[Von Milash]

Hi all, I like to make chicken wings at home. I use about 3 bricks of pure lard (unhealthy I know, but the ONLY way to do wings!!) in a cast iron dutch oven on the stove. I heat my oil, get it up to about 350, then wiat til the temp stabilizes. The problem, though, is that as soon as I add my wings, the temperature spikes up to close to 400. Anyone know why that's happening? It eventually stabilizes in about the 330 range on high heat, which is not PERFECT, but plenty to get a nice golden crispness. But it's that initial drop that gets a tad dangerous. Thanks. Hope everyone's well.
Von.

[boar_d_laze]

Interesting phenomenon.

Since no one's repealed any of the laws of thermodynamics, if I'm reading you correctly that the temperature of the oil goes UP ("spike") when you add the wings, and if you wrote incorrectly about the "... initial drop," then (and only then) I'll guess the agitation in the fat caused by moisture from the chicken skin boiling off the skin and otherwise vaporizing, gets your thermometer to make physical contact with the interior surface of the cast-iron pot; which the thermometer then reads, rather than reading the fat's temperature.

Later, as the roiling settles down, the thermometer floats off the pot and reads the fat's temperature. At that point, things make sense again.

Just a guess, no need to throw stuff.

BDL

[OregonYeti]

Something to do with putting the lid on?

[KYHeirloomer]

I think BDL has hit the nail on the head.

However, something I noticed for the first time the other night. I was heating oil, and the temperature gradient wasn't quite right. Increased the temp, and it still didn't move upwards the way it should have. Then I stired the oil, and the temp jumped.

My supposition is that there were no internal currents. So, despite the fact the oil temp, overall, was rising, the oil being contacted by the thermometer probe was in some sort of steady-state condition.

If that's correct, it could explain what happened to Von Milash. The probe wasn't registering the oil temp as a whole. Then, when the wings were added, the oil was agitated, bring fresh, higher temperature oil into play, and the thermometer read the proper temp.

Another possibility: The bi-metal probe might not have been deep enough in the oil, and was giving a false reading. When the oil "boiled" up, the probe got submerged properly, and provided a proper reading.

[Von Milash]

so, all plausible explanations. but the probe was about an nch from the bottom, with about 4 inches of oil. shouldnt be that. but, as a chemist, i think its a colligative properties thing... there is whats called an azeotrope. i think for the most part the addition of water helps bring about a boil to the melted fats (organic phase) of the lard, which helps spike the temperature. but next time ill try stirring the oil periodically as it heats to temp. could be as simple as that. thanks.