Our 10 most popular recipes for the month delivered right to your inbox!
I want to make some deep fried foods like hushpuppies, onion straws and the like but don't really know what to do with the oil after. How do I discard it? Obviously cool it and don't put it down the sink but I can't just pour it in the trash can! I don't use coffee cans and outside of tin cans for vegetables I don't know what else I could put the oil in to discard. Those don't have lids so that's not going to work. Other things I use with a lid are paper like Progresso bread crumbs. Any suggestions, ideas or enlightenments are appreciated.
Ellen
Taste of Home Field Editor
Visit my blogs:
www.everythingforkids.wordpress.com
www.partiespartiesparties.wordpress.com
Stop signs are NOT a suggestion!
Dear Math: I am not your therapist...solve your own problems!
Great questions! I have the same questions. I do not deep fry for that reason. So, I will add - how long or often can you use the same oil? I'd like to try donuts someday. Some corn fritters sound good too!
Andrea
My Girl
do you have some sort of (big) container that has a lid on it?? What I usually do - if I use my cast iron for deep frying - is strain the oil - using a big sieve and a coffee filter or cheese cloth - that work really well too!! - and strain it into the bowl that I am going to store the oil in...
I use my cast iron dutch oven to deep fry in and use my candy thermometer to watch the temperature.
I put the used oil back in the jug & toss it. I don't keep it for another day. Once it's been heated, it goes rancid quickly - I don't deep fry often enough to keep it.
Community Moderator ~ Taste of Home.com and Birds & Blooms.com
Feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns with the Taste of Home website or community.
Proudly serving as a Taste of Home Field Editor since 2009.
I used to deep fry more when the kids were still home, but am going to do it again now for just DH and me. But once you use it for onion anything, you can't use it for anything else except onion. Buy just a couple of pints of the oil you are going to use, and then when cool, use a funnel to pour it back into the bottle. Mark the one you used for onion, and store in the fridge. Use the other pint for hushpuppies if they don't have onion in them. I plan to use one for french fries and one for onion rings.
You can use any kind of ZipLoc or Glad plastic container that has a tight lid to store it in, too. They are pretty cheap now. But I would just save the bottle the oil came in and when you are done with it throw it away in that. Or use any juice bottle, or milk jug. I'm sure you have some containers you can use if you just think about it! But once the oil is used, it must be refrigerated if you want to use it again, and you certainly can do that. Just smell of the oil before you use it again. Your nose will tell you if it is rancid. It keeps quite awhile in the fridge.
I finally bought myself a spider strainer to use when deep frying! It's just made of wire so it drains very well when taking things out of the hot oil. Now I'm hungry for some onion rings! Maybe tomorrow!
JUST BE SURE YOU THOROUGHLY COOL THE OIL BEFORE YOU PUT IT IN ANY CONTAINER!
Not only is the bottle the oil came in good on storing the old oil. But do you use store bought cheese sauce that comes in a glass jar with a lid or spaghetti sauce that comes in a glass jar with a lid, or even milk in a plastic jug? Wash the containers, store them with the lids, under your sink or somewhere. Then when you need to disgard the grease you can pour it while it is completely cool into the glass jar or milk jug capping it with the lid. I do this when I am frying big amounts of hamburger and want to strain the grease. The jars come in handy for many other uses when cooking to hold things in also.
Thanks for all the tips! Andrea
I save my liquid laundry detergent containers for discarding oil. I do have a deep fat fryer and I do reuse oil a couple of times.
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. ~Barrie
Math is fun!
Never thought of milk jugs. We go through plenty of those with kids! I just recycled jars yesterday so they are gone but I'll keep a few future ones.
Thanks so much everyone for your comments. Now...what to fry first?!