Achip pan is a deep-sidedcooking pan used fordeep-frying. Chip pans are named for their traditional use in fryingchips (called "French fries" in the United States).

Today, they are made from eitheraluminium orstainless steel, although in the past were commonly made fromcast iron. A basket is placed inside the pan, to lower the chips into the hotcooking oil, and to raise them once cooked.

Chip pans are commonly used in theUnited Kingdom andRepublic of Ireland, although are slowly being rendered obsolete bydeep fryers.^[1]

Chip pans are commonly manufactured through a spinning process, as the metal used ismalleable. The lid is typically stamped out by a die in a heavy press.^[2]

Repeated heating of oil is believed to greatly increase thefree radicals in the oil, leading to a higher risk ofheart disease.^[3]

Injuries, particularly to children, caused by the hot oil from a chip pan falling on them are a common cause of hospital admission in the UK.^[4][5]

Chip pans are the most common cause of housefires in the United Kingdom, with around 12,000 chip pan fires every year, 1100 of them considered serious, resulting in over 4600 injuries, and 50 deaths per year. BritishFire Brigades frequently issue warnings and advice, urging households to switch to a safer means of cooking chips, and advising that, unless it can be easily contained, the fire be left to the emergency services.^[6][7] Several fire brigades have offered a "chip pan amnesty", trading old chip pans for a deep fryer.^[8]

Chip pans account for one-fifth of all domestic fires in theRepublic of Ireland.^[9] After two men died in a 2016 fire inCork City, acoroner recommended the sale of chip pans be banned and old chip pans be disposed of.^[10] Another coroner noted the danger of people heavilyinebriated byalcohol putting on a chip pan and falling asleep.^[11] In 2015, at ahalting site inCarrickmines,eleven people were killed in a chip pan fire, the worst fire in Ireland for 34 years.

Measures to prevent chip fires include:^{[12][13][14][15]}

• Not using chip pans (makingoven chips, microwave chips, or frying in athermostat-controlled electric deep fryer).
• Not using chip pans when feeling unwell, or after having taken alcohol or other drugs.
• Not filling the pan more than 1/3 full; frying food in small amounts.
• Not leaving the pan unattended, even if the phone or doorbell rings.
• Turning the handle to the side so as not to accidentally knock it (but not over another hot ring).
• If the oil or fat starts to smoke, not adding food, turning off the heat immediately, and waiting for it to cool down.
• Drying food before adding it to the oil, including removing any ice.
• Adding a small piece of food to test the temperature; if it crisps quickly, the oil is already hot enough.

Some local fire services will supply freedeep fryers.^[14] Electric deep fryers featurethermostat-controlled internal heating elements that prevent the oil being heated to the point of ignition.

A correct mitigation approach includes:^[12][13][16]

• Not moving the pan.
• Turning off the heat, if it can be done safely. Leaning over the fire to reach the controls is unsafe.
  • If the cooker is electric, cutting off the power supply will turn off the heat. The power can be cut at thefuse box orbreaker box, or at theelectricity meter.
• Putting out the fire only if it can be done safely.
  • The best way to accomplish this is to place a lid on the pan.
  • If not possible a class F extinguisher can be used, however care must be taken not to spread the fire outside of the pan. Other extinguisher classes have to be avoided.
  • Adding water must be avoided at all costs, as it leads to violent fire spread.
• If the fire cannot be put out, getting everyone out of the room, closing the door, getting everyone out of the house, and then calling the fire department.

It is essentialnot to use water to extinguish a chip pan fire. Attempts to extinguish cooking oil fires with water result in aslopover, an extremely dangerous condition whereby the flaming oil is violently expelled from the container.^[17]

Cooking oil fires (Europe class F, US class K) burn hotter than other typical combustible liquids, rendering the standard class A and Bfire extinguishers ineffective and even dangerous. Class F fire extinguishers featuring a yellow label usesaponification to put out chip pan fires by spraying analkaline solution which reacts with the fat to makenon-flammablesoap. These extinguishers are generally only available in industrial and commercial kitchens.

The use offire blankets has traditionally been considered effective and safe, especially in Europe and Australia.^[18][19] It has, however, been put in question by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.^[20][21] The Netherlands Foundation for Burn Wounds reported several accidents involving the use of fire blankets when extinguishing oil/fat fires.^[22]

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  Oil is heated strongly...
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  ...eventually reaching ignition point.
• 
  Pouring a very small amount of water into the fire ejects a plume of fire...
• 
  ...which rises and spreads against the ceiling.

• List of cooking vessels

WikibooksCookbook has a recipe/module on

• Deep Fat Frying

Wikimedia Commons has media related toChip-pan fires.

• Online copy of an Oxfordshire council safety flyer (PDF document).
• BBC News: A woman pulled from a chip pan fire thanks her rescuers.
• North Yorkshire Fire Service: Demonstration of a chip pan fire.

• Cooking vessels
• Culture of the United Kingdom
• Firefighting
• Types of fire

• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Commons category link is locally defined