potato nest fryer baskets

Hope this helps.....

Here a recipe I have for making bird nests -

Maybe it's the cornstarch??

To make 4 potato nests:

Peel the potatoes and place them in a bowl of cold water.

Slice the potatoes with a mandoline. Cut them into small pieces like matchsticks

Put the potato sticks, once they are cut, back into the bowl of cold water.

Rinse the potatoes to remove the excess starch. Drain them well and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Place the potato sticks in a bowl and add ½ teaspoon salt and 1 cup of cornstarch.

Mix everything together.

Put the oil in a deep-fat fryer heat the oil to 375°F.

Place the potato sticks in the basket and press the smaller basket over it.

Submerge the bird’s nest fryer in the very hot oil.

Fry for about 3 minutes, or until it is crisp, golden, and cooked through at the bottom.

Drain and remove the bird’s nest out from the strainer.

Continue making the nests with the remaining potatoes.

Sprinkle all the nests with the salt, and keep them warm.

Another blast from the past. This thead is ten years old.

I used to have one of those baskets. After frustrating myself with it for years I finally deep sixed it. The thing never worked, no matter what I did to the spuds.

Recently I saw a celebrity chef (forget which one at the moment) who made the baskets using two ladles. I would have thought this unsuitable, cuz the potatoes aren't actually surrounded by the hot oil. But they seemed to come out ok.

One of these days I'll try it.

Now come on....I've made literally hundreds of those baskets in my career, and had a few that stuck.....but it was my problem not the baskets.

Firstly, why would you rinse out the starch?  That's the glue that holds the baskets together. If you don't rinse the starch, you don't need cornstarch.

Secondly, spray the baskets with pan release before using them each time. I'll have 4 going at once.

When placing the potatoes into the basket, make sure nothing is sticking out of the tines, as that can interfere with the basket releasing.

That ladle idea works well. After the initial frying to get them started, you simply release the two ladles and allow the basket to "fry-free" in the oil.

I have used those "baskets" and while I haven't had nearly the problems that some of you have had, I've found that I prefer the ladel method more.  There seems to be less sticking and as Chefross alluded to, no errant pieces of potato bent over the wires locking the baskets shut.

I've done the two ladles thing, it's pretty fool proof.

Obviously, Ben, you don't know how big a fool I can be.

I am with chefross, I too have made hundreds with little problems. I find that blanching the potatoes in warm water works the best for me.

your dishwasher could be the culprit.  Aluminium nests will pit from electric dishwashing detergent, so hand wash them, dry, then spray with a light coating of oil.  Kind of like a seasoned pan.

Most potao nest at least good ones are stainless steel. They are a has been in most places but once in a while we use for banquet. We make 100s at a time, and break or have stick very few.  Julianne and make sure taters are dry .  Spray the baskets, put taters in make sure none sticking out put in fryer our is set at  360   open basket  when light brown ,let freefall into fryer  remove with a spider. turn upside down let cool.

     They are less apt to break taking out of baskets  in oil  instead of tying to bang or tap  out on sheet pan which is what I have seen some people do.