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Deep-frying a turkey can result in an incredibly delicious bird, but it’s also a pretty dangerous cooking method that can lead to disaster if you’re not careful. There are plenty of cautionary tales that highlight that reality—including one involving a mansion in Connecticut that burned down on Thanksgiving.
Turkey has traditionally been the center of Thanksgiving meals in the United States, although there are plenty of people who place the poultry pretty low on their list of the foods they’re looking forward to eating on the holiday due to the finicky nature of a bird that tends to be pretty dry and flavorless if it isn’t cooked correctly.
There are a number of strategies you can deploy to avoid befalling that fate, and most people who know their way around a kitchen will turn to brining and spatchcocking to make sure the end product is as tasty as possible if they’re relying on an oven to get things done.
There are also some slightly less conventional cooking methods that can be harnessed to achieve a similar end goal. If you have access to a smoker, it’s hard to go wrong with the low-and-slow approach, and if you’re looking for a juicy bird with the crispiest skin possible, deep-frying a turkey is probably the best way to scratch that itch.
However, you need to know what you’re doing if you decide to rely on a giant pot filled with hot oil over an open flame, as going that route can be a recipe for disaster. Excess moisture can cause the oil to bubble over and catch on fire, and every single reputable guide will tell you the turkey should be fried outdoors and kept far away from materials with the potential to spark a sizeable blaze.
The rain that swept across Connecticut on Thanksgiving this year put a hitch in the plans of anyone who was planning on deep-frying a turkey, as you were just asking for trouble if you didn’t have a tent or some other type of covering that could prevent the water from making its way into the pot during the cooking process.
According to WFSB, people celebrating Thanksgiving at a $3.8 million mansion in the town of Weston opted to combat the elements by frying a turkey in the garage—a decision that ultimately led to firefighters spending 16 hours battling a blaze that destroyed the home after it was consumed by the fire that broke out when they attempted to cook the bird.
Weston Volunteer Fire Department
Weston Volunteer Fire Department
All of the people who were at the 11-bedroom, 9.5-bath residence when the fire started were able to escape unscathed, but the nearly 10,000-square-foot house was expectedly “deemed uninhabitable” after the flames were ultimately extinguished.