The first time someone handed me a spider in the kitchen, I looked at them like they had lost their mind. I was maybe twelve years old, standing next to my grandmother while she fried up a mess of okra, and she said, “Hand me that spider off the hook.” I looked around that kitchen for something with eight legs and she just pointed at the wall where a wide, flat wire strainer with a long bamboo handle was hanging next to her ladles. That was the spider. I have used one nearly every day of my cooking life since, and I still think it is the most underappreciated tool in any kitchen that does serious frying.
If you have ever stood over a pot of hot oil trying to fish out pieces of fried chicken with a slotted spoon, watching them slide off and splash back into the grease, you already know why the right tools matter. Frying is not just about the food and the oil and the temperature. It is about what you use to get that food in and out safely, how you drain it, how you keep the oil clean between batches, and how you protect yourself from pops and spatters that can leave marks on your arms for weeks.
I have been frying food for more than fifty years — chicken, catfish, okra, hushpuppies, corn fritters, apple pies, you name it — and over that time I have learned that the difference between frying that goes smoothly and frying that turns into a stressful mess often comes down to having the right tools within arm’s reach before that oil ever gets hot. This is everything I know about the tools that make frying work the way it should.
The Spider: What It Is and Why Every Southern Cook Needs One
A spider is a wide, shallow wire mesh strainer attached to a long handle, traditionally made of bamboo or wood. The basket part is usually about five to seven inches across, made of woven wire that forms a shallow bowl shape. It looks a little like a spiderweb stretched across a frame, which is where it gets its name. The Chinese have been using them for centuries, and somewhere along the way they found their way into Southern kitchens — and for good reason.
What makes a spider better than a slotted spoon for frying is simple. The wide, flat basket lets you scoop under food and lift it straight up out of the oil in one smooth motion. Nothing slides off. Nothing falls back in. You can pull out six or eight pieces of okra at once instead of chasing them around one at a time. When you are working with a big pot of oil at 350 degrees, that efficiency is not just convenient — it is safer.
I use my spider for everything. Fried chicken, fried catfish, hushpuppies, fried pies, even blanching vegetables when I am putting up green beans for the freezer. When I am frying in batches and need to move quickly between them, the spider lets me clear the pot fast so the oil temperature does not drop too much before the next batch goes in. That matters more than most people realize, because when oil temperature drops, food absorbs more grease and you end up with heavy, soggy results instead of light, crispy ones.
The Deep-Fry Thermometer: Your Best Insurance Against Bad Frying
I know there are people who say they can tell the temperature of oil just by looking at it, or by dropping a piece of bread in and watching how fast it browns. And I will admit I have done that myself more times than I can count. But I will also tell you that a deep-fry thermometer is the single most important tool you can clip to the side of your pot, and I keep one within reach every single time I fry.
Here is what happens when your oil is too hot — the outside of your food burns dark brown before the inside is cooked through. You cut into a piece of fried chicken that looks perfect on the outside and it is still pink at the bone. Now here is what happens when your oil is not hot enough — the food sits in there soaking up grease like a sponge. The crust never gets crispy. Everything comes out heavy and limp and greasy. Either way, you have ruined what could have been a beautiful batch of food.
Most Southern frying happens between 325 and 375 degrees. Chicken is usually around 325 to 350. Catfish and most seafood around 350 to 365. Hushpuppies and fritters around 365 to 375. Those numbers are not suggestions. They are the difference between food that makes people close their eyes when they take the first bite and food that sits on the plate getting cold because nobody wants seconds. A good deep-fry thermometer with a clip costs less than ten dollars and it will change your frying forever. If you are building your kitchen from the ground up, I talk about this and other essentials in Building a Southern Kitchen on a Budget: The 5 Essential Tools.
Cast Iron: The Original Frying Pan and Still the Best
You cannot talk about Southern frying tools without talking about cast iron, and if you have spent any time at all on this site, you know how I feel about my skillets. A well-seasoned cast iron skillet is the foundation of pan-frying in the South. It holds heat like nothing else, it distributes that heat evenly across the entire cooking surface, and it builds a natural nonstick surface over time that only gets better with use.
For pan-frying — pork chops, chicken pieces, catfish fillets, fried green tomatoes — a twelve-inch cast iron skillet is what I reach for every single time. The oil only needs to come up about a third to halfway up the sides of the food, and the heavy iron keeps the temperature steady even when you drop cold food into it. That temperature stability is everything. Thinner pans lose heat the second food goes in, and you are fighting to get it back the whole time you are cooking.
For deep-frying, a cast iron Dutch oven is my preference over any dedicated deep fryer. It holds a large volume of oil, keeps the temperature steady, and the high sides contain splatter. I have a six-quart Dutch oven that has fried more catfish and chicken than I could ever count, and it does a better job than any electric fryer I have ever tried. If you want to understand the difference between cast iron and enameled options for this kind of work, I have a whole piece on that — Cast Iron vs. Enameled Dutch Oven: Which is Better for Smothering?. A lot of the same principles apply to frying.
Long-Handled Tongs: Your Extension Arm Over Hot Oil
I do not fry anything without a good pair of long-handled tongs within reach. And I mean long-handled — at least twelve inches, preferably fourteen or sixteen. When you are placing chicken into 350-degree oil or turning pork chops in a skillet full of hot grease, you want as much distance between your hand and that oil as you can get.
The kind I use are simple stainless steel tongs with a spring hinge, the kind you can lock closed for storage. Nothing fancy. No silicone tips, no rubber grips, no complicated mechanisms. Just solid metal that can grip a piece of chicken firmly without crushing the crust and can handle the heat without melting or warping.
I use tongs for placing food into hot oil, for turning food over halfway through cooking, and sometimes for lifting smaller pieces out when I do not need the spider. The key is to lower food into the oil gently, away from you, so if there is a splatter it goes toward the back of the stove and not toward your arms and face. That is something my grandmother taught me the very first time she let me near a frying pan, and I have never forgotten it.
The Wire Cooling Rack and Sheet Pan: Where Fried Food Goes to Finish
This is where a lot of people go wrong, and it is such a simple fix. When food comes out of the fryer, it needs somewhere to go — and that somewhere should not be a plate lined with paper towels. I know, I know. I see paper towels under fried food in every photograph and every cooking show. But here is what actually happens when you set hot fried food on paper towels: the bottom of the food sits in its own steam and grease and the crust gets soggy on the underside before it ever makes it to the table.
The right way is a wire cooling rack set over a sheet pan. The rack holds the food up off the surface so air circulates underneath it. The grease drips down through the rack and onto the pan below. The crust stays crispy all the way around. This is not a fancy trick — it is just common sense once you think about it, and it makes a real, noticeable difference in how your fried food turns out.
I keep two sheet pans with racks ready to go whenever I fry. One is for food that just came out of the oil, and the other is for food that has drained and is ready to go into a warm oven to hold while I finish the rest of the batches. If you are frying chicken for a crowd — and I have fried chicken for many a crowd — you need a system, and the wire rack and sheet pan is the backbone of that system.
The Splatter Screen: A Small Investment in Peace of Mind
A splatter screen is nothing but a fine mesh disc with a handle that sits on top of your skillet while food is frying. It lets steam escape so your food still fries properly, but it catches most of those little pops and spatters of hot grease that would otherwise land on your stovetop, your arms, and your clean shirt.
I did not use a splatter screen for years because I thought it was one of those gadgets that people who are nervous about cooking buy and never use. I was wrong. The first time I used one while frying a batch of bone-in chicken — the kind that pops and sputters something fierce when that moisture hits the hot oil — I could not believe the difference. My stovetop was clean. My arms were clean. The chicken was just as crispy as it always is because the screen is mesh, not a lid. It does not trap moisture.
If you do any amount of pan-frying, especially fried chicken, pork chops, or anything with a wet batter, a splatter screen is worth every penny. They cost almost nothing and they save you from burns and from scrubbing dried grease off your stove for twenty minutes after dinner.
The Skimmer: Keeping Your Oil Clean Between Batches
Here is something that makes a real difference when you are frying multiple batches of food, whether it is a big fish fry or you are working through a whole chicken one batch at a time. As food fries, little bits of batter, breading, and flour fall off into the oil. Those bits keep cooking in the oil long after the food they came from has been pulled out. They burn. They turn black. And they stick to the next batch of food that goes in, leaving dark specks and a bitter taste on what should be a clean, golden crust.
A fine-mesh skimmer — smaller than a spider, with a tighter weave — is what you use to scoop those bits out of the oil between batches. I do a quick pass with the skimmer every time I pull a batch of food out and before the next batch goes in. It takes about fifteen seconds and it keeps the oil cleaner, which means your food looks better, tastes better, and the oil lasts longer.
This is especially important when you are frying something with a flour or cornmeal dredge, like catfish or okra. Those dredges shed more crumbs than a wet batter does. If you want to understand more about dredging techniques and how to get the coating to stick, The Wet-Hand, Dry-Hand Method: Breading Techniques for Perfect Frying goes into that in detail.
Frying Baskets: When You Are Doing Serious Volume
If you have ever done a proper Southern fish fry — and I mean the kind where you are feeding twenty or thirty people out of a big propane burner and a pot the size of a turkey fryer — you know that a spider and tongs are not going to cut it for volume. That is where a frying basket comes in.
A frying basket is a large wire mesh basket with a handle that fits down inside your frying pot. You load the food into the basket, lower the whole thing into the oil, and when it is done, you lift the entire basket out at once. Everything comes out together, it drains right there over the pot for a moment, and then you dump it onto your rack. For big batches of catfish, hushpuppies, or french fries, it is the most efficient way to work.
Most propane fish fry setups come with a basket that fits their pot. If you are buying one separately, just make sure it fits inside your pot with enough room around the edges for oil to circulate. A basket that is too tight against the sides of the pot does not let the oil move around the food properly and you end up with uneven cooking.
If you are interested in the whole fish fry setup — the pot, the burner, the process start to finish — I cover all of that in The Complete Guide to a Southern Fish Fry.
The Thermometer and the Spider Working Together
I want to talk about how these tools work together, because frying is a rhythm, and once you get into that rhythm, everything flows. Before I start frying anything, here is what my station looks like. My cast iron Dutch oven or skillet is on the burner with the oil coming up to temperature. The deep-fry thermometer is clipped to the side. My spider is right next to the stove. My tongs are there too. A sheet pan with a wire rack is set up to receive the food. The skimmer is hanging on the spoon rest.
When the thermometer says the oil is at the right temperature, I use my tongs to lower the food in gently, away from me. While it cooks, I watch the thermometer and adjust the heat as needed — because the temperature always drops when food goes in, and you need to bring it back up. When the food is done, I use the spider to lift it all out in one sweep and transfer it to the wire rack. Then I grab the skimmer, do a quick pass through the oil to pull out any bits, check the thermometer again, and when the temperature is back where I want it, in goes the next batch.
That whole process, once you have done it a few times, becomes second nature. And every single step of it depends on having the right tool in the right place. You cannot do it smoothly if you are rummaging through a drawer for a slotted spoon or squinting at the oil trying to guess the temperature.
Paper Towels, Newspapers, and Brown Bags: The Old Ways of Draining
I said earlier that a wire rack is the best way to drain fried food, and I stand by that. But I would not be telling the whole truth if I did not mention the old ways, because I grew up with them and there are still times I use them.
My grandmother drained fried food on brown paper bags — the kind you used to get at the grocery store. She would tear them open flat and lay them on the counter, and that is where the fried chicken went when it came out of the skillet. The paper absorbed the grease, and back then nobody thought twice about it. Some people used newspaper. I have seen fried catfish drained on layers of the Sunday paper more times than I can remember.
Now, I am not going to tell you to go putting your food on newspaper. The inks and chemicals in modern newsprint are not something I want on my food. But a plain brown paper bag under a wire rack is not the worst idea in the world if you want extra grease absorption. The rack keeps the food off the paper so the crust stays crispy on the bottom, and the paper catches the drippings so your sheet pan is easier to clean.
A Few Tools You Do Not Need
I am going to be honest about this because there are a lot of gadgets out there being sold to people who fry food, and most of them are a waste of money and drawer space.
You do not need a dedicated electric deep fryer for home use. A good cast iron Dutch oven on your stove does a better job, holds temperature more steadily, and is easier to clean. Those countertop fryers are bulky, hard to clean, and most of them do not get the oil hot enough or recover temperature fast enough when you add food.
You do not need a special frying fork or a set of frying spoons with holes in different patterns. Tongs and a spider handle everything you need. Simple tools that do their job well are always better than a drawer full of specialty gadgets that do one thing each.
You do not need a splatter guard that completely covers the pan like a lid. Those trap steam, and steam is the enemy of a crispy crust. The fine mesh splatter screen I talked about earlier lets steam out while keeping grease in, and that is exactly what you want.
Keeping your kitchen simple and functional is something I believe in deeply. If you are starting from scratch and trying to figure out what to invest in first, Building a Southern Kitchen on a Budget: The 5 Essential Tools will steer you right without wasting money on things you do not need.
Taking Care of Your Frying Tools
Most frying tools are simple to maintain, which is part of why I love them. The spider gets rinsed in hot soapy water and hung up to dry after every use. If batter has dried onto the wire mesh, I soak it in hot water for ten minutes and it comes right off with a brush. The bamboo handle should not sit in water — just wipe it down.
Tongs go in the dishwasher or get washed by hand. The deep-fry thermometer should be wiped clean and checked for accuracy once in a while — you can do that by putting it in boiling water and making sure it reads 212 degrees. If it is off, most of them have a small nut on the back that lets you calibrate it.
Wire cooling racks can be stubborn to clean if grease dries on them. The easiest way is to soak them in hot soapy water for about fifteen minutes, then scrub with a brush. If you have baked-on grease that will not come off, a paste of baking soda and water and a little elbow grease will take care of it.
Your cast iron, of course, has its own rules. I have written about that extensively — How to Season (and Re-Season) Cast Iron for Southern Cooking and The 5 Biggest Mistakes Beginners Make With Cast Iron cover everything you need to know about keeping your iron in shape.
The Confidence That Comes From Being Ready
I have been frying food since I was old enough to stand on a step stool and reach the stove, and if there is one thing all those years have taught me, it is that frying goes well when you are prepared and it goes badly when you are not. That preparation is not just about having your food seasoned and your oil hot. It is about having every tool you need in its place, within arm’s reach, before you start.
A spider strainer, a good thermometer, long-handled tongs, a fine mesh skimmer, a wire rack over a sheet pan, and a splatter screen. That is the whole list. None of it is expensive. None of it is complicated. But all of it together gives you the kind of control over your frying that turns a nerve-wracking mess into something you look forward to doing.
Frying is one of the great traditions of Southern cooking. It is how we make fried chicken that people drive across town for, catfish that tastes like a summer evening by the river, and okra so crispy you cannot stop eating it out of the pan. Those things do not happen by accident. They happen because someone took the time to learn the right way to do it, with the right tools, and the patience to do it well. If you are building that foundation — not just for frying, but for all of Southern cooking — The Complete Guide to Southern Cooking: Techniques, Traditions & Time-Tested Wisdom is where everything connects.
Get yourself a spider. Clip that thermometer to the pot. Set up your wire rack. And when that oil is ready and you lower the first piece of chicken in and hear that deep, steady sizzle — you will know you are exactly where you need to be.
