OM wrote:

...That's because people in North Dakota have never been explained
that you don't do those erotic Wesson Oil interludes in front of a
raging fireplace.


Actually, it's due to the fact that frying is an exotic form of cooking
up here; we are about as far from the Deep South as it's possible to
get, and are far more attuned to barbecuing steaks and making deer
sausage than frying things.
The Norse population of our state still associates the idea of "hot oil"
with the defenses used against their ancestors when they were storming
English castles, and therefore shy away from it whenever possible.
Molten lead is also right out in regards to cooking.

Pat