Straining Oil

[Kim Shook]

I searched, but didn't find this. I have a bunch of oil that I deep fried fish and chips in. The directions for the fryer say that I can strain and save the oil for a few uses. Two questions:

1). Since I cooked fish in it, is it worth saving?

2). If so, how fine a strain do I need to do. Is a fine mesh strainer good enough, or do I need to put it through something like a coffee filter? It's trying to go through a filter right now and it's going e x t r e m e l y s l o w l y.

Ta!

[Chris Hennes]

I don't generally re-use oil from frying fish unless I know I will be frying fish again in a couple days. I don't really have any great reasons for that, I just don't do it. When I do filter oil, from making fries or something, I also use a coffee filter, and I change the filter out every now and again. I let it go for a couple hours, usually, for a full fryer of oil. Since you don't really have to babysit it, it doesn't really matter to me how long it takes.

[Pam R]

If you're going to use it again for fish, once it's strained (coffee filter is great), I'd put it into a jar or other container and store it in the fridge until you're ready to do fish again.

And yep, what Chris said. No need to babysit it while it's slowwwwly going through the filter.

[Tri2Cook]

Coffee filters work fine for smaller amounts but if you can find yourself some cone filters designed for filtering oil the process is much faster than with the coffee filter. You can send gallons of oil through those in almost no time at all, even with cold oil.

[Chris Amirault]

Remember also that most gunk settles over a day or two, so straining with much more than a fine sieve is usually unnecessary if you can live with half an inch of unused oil/glop.

[Prawncrackers]

I would use an oridinary sieve to remove any solids then decant into a suitable storage vessel. As Chris says the gunk will settle to the bottom and all you have to do next time is pour the oil off. Repeat until the oil is be to discarded then just clean out the gunk ready for a fresh batch of oil. I'm not ashamed to say that i recycle my oil four or five times if i'm just doing potato fries. I think the oil gets better after a few uses. I always seem to get tastier fries with 'seasoned' oil.

With fish it depends how fishy or oily it is and how it affects the flavour of the oil. For example, monkfish is fine to keep the oil, but sprats i usually discard after one use. Prawns affect the flavour of oil more if they're unshelled etc.

[sparrowgrass]

I use a metal sieve lined with a paper towel (I am not a coffee drinker.)

I have found that the oil goes thru much faster if it is still hot when I pour it into the strainer.

[Talat_kas]

If you want to get rid of the smell which persist in oil after frying fish then you need to put some burn garlic cloves in it and then take out that cloves of garlic. You can use this oil for frying anything else.

[project]

I strain through a wire mesh strainer lined with two layers of

men's white handkerchiefs. Then I wash the handkerchiefs in

the washing machine.

If wash the handkerchiefs promptly, then they get nicely clean

easily; if wait to wash, then they can easily become rancid

with an odor that is difficult to wash out.

The handkerchiefs may have some chunks of browned breading.

If so, then shake those out before heading for the washing

machine. My Maytag doesn't do well washing away those chunks.