The crispy, juicy joy of (carefully) deep-frying a turkey

By Kim Severson, The New York Times

I hate stunt food. You will not see me ordering a steak wrapped in gold leaf. I won’t do a caviar bump. I don’t care about that time you drank wine with a snake in it.

Nor am I a fan of the Cajun turducken, which is a boned chicken wrapped in a boned duck wrapped in a boned turkey with some dressing tucked in. It does a disservice to all the birds involved. It also spawned the piecaken, a four-dessert monster I hesitate even to mention because I don’t want to encourage it.

I do, however, love a deep-fried turkey.

I know that standing in the backyard and lowering a turkey into 4 gallons of boiling peanut oil has all the markings of stunt food. And it’s nothing I would have considered until I moved to the South.

Five years ago, I went to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. An ex-boyfriend was in the back, frying a turkey. Let me tell you, my friends, I had never tasted turkey as delicious —...