....but, I'm scared the 13"shelf is going to interfere with air flow to the range hood...
I like the functionality of the shelf and don't want to lose it(it's a super small kitchen)....
Any thoughts?
formerlyflorantha
14 years ago
fyi...

Be sure a hood does not suck too much air out; you need an air intake to compensate for the powerful hoods. I think the local code here is that one is needed if you are above 350 cfm but don't have the specs in front of me.

ATTN: All Fry Cooks .... Feedback on Open Shelves

Comments (18)

User

sabjimata
Original Author

Related Discussions

rjr220

Buehl

User

lisaslists2000

User

allora

User

allora

wolfgang80

User

ellabee_2016

wolfgang80

User

wolfgang80

jusey_aol_com

formerlyflorantha

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

ATTN: All Fry Cooks .... Feedback on Open Shelves

Comments (18)

sabjimataOriginal Author

Related Discussions

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

sabjimata
Original Author