What do you do with your grease/fat/oil?

[ojisan]

I save used cooking oil in a plastic tub for use as charcoal starter when I BBQ. Dampen a wadded up paper towel with oil and put under the charcoal chimney. Better than plain newspaper as there is no ash or burnt paper residue.

[slkinsey]

You know... it's so rare that I have enough leftover cooking oil that I had to think about what I do with it. I guess that the few times I have more than perhaps a tablespoon of leftover oil to discard (which does tend to go into the drain), I tend to have a lot of leftover oil because I've been making fried chicken or latkes or something. That either goes into a container and into the trash or, if it's still in decent shape, filtered back into the container and saved for reuse in the next frying project.

[Magictofu]

Degreasing stocks or even stews produces quite a bit of grease.

[slkinsey]

If it's relatively clean beef fat or chicken fat from stock-making, I'm likely to filter and freeze it for future use.

[judiu]

If it's relatively clean beef fat or chicken fat from stock-making, I'm likely to filter and freeze it for future use.

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Oh, yeah, potatoes fried in beef fat So good I can hear my arteries hardening from here! Then again, latkes fried in schmaltz with onions sounds awfully good, too!

[lapin d'or]

I never deep fry so left over grease tends to be from cooking meat or roasting veggies and all this gets fed to the birds.

Large amounts of beef or lamb fat are allowed to set in lumps and get put on the bird table. Smaller ammounts of these or softer fats such as pork, chicken get mashed up with the cheapest porridge oats I can buy and again put out on the bird table. I have found that wiping out a warm roasting tin with cheap dusty porridge oats is a very good way to clean up the pan. The fat gets soaked up and the birds get a great treat.

Tiny amounts of fat just get wiped up with a paper towel which is composted.

I have been kept entertained by a huge range of birds visiting the garden this winter, even the woodpecker eats fat when it is really cold.

[dougal]

...

I have a Ford diesel truck and I just cannot bring myself to pour homemade fuel into it. I will pass this post along to my husband, Professor Flubber, and let him think about it. Maybe we could experiement with the tractor, which is a poc anyway and if it died, well, good, because then I can get a real dang tractor and stop dinking around with this one.

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Let Google be your friend

for example: http://vegetableoils.blogspot.com/ (Virginia-based)

[Marlene]

I have a thing called a fat trapper container. I pour my grease into that the throw the bag out when it's full. Deep frying oil generally goes back into the now empty container from whence it came, and then gets thrown out. I don't ever pour grease down the sink.

My husband did that once. The plumbing bill was $500.

[Peter the eater]

My municipality does curbside "green box" collection every other week. The box is big enough to conceal a large adult. In it goes:

* Fruit & vegetable peelings

* Table scraps, meat, fish, bones

* Dairy products

* Cooking oil & fat

* Bread, rice, pasta,

* Coffee grounds, filters, tea bags

* Eggshells.

* Boxboard & Soiled Paper (cereal, shoe, cracker & cookie boxes)

* Paper towel rolls

* Food napkins

* Paper towels and soiled paper

[prasantrin]

This topic has been covered a couple of times here and here.

I use a Japanese product called katameru tempuru which is powder that you add to oil to solidify it. I prefer it to pouring oil in milk cartons or jars because those things can be recycled, and I like to recycle as much as I can. I've never seen it available in Canada, but I've never looked, either. I might have to bring some back with me when I move back.

[prasantrin]

I have a thing called a fat trapper container.  I pour my grease into that the throw the bag out when it's full.  Deep frying oil generally goes back into the now empty container from whence it came, and then gets thrown out.  I don't ever pour grease down the sink.

My husband did that once.  The plumbing bill was $500.

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I looked up fat trappers, and I think I want one. How similar are the bags to airplane barf bags? The replacement bags are about $1 each, but if I were to store up barf bags, I could just use those in the container!

[Marlene]

I have a thing called a fat trapper container.  I pour my grease into that the throw the bag out when it's full.  Deep frying oil generally goes back into the now empty container from whence it came, and then gets thrown out.  I don't ever pour grease down the sink.

My husband did that once.  The plumbing bill was $500.

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I looked up fat trappers, and I think I want one. How similar are the bags to airplane barf bags? The replacement bags are about $1 each, but if I were to store up barf bags, I could just use those in the container!

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Sort of similar. The fat trapper bags are foil lined and they are very heavy duty. They don't leak, and I can put a ton of oil/fat in there before I throw them out. I started using them when we got the RV and then took that one to the cottage and got one for home after hubby's incident.

Frankly, you could probably line the container with a heavy duty ziplock bag or some such. I like this thing, because it lives under my sink, out of the way,and holds a lot of fat.

[prasantrin]

Sort of similar.  The fat trapper bags are foil lined and they are very heavy duty.  They don't leak, and I can put a ton of oil/fat in there before I throw them out.  I started using them when we got the RV and then took that one to the cottage and got one for home after hubby's incident. 

Frankly, you could probably line the container with a heavy duty ziplock bag or some such.  I like this thing, because it lives under my sink, out of the way,and holds a lot of fat.

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I hold a lot of fat, too. . .

I'll look into them next time I'm in Canada, and in the meantime, I'll start hoarding barf bags (they don't make 'em like they used to, though. They're awfully thin now!). Even if they don't end up working out, barf bags are always useful!

[johnnyd]

I decided one day to add a squirt of dish washing liquid and hot water to the leftover oil and make a big froth before dumping down the drain, thinking it would dissolve better in sewage pipes.

But since I started hanging around this joint, I've been saving oils and fats whenever I can, and dispose only in the trash. I've learned lamb fat shelf-life can be measured in mere hours.

[cbread]

If it's relatively clean beef fat or chicken fat from stock-making, I'm likely to filter and freeze it for future use.

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Can anyone recommend the best ways to filter oils and fats? Currently I just stockpile the stuff, en mass, in the freezer, in a coffee can, for eventual disposal at the dump. I'd like to separate the nasty from the reusable, and clean up the worthier oils for reuse, but I don't know the best way to do that.

[Hest88]

I throw a wad of paper towels into the trash can, to protect the plastic garbage bag from the hot grease, and pour the grease straight into the trash.