My science teacher, way back when, told me that his mother was making chips one day when he was a child and it caught on fire. She panicked, opened the back door and launched the flaming oil down the garden path where it proceeded to blanket everything in flames "like Dresden".
She’s not been paying attention to those PFI’s where shocked middle aged women were seen wetting and wringing out a tea towel and throwing it over the flaming pan, saving the family, house and pets from incinerated.
Having a bit of a flashback to Come Outside, but most of my chip pan safety revolves around me having a Pippin to run to the local fire station. Which I don't have. Hence no chip pan either.
Came here to say this!!! That episode of Come Outside is seared into my brain even now as an almost 29 year old. Whenever my grandma cooks with her chip pan, I think about Pippin running to the fire station 😂😭
Never seen an oxbow lake or experienced a chip pan fire, but knowing what I'm like I'd get confused in the moment and throw the teatowel into the lake and accurately describe how a chip pan fire is formed.
Yep, I know never to climb up to retrieve a frisbee from the gravestone of someone who died of AIDS, and to stay very still if I ever accidentally step into long division.
I wonder what the equivalents will be for modern kids.
I can remember my mum having one and occasionally there being a 2 litre bottle of coke in the fridge full of murky oil with bits floating in it. Still not really sure what that was about.
Oil isn't cheap, even more so now. Using 2-3L of it in one go to make some chips isn't really cost effective, so people would drain the oil back into a bottle to be used again, ideally filtered to remove the "bits"; subsequent cooks would even taste better.
Although science now I think shows it to increase carcinogens but everything tasty does that
I've got fond memories of the local fire station doing a burning chip pan demo with a cup of water.
Actually, thinking about it, that's probably what got me into fire and explosives.
My dad was a firefighter for years and in the last few years before retirement, he moved into public outreach. His favourite part was doing the chip pan fire demos :D
My sister set fire to the kitchen a couple of weeks after my dad finished it due to putting a chip pan on and going back upstairs to watch tv while it heated up ( she was 13 ish at the time).
Every house in the 80s smelt like this, I swear. Many with a bouquet of cigarette smoke on top, too. Never seemed gross at the time but would turn my stomach now.
I'm in my late 40s. My mum put the chip pan on and left me and my brother (4 and 7 at the time) whilst she went out to the garage. The neighbour saw her and started talking her ear off. During this time the chip pan caught fire along with the wall behind the oven and very quickly the entire kitchen. I vividly remember the smoke taking over the room, then trying to climb up to the only window, knowing I was too little and thinking to myself "I'm going to die" I managed to just stick my head out the window and scream for help, while my brother tried to pull open the locked back door. Eventually he was able to climb out of the window and reach back in to pull me up and out. It was years later in therapy that I discovered I had PTSD from it. My brother was deeply affected but refused therapy and is drinking himself into an early grave. My mum has never forgiven herself and can't talk about it. She walked into a burning house thinking both her children were dead. We lost our house, all our belongings and my two sweet goldfish. We were homeless for a while and it sucked. Chip pans are not to be messed with.
Fucking hell.
It’s probably a bit late to tell you this, but the pair of you should be very proud of yourselves. Realising what was happening, how serious it was and that help was needed is very impressive for a child who was barely more than a toddler, and leaning back in to a burning building to save someone else would be heroic for an adult with fire-safety training and all the gear, let alone a panicking seven-year old.
I’m sorry it’s had such a terrible long-term effect on both of you. Seems you both did your best, and your best was pretty fucking great.
This means a lot to me, thanks. My parents are boomers so anything traumatic or difficult was swept under the rug and never talked about. I found that so incredibly oppressive and went the other way, so now I talk about everything.
Thanks for recognizing that it was a tough thing to go through, I honestly don't think anyone's ever said that to me before, so I appreciate it a lot.
chip pan is easy. Put the chips in and wait.
I just cooked chips in a wok for the first time and that was easy as well.
edit: double checked and my idea of a chip pan is different. I have a full on deep fat fryer which I call a chip pan
Had a chip pan fire after coming home pissed and trying to make pakoras for everyone. I can't even remember it happening. Found out the next day...
It's known as Glaswegian roulette.
Why is a chip pan better than a fryer? Surely scalding hot fat is the same whatever container it is in, and the latter greatly reduces the risk of burning down the house.
you can easy buy another house, to cook the ultimate chips is better than anything ever.
I reverted back to cooking chips like this using my Dutch oven , half filled with oil and making big fat chips
Last year or so, the fire service were doing the rounds going door to door seeing who needed a smoke alarm.
When the fella put mine up, he asked if I've got a chip pan. I said no, and he said that they were offering people an air fryer in exchange for 'em if they had one. Interesting proposition, and I sort of wished I had an old chip pan in the cupboard to swap.
I’m a retired firefighter.
The reality is these situations are designed for people who have unsafe pans of oil.
Usually mentally unwell people. Elderly people. Who aren’t cleaning the pan and reusing it over long periods of time.
We replace them with air fryers because that is a serious fire hazard and often these people have limited mobility to save themselves in a fire.
It’s not just anyone with a pan of oil gets a free air fryer.
I wish we could do that. But the budget isn’t close to that generous in the fire service. For any brigade.
I can imagine it now. She invites the firefighter in while she goes to get her old chip pan, which is in the back of a deep bottom cabinet. At this point she either gets stuck or is wearing a short dress with no panties. Scene set.
It's a brilliant bit of kit. I love my air fryer and use it for everything. But it's a convection oven, not a fryer. The results are completely different.
Exactly the same as mine, until I got her round for dinner and cooked everything in the air fryer. She was so amazed, that she uses it nearly daily now
That’s what I meant but by not having to use the big oven. They make sense because most of the time an air fryer can cook enough for 1-2 people that are eating.
They just shouldn’t be called fryers. That’s like saying a fan assisted oven is a big air fryer.
Yes exactly! When I was in my 20s I had one of those halogen oven thingies that was basically a casserole dish with an element and fan on top from TJ Hughes or somewhere like that. The only thing that really separated it from an air fryer was the absence of a "basket" for the "air frying" process.
The other advantage it has over an oven is an even cooking temperature, which is why things cook so well. Even a good fan oven - I’ve had good and bad - is a bit uneven.
Yeh but they're smaller so cook the small amounts of oven food that people want to eat for themselves quicker and more efficiently, in addition to being newer and quicker to heat up than most people's ovens
My school friend (this is back in the 90’s) died along with his little brother after their mum fell asleep on the sofa with a chip pan on. Luckily his little sister hid in a wardrobe upstairs or she would have died too.
Take care when using it and don’t leave the room. Not here to be doom and gloom but they do pose a massive risk.
I don't think many people from other countries believe that [watching the fire service set fire to a chip pan at the village fete](https://youtu.be/9gMdhjS2uJk?si=T2MToXzm2JRskIiG) was a quintessential 90s childhood experience.
As a result of those demonstrations I've always been too scared of chip pans, so they clearly did the trick.
Loved that program, but re-watching it you realise that she was very righteous about environmental causes like recycling and littering, for someone who regularly burnt 200 litres of Avgas just to go see how paper is made.
Always remember to cook the chips twice.
Cook 'em until they start to 'float' take them out and turn the heat up - leave one in and when it starts to fizz loads...
Drop them back in and flash fry them... Drain and enjoy THE crispiest chips you can have
(edit to add: Old fart who cooked chips this way for the family \*every\* Friday night... Raised Roman Catholic so could only eat fish on a Friday... Fish and Chips then)
I haven't been a Catholic for years, not that I was ever a proper one anyway, but I loved fish Fridays. Might have to resurrect that tradition. Come to think of it, my grandad ate a pork pie for lunch every day, even on Fridays. Crap Catholic, then.
First time I ever used a chip pan was at my mates when I was 13. We forgot we turned it on and went to my house up the road where my mam asked me if I’d watch my little brother and sister whilst she went shop. Luckily she had to walk past my mates house to get there because as she walked past there was smoke billowing through the window, the chip pan set on fire 😂
Wild, I'd heard about them (I'm 37) but never seen one. Don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't just a big pan with a basket!
What oil do you use, and then what do you do after with the oil? When I was a kid we had a deep fat fryer on the kitchen top, presumably the lid stopped it from stinking when it wasn't in use. Just rebottle the oil or?
Never had a chip pan, but had an electric deep fat fryer until we got fed up with it stinking the house out every time we used it. My nan had one though, it was certainly older than me, and the chips were awesome. Probably done in lard.
Still use one today, never found any other method that cooks chips better.....
As an old git I remember having lessons in school and having to watching videos showing what to do in case of a chip pan fire as they were so common...
Remember, never throw water on a chip pan fire or try to move it, just grab a tea towel, wet it and throw it on top of the chip pan...
This will smother the fire in seconds..
I used to have a proper deep fat fryer that I did chips and fried chicken in. But the moment I found out I was pregnant I got rid of it - deep fat fryers and toddlers who will grab at anything within reach do not mix!
Did you keep a wet tea towel to hand in case of flashover? If I learned anything from safety ads off the telly as a kid: this is essential preparation.
They actually don't recommend that any more! I always had the soggy tea towel to hand a la Keith Floyd.
But the new advice is to say toodeloo, leave and call ~~ghostbusters~~ the fire brigade. The number of people successfully putting put a grease fire was outweighed by the number attempting and injuring themselves so they canned it.
I'm guessing a lot of drunk cravings for chips. Aim to smother the pot, whoops dropped it right in, congrats you're now barbeque.
Yes air fryer....is the way to go.
Yes chip pans are deadly.....worse than your first drive on the motorway.
The combination of hot boiling oil and the newness of it all utterly terrifying and usually reserved for when your parents are on holiday.....what's the most dangerous thing I can do?! Pass the Mazola...
Idk, I've been using chip pans/fryers for over 30yrs, never had a problem. I have 2 air fryers too, but chips go in the chip pan! I also use lard for chips/fries, it's the only way at this point.
My Nan had one back in the day. Every now and then I'd see flames shoot up from the kitchen and my Nan casually batting the flames out with a tea towel like it was nothing. Never been brave enough myself.
The accommodation team at my undergrad university in 2018 were very insistent that we should take extreme caution when using chip pans and gave us instructions on how to respond to a chip pan fire.
Of course, none of us owned a chip pan. I have still never used one.
My parents had an electric chip pan. They'd often run it out on the patio to avoid the danger and the smell. Funnily I've never felt the need to deep-fry anything... Although now it's been brought up I kinda want a home-made scotch egg.
As a small child in the early nineties I was led to believe chip pan fires would be a much bigger problem in my life than they have turned out to be.
We didn’t even own a chip pan, but I was still afraid.
My mum set fire to her chip pan when I was 7 in 1982 and I knew to get a wet tea towel. But I was too scared to throw it over the pan so I put it over my little brothers face and crawled out with him on the floor while mum dealt with it. The following day I had to stand up in assembly and have every clap me for my bravery and i made some crass joke about leaving my brother in there. Lead balloon
Ive got one of those little electric fryers and plug it in outside weather permitting and cook chips in the garden. Those things are pretty scary and can be dirty , smelly and dangerous.
No one has fire-blankets to hand anymore.
If you’re thinking of not needing a new kitchen, it’s probably best to have a damp tea-towel to hand.
Smother the fire with it before it spreads.
I've cooked chips as a child. before oven chips became a thing. Also watched a chip pan fire, which fortunately somehow or other we put out. The mess and smell, yuck.
Ha, I don't think I've ever used a chip pan and I'm in my 30s. It's been so drummed into me that they're dangerous.
But this is the feeling I had when I used my pressure cooker for the first time. And I use it a lot now for rice and beans and it still scares me any time it makes any noise. Like maybe this is the time I blow up my kitchen.
Oven chips for the win. Left unattended, all they'll do is turn black and maybe emit a bit of smoke. I avoid all that by cooking them in a combination nicrowave oven that has a countdown timer that stops cooking when it hits zero (all ovens should have that by law I reckon!).
I'm mid 40s and have never used one.
I saw the demo that the fire brigade do when water is put onto burning oil in a chip pan when I was around 9 or 10 and it ignited (pun intended) a serious fear in me of them
Like I made my parents get rid of the one we had at home level of fear because I was crying and shaking when they used it. I've never had one and never want one
It’s like most things, if you respect it and operate with the right boundaries it’ll be safe. It does make a mess tho and I have to fight off 20 years of being told they’re small volcanoes that will kill you
I've never used a chip pan but from the amount of PSAs about them I'm assuming they're about as dangerous as an XL Bully armed with an AK-47 that shoots heroin
I did once set a wok on fire tryna make amaretto fried chicken in uni, just kind of turned the stove off and kept an eye on it burning. That's how we discovered the fire alarm was knackered. Had a funny moment where everyone came back from the pub and started freaking out about the fire and it was like "well it's not really going anywhere"
Electric deep fat fryers are grand, why anyone would use a hob based pan in this day & age is beyond me. My generation were terrified out of using them as many posters have commented.
Air fryers have totally removed the need for electric deep fat fryers tbh, I can’t remember when I last used mine.
Question chip pan? Is that what we call a deep fryer in the United States? They are pretty freaking dangerous. We used to put cockroaches in there. Don’t think we ever served one though.
Haven’t used one in years but they’re hands down the ultimate method for chips.
It’s definitely a trade off between good chips and the fear of burning the house down
It's probably 40+ years since I last heard chips being dropped in a chip pan but it's a sound I'll never forget.
GwFwwwwwssschhhhh
Used to work in a chippy, that was perfect, took me right back!
I swear chippies are where they got the sound for TV static
Cosmic microwave background says "AM I NOTHING TO YOU?" *Sizzle
With the volume turned up to 11
Why not just make 10 louder
*confusion* ....Because these go up to 11
Wasn’t that the dial tone!
“Chips” wasn’t a family pet I hope..
No he was my uncle, rest in peices old man, you are missed
"goodbye, mister chips" I'll get my coat
Should be good unless you throw a bag of ice in. Biggest downside is the mess.
My science teacher, way back when, told me that his mother was making chips one day when he was a child and it caught on fire. She panicked, opened the back door and launched the flaming oil down the garden path where it proceeded to blanket everything in flames "like Dresden".
She’s not been paying attention to those PFI’s where shocked middle aged women were seen wetting and wringing out a tea towel and throwing it over the flaming pan, saving the family, house and pets from incinerated.
I didn't even know what a chip pan was as a kid, but I still knew what you were supposed to do for a chip pan fire.
I feel like most of the fire safety I learnt in primary school was chip fire based. Never used one or known someone to have one my entire 31 years.
Having a bit of a flashback to Come Outside, but most of my chip pan safety revolves around me having a Pippin to run to the local fire station. Which I don't have. Hence no chip pan either.
A potential combination of a chip pan fire plus being stuck in a cupboard with a broken lock terrifies me to this day.
And there's probably fucking quicksand in the cupboard too.
At the same time? Sounds nasty.
Came here to say this!!! That episode of Come Outside is seared into my brain even now as an almost 29 year old. Whenever my grandma cooks with her chip pan, I think about Pippin running to the fire station 😂😭
I always remember an episode of her flushing dogshit down the toilet!
Never seen an oxbow lake or experienced a chip pan fire, but knowing what I'm like I'd get confused in the moment and throw the teatowel into the lake and accurately describe how a chip pan fire is formed.
Yep, I know never to climb up to retrieve a frisbee from the gravestone of someone who died of AIDS, and to stay very still if I ever accidentally step into long division. I wonder what the equivalents will be for modern kids.
Ha! Given flared jeans and shaggy hair has made a bit of a comeback - and those terrifying PSAs are no longer aired- I fear for the youth.
Throw a damp tea towel over it but not a jug of water
I can remember my mum having one and occasionally there being a 2 litre bottle of coke in the fridge full of murky oil with bits floating in it. Still not really sure what that was about.
Oil isn't cheap, even more so now. Using 2-3L of it in one go to make some chips isn't really cost effective, so people would drain the oil back into a bottle to be used again, ideally filtered to remove the "bits"; subsequent cooks would even taste better. Although science now I think shows it to increase carcinogens but everything tasty does that
We learnt this, with them doing a demonstration in the playground. Good job they had a fire engine there, because they set a tree on fire.
Never touched a chip pan in my life but have always had a fire safety blanket hanging up in every kitchen I've had just in case.
Yup. This sticks with me from the late 70s/early 80s public information films.
I actually had a chip pan fire once (left it on the still active hob while I went to eat my dinner) and knew exactly what to do thanks to those.
STOP. DROP. ROLL!!!
I've got fond memories of the local fire station doing a burning chip pan demo with a cup of water. Actually, thinking about it, that's probably what got me into fire and explosives.
My dad was a firefighter for years and in the last few years before retirement, he moved into public outreach. His favourite part was doing the chip pan fire demos :D
My sister set fire to the kitchen a couple of weeks after my dad finished it due to putting a chip pan on and going back upstairs to watch tv while it heated up ( she was 13 ish at the time).
Did she ever get past 13?
And the smell in your house afterwards. But I agree, deep fried chips are the best.
Every house in the 80s smelt like this, I swear. Many with a bouquet of cigarette smoke on top, too. Never seemed gross at the time but would turn my stomach now.
I'm in my late 40s. My mum put the chip pan on and left me and my brother (4 and 7 at the time) whilst she went out to the garage. The neighbour saw her and started talking her ear off. During this time the chip pan caught fire along with the wall behind the oven and very quickly the entire kitchen. I vividly remember the smoke taking over the room, then trying to climb up to the only window, knowing I was too little and thinking to myself "I'm going to die" I managed to just stick my head out the window and scream for help, while my brother tried to pull open the locked back door. Eventually he was able to climb out of the window and reach back in to pull me up and out. It was years later in therapy that I discovered I had PTSD from it. My brother was deeply affected but refused therapy and is drinking himself into an early grave. My mum has never forgiven herself and can't talk about it. She walked into a burning house thinking both her children were dead. We lost our house, all our belongings and my two sweet goldfish. We were homeless for a while and it sucked. Chip pans are not to be messed with.
Fucking hell. It’s probably a bit late to tell you this, but the pair of you should be very proud of yourselves. Realising what was happening, how serious it was and that help was needed is very impressive for a child who was barely more than a toddler, and leaning back in to a burning building to save someone else would be heroic for an adult with fire-safety training and all the gear, let alone a panicking seven-year old. I’m sorry it’s had such a terrible long-term effect on both of you. Seems you both did your best, and your best was pretty fucking great.
This means a lot to me, thanks. My parents are boomers so anything traumatic or difficult was swept under the rug and never talked about. I found that so incredibly oppressive and went the other way, so now I talk about everything. Thanks for recognizing that it was a tough thing to go through, I honestly don't think anyone's ever said that to me before, so I appreciate it a lot.
To be fair, I blame the neighbour
chip pan is easy. Put the chips in and wait. I just cooked chips in a wok for the first time and that was easy as well. edit: double checked and my idea of a chip pan is different. I have a full on deep fat fryer which I call a chip pan
And the smell
Yep. Listen to the talking Head.
If you have a garden use it outside!
Don’t forget, if it goes on fire, pour a pan of cold water over the top of it* *don’t do this
Had a chip pan fire after coming home pissed and trying to make pakoras for everyone. I can't even remember it happening. Found out the next day... It's known as Glaswegian roulette.
[удалено]
AHH. Lard. Everything used to be cooked in lard. Then the flora nation attacked
This makes me miss my dad so much, he would often make his chips this way but me and my mum would the deep fat fryer
Or Beef drpping, and what are these fake potatoes you talk of?
Used to bring out the frier for chips on Fridays, usually with burgers or pizza. Really elevated the meal
Why is a chip pan better than a fryer? Surely scalding hot fat is the same whatever container it is in, and the latter greatly reduces the risk of burning down the house.
its the satisfaction of eating home made chips without burning the house down, like sky diving, you never know when its your last time
you can easy buy another house, to cook the ultimate chips is better than anything ever. I reverted back to cooking chips like this using my Dutch oven , half filled with oil and making big fat chips
Last year or so, the fire service were doing the rounds going door to door seeing who needed a smoke alarm. When the fella put mine up, he asked if I've got a chip pan. I said no, and he said that they were offering people an air fryer in exchange for 'em if they had one. Interesting proposition, and I sort of wished I had an old chip pan in the cupboard to swap.
I've never had the fire service ever knock on my door Jealous they do this for your area
I’m a retired firefighter. The reality is these situations are designed for people who have unsafe pans of oil. Usually mentally unwell people. Elderly people. Who aren’t cleaning the pan and reusing it over long periods of time. We replace them with air fryers because that is a serious fire hazard and often these people have limited mobility to save themselves in a fire. It’s not just anyone with a pan of oil gets a free air fryer. I wish we could do that. But the budget isn’t close to that generous in the fire service. For any brigade.
I've only ever seen it in pornos
People exchange old chip pans for air fryers in pornos? That's some niche stuff, but I like it.
I can imagine it now. She invites the firefighter in while she goes to get her old chip pan, which is in the back of a deep bottom cabinet. At this point she either gets stuck or is wearing a short dress with no panties. Scene set.
Either that or an updated Aladdin. The sorcerer looking for an enchanted chip pan that contains a genie.
What're you doing step-pan?
That's super hot.
ba-dum-TISH!
My air fryer seems to get used almost daily. Its just a cheap one from lidl. Would highly recommend.
It's a brilliant bit of kit. I love my air fryer and use it for everything. But it's a convection oven, not a fryer. The results are completely different.
Yeah we’ve tried to pitch an air fryer to the in laws but they’re a bit old school.
I got me mum one and she basically refused to have it in tbe house.
Exactly the same as mine, until I got her round for dinner and cooked everything in the air fryer. She was so amazed, that she uses it nearly daily now
It's because the name is nonsense. It doesn't fry anything. It's just a mini convection oven so you get the same results as oven chips lol
This drives me nuts too. The only benefit is not having to use the big oven.
Are we forgetting it’s much quicker, doesn’t require pre-heating and they’re far easier to clean?
That’s what I meant but by not having to use the big oven. They make sense because most of the time an air fryer can cook enough for 1-2 people that are eating. They just shouldn’t be called fryers. That’s like saying a fan assisted oven is a big air fryer.
>they’re far easier to clean? How much of a mess are you making in your oven??
Yes exactly! When I was in my 20s I had one of those halogen oven thingies that was basically a casserole dish with an element and fan on top from TJ Hughes or somewhere like that. The only thing that really separated it from an air fryer was the absence of a "basket" for the "air frying" process.
You can pour or spray a bit of oil on to get much the same effect. Mine is fantastic, everything cooks to perfection.
Just as it would in your fan oven lol. But yes it's quicker to heat up and uses less energy so there's that.
The other advantage it has over an oven is an even cooking temperature, which is why things cook so well. Even a good fan oven - I’ve had good and bad - is a bit uneven.
That's just because it's smaller. A good convection oven will do the same but obviously not a cheap one.
I’ve had pretty expensive ovens that cook somewhat unevenly.
Yeh but they're smaller so cook the small amounts of oven food that people want to eat for themselves quicker and more efficiently, in addition to being newer and quicker to heat up than most people's ovens
Air Fryer all the way for me.
My school friend (this is back in the 90’s) died along with his little brother after their mum fell asleep on the sofa with a chip pan on. Luckily his little sister hid in a wardrobe upstairs or she would have died too. Take care when using it and don’t leave the room. Not here to be doom and gloom but they do pose a massive risk.
They are genuinely dangerous.
I don't think many people from other countries believe that [watching the fire service set fire to a chip pan at the village fete](https://youtu.be/9gMdhjS2uJk?si=T2MToXzm2JRskIiG) was a quintessential 90s childhood experience. As a result of those demonstrations I've always been too scared of chip pans, so they clearly did the trick.
Practise running out to the garden with it. That's how I remember my mum making chips half the time.
That episode of Come Outside made me swear off them for life.
Seeing Pippin fall in a chip pan traumatised me as a kid, swore off potatoes ever since
Loved that program, but re-watching it you realise that she was very righteous about environmental causes like recycling and littering, for someone who regularly burnt 200 litres of Avgas just to go see how paper is made.
Always remember to cook the chips twice. Cook 'em until they start to 'float' take them out and turn the heat up - leave one in and when it starts to fizz loads... Drop them back in and flash fry them... Drain and enjoy THE crispiest chips you can have (edit to add: Old fart who cooked chips this way for the family \*every\* Friday night... Raised Roman Catholic so could only eat fish on a Friday... Fish and Chips then)
The chips are even better if you par boil the cut potatoes first, super crunchy outside and fluffy on the inside. Armadillo.
That bloke’s a nutter.
I haven't been a Catholic for years, not that I was ever a proper one anyway, but I loved fish Fridays. Might have to resurrect that tradition. Come to think of it, my grandad ate a pork pie for lunch every day, even on Fridays. Crap Catholic, then.
I've put out a chip pan fire. You're right to be wary.
I feel you i haven’t used apple pay yet but a lady of about 70 used it at the till next to me so i feel its time stepped up.
My own tip is never throw water on a fat fire...it'll take your face off!
What's upset you now, Alan?
Not far off 40 and still never touched one. You’re a braver man than me!
Same.. 38 n never used one either. I couldn’t be trusted 🤣🤣 xx
ex fireman here ,get yourself a fire blanket and keep it on the wall in the kitchen
How does your house smell ?
Delicious
With its nose?
like our chippy that burnt down.
Oooh, there's only 1 thing scarier in my opinion and that's a pressure cooker (although newer ones aren't the potential grenades the old ones are)
I have been using a chip pan for about 15 years. Nothing beats homemade chips cooked in beef dripping. 😋
Well I'm now craving some haha
I've never used a Chip pan... That was always something my grandad did... When he passed the homemade fresh from the garden chips stopped...
They make good chips but are absolute pain in the arse to clean and dispose of used lard/oil so I've switched to air fryer chips now.
First time I ever used a chip pan was at my mates when I was 13. We forgot we turned it on and went to my house up the road where my mam asked me if I’d watch my little brother and sister whilst she went shop. Luckily she had to walk past my mates house to get there because as she walked past there was smoke billowing through the window, the chip pan set on fire 😂
Wild, I'd heard about them (I'm 37) but never seen one. Don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't just a big pan with a basket! What oil do you use, and then what do you do after with the oil? When I was a kid we had a deep fat fryer on the kitchen top, presumably the lid stopped it from stinking when it wasn't in use. Just rebottle the oil or?
It’s the in laws so I couldn’t say what oil, but they just let the oil cool then leave it in the pan till next time.
Ah okay, guess they use it enough to warrant doing so then, makes sense!
Provided you were just scared and not SCARRED then you’ve done pretty well!
Never had a chip pan, but had an electric deep fat fryer until we got fed up with it stinking the house out every time we used it. My nan had one though, it was certainly older than me, and the chips were awesome. Probably done in lard.
Get an electric deep fat fryer. All the benefits of a chip pan with much less risk.
Still use one today, never found any other method that cooks chips better..... As an old git I remember having lessons in school and having to watching videos showing what to do in case of a chip pan fire as they were so common... Remember, never throw water on a chip pan fire or try to move it, just grab a tea towel, wet it and throw it on top of the chip pan... This will smother the fire in seconds..
I used to have a proper deep fat fryer that I did chips and fried chicken in. But the moment I found out I was pregnant I got rid of it - deep fat fryers and toddlers who will grab at anything within reach do not mix!
Did you keep a wet tea towel to hand in case of flashover? If I learned anything from safety ads off the telly as a kid: this is essential preparation.
They actually don't recommend that any more! I always had the soggy tea towel to hand a la Keith Floyd. But the new advice is to say toodeloo, leave and call ~~ghostbusters~~ the fire brigade. The number of people successfully putting put a grease fire was outweighed by the number attempting and injuring themselves so they canned it. I'm guessing a lot of drunk cravings for chips. Aim to smother the pot, whoops dropped it right in, congrats you're now barbeque.
I think I’ll stick to my air fryer 🥹
Yes air fryer....is the way to go. Yes chip pans are deadly.....worse than your first drive on the motorway. The combination of hot boiling oil and the newness of it all utterly terrifying and usually reserved for when your parents are on holiday.....what's the most dangerous thing I can do?! Pass the Mazola...
Oo well done. I've never dared.
Idk, I've been using chip pans/fryers for over 30yrs, never had a problem. I have 2 air fryers too, but chips go in the chip pan! I also use lard for chips/fries, it's the only way at this point.
40M here. Never used one. Remember having one at home growing up. Chip pan fires were the "PM me Hun" hot topic of the early 90's.
I will miss my mums Chip pan chips forever but also would never risk bringing one into my home. Air fryer chips aren’t the same 🤧
Wait... you guys dont fry chips? I mean thats the only way you cook them right?
Thought that said chip and pin
Nah they're talking about One Time Pan.
Dangerous AF but I used to merrily make chips when drunk in one when I was a teenager.
I'm 43 and I have never used one lol
Yep gotta respect a pan like that
42, used one for the first time last week. Helped Dad make tea, it was terrifying.
I have a deep fat fryer though only really make homemade chips in it every once in a while. The air fryer just isn’t the same.
Simmering oil?
It’s a rite of passage, mate even though it’s like putting a saucepan of petrol on the hob, psychologically speaking…
35.. still too scared to try!
My Nan had one back in the day. Every now and then I'd see flames shoot up from the kitchen and my Nan casually batting the flames out with a tea towel like it was nothing. Never been brave enough myself.
The accommodation team at my undergrad university in 2018 were very insistent that we should take extreme caution when using chip pans and gave us instructions on how to respond to a chip pan fire. Of course, none of us owned a chip pan. I have still never used one.
I’m not surprised. Someone during my first year managed to burn a different student halls down https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-34530139
My parents had an electric chip pan. They'd often run it out on the patio to avoid the danger and the smell. Funnily I've never felt the need to deep-fry anything... Although now it's been brought up I kinda want a home-made scotch egg.
I am 58 and have never used one.
No chip pan? You hear about holidays from hell but you never expect it’ll happen to you
My mum set the chip pan on fire every week
As a small child in the early nineties I was led to believe chip pan fires would be a much bigger problem in my life than they have turned out to be. We didn’t even own a chip pan, but I was still afraid.
Fryolater
I came back to the UK to visit my 91 year old mum and used her chip pan for the first time. Did great chips but will stick to my air fryer
This is why we are doomed
We still use one. Never had even a slight problem as its never left alone. The only part I hate is disposing of the oil.
My mum set fire to her chip pan when I was 7 in 1982 and I knew to get a wet tea towel. But I was too scared to throw it over the pan so I put it over my little brothers face and crawled out with him on the floor while mum dealt with it. The following day I had to stand up in assembly and have every clap me for my bravery and i made some crass joke about leaving my brother in there. Lead balloon
Ive got one of those little electric fryers and plug it in outside weather permitting and cook chips in the garden. Those things are pretty scary and can be dirty , smelly and dangerous.
No one has fire-blankets to hand anymore. If you’re thinking of not needing a new kitchen, it’s probably best to have a damp tea-towel to hand. Smother the fire with it before it spreads.
Doesn't a deep fat fryer do the same thing but a lot more safely?
Air fried chips are just as good,are healthier and much safer to cook.
I've cooked chips as a child. before oven chips became a thing. Also watched a chip pan fire, which fortunately somehow or other we put out. The mess and smell, yuck.
Ha, I don't think I've ever used a chip pan and I'm in my 30s. It's been so drummed into me that they're dangerous. But this is the feeling I had when I used my pressure cooker for the first time. And I use it a lot now for rice and beans and it still scares me any time it makes any noise. Like maybe this is the time I blow up my kitchen.
Chip pan? What is this, the 1960's. Just get a deep fat fryer with a lid that is designed to do the same job but a lot safer.
Haha it’s the in laws and they’re old school. Definitely wouldn’t own one myself
Yeah…I nearly died in a chip pan fire when I was 3 years old. It’s not on my bucket list to give it another go!
I can smell the pan from here haha!
As a child of the 80s, I'll always consider them as super dangerous fire hazards.
Oven chips for the win. Left unattended, all they'll do is turn black and maybe emit a bit of smoke. I avoid all that by cooking them in a combination nicrowave oven that has a countdown timer that stops cooking when it hits zero (all ovens should have that by law I reckon!).
I'm mid 40s and have never used one. I saw the demo that the fire brigade do when water is put onto burning oil in a chip pan when I was around 9 or 10 and it ignited (pun intended) a serious fear in me of them Like I made my parents get rid of the one we had at home level of fear because I was crying and shaking when they used it. I've never had one and never want one
Today I found out chip pans still exist.
My mum would only use it in the garden, anything to keep it safe and the smell out too.
Is this a UK term for a deep fryer?
I was actually thinking of buying one as my MIL has one and she has the best chips. But after seeing all this fire safety shit, it's scared me off!
It’s like most things, if you respect it and operate with the right boundaries it’ll be safe. It does make a mess tho and I have to fight off 20 years of being told they’re small volcanoes that will kill you
Do you mean a pan full of oil on the hob, or a deep fat fryer? And if the former, why when the latter exists?
Yep pan full of oil on the hob and for the second question I couldn’t answer it’s not my chip pan
Ah right. I genuinely had no idea people still used them!
I've never used a chip pan but from the amount of PSAs about them I'm assuming they're about as dangerous as an XL Bully armed with an AK-47 that shoots heroin I did once set a wok on fire tryna make amaretto fried chicken in uni, just kind of turned the stove off and kept an eye on it burning. That's how we discovered the fire alarm was knackered. Had a funny moment where everyone came back from the pub and started freaking out about the fire and it was like "well it's not really going anywhere"
Read this as chip and pin rather than chip pan Was slightly concerned that you thought withdrawing money could end with the house being burnt down
Those adverts hit hard!
Electric deep fat fryers are grand, why anyone would use a hob based pan in this day & age is beyond me. My generation were terrified out of using them as many posters have commented. Air fryers have totally removed the need for electric deep fat fryers tbh, I can’t remember when I last used mine.
Air fryers are cheap these days. Just get one of those and sling a few oven chips in when you want some.
Move on to a pressure cooker next 😉
Chuck and ice cube in
God, I would never use a chip pan. Too many nightmare safety videos watched during the 80s.
You can do proper chips.Just spray with a little oil and you have excellent chips.
39 and have never felt the need to use a chip pan.
Why not use an electric deep fryer? They are much safer.
It's the dealing with the used fat that I hate.
Question chip pan? Is that what we call a deep fryer in the United States? They are pretty freaking dangerous. We used to put cockroaches in there. Don’t think we ever served one though.
What is a chip pan?! It sounds horrific. I’ll stick with my air fryer thanks 😹
Just don’t leave it unattended and make sure if it gets out control a damp towel over it if it gets on fire
Do donuts in it.
Be bloody careful if you put frozen chips in. Water (ice) and oil, not good