Cooking Measures 101

There were two things about the tanker truck that caught my attention.

First was the Perdue name and logo plastered on the back end of the gleaming steel cylinder. I expect to see the name of a chicken processor on a tractor trailer loaded with metal chicken transport cages. I really never expected to see the name on a rolling vat of liquid.

The second thing I noticed was the content labeling - vegetable oil.

I tried to picture the size of the fry baby that someone at Perdue was going to be filling. I guess "baby" would have no place in the description of an industrial chicken fryer. Then my thoughts turned more realistic and....

You guessed it... I got to wondering.

Just how many chicken parts can you fry with a tanker truck full of vegetable oil?

According to Wikipedia, a tanker truck holds anywhere from 5,500 to 9,000 U.S. gallons of liquid.

Let's see, figure about 3 tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a frying pan large enough for five chicken breasts.

There's 256 tablespoons in a gallon, so a tanker truck with a 9000 gallon capacity would yield 2,304,000 tablespoons.

2,304,000 divided by 5 gives us 460,800.

So nearly half a million chicken breasts can be fried up with a tanker truck of vegetable oil.

Whew, I'll sleep better tonight knowing that answer!