Proper disposal of used cooking oil/fat/grease

[Ruth]

You can buy the very best peanut oil by the gallon at any Chinese supermarket. It comes from Hong Kong .

I have never known peanut oil smell fishy but canola oil heated to high temperatures most certainly does. It apparently is loaded with omega 3. I never use it for frying or even for any kind of cooking.

[tkassum]

Hi Ruth

Thanks for your helpful reply.

Funnily enough we rolled on down to Canal Street today and went to New Kam Man marketplace. In addition to ninja-themed mugs we also bought a gallon of "Knife Brand" peanut oil. Looking forward to using this going forward.

I think you're dead right about the canola oil. It is probably also a function of degradation at temperature - we used canola to cook doughnuts at 325 degrees, which were not at all fishy, but when we raised the temperature to 360 degrees for potato skin crisps, the fishiness came out.

Funny how food science actually has applications in real life!

[SeanDirty]

1) What’s the best oil for deep-frying, anyway? People say peanut oil – but where and how does one buy gallons of this stuff (especially in New York)?

BEEF TALLOW (what McDonalds used before it went all health conscious) Then second place peanut oil.

2) And why does it sometimes turn fishy? What can one do to prevent this? DONT FRY FISH.... heheh only way to avoid it... or actually i think you may refer to the oxidation of the oil, which it does go bad and rancid and will emit that sort of smell after extended use, or excessive heat... Which oil can burn and evaporate... and go RANCID!!

3) How many times do you reuse the oil before you pitch it? Thats relative... if you fry one thing a day, it could go alot longer then a few days / weeks... usually you can go by clarity, taste, just like meat... if it seems bad it probably is...

4) How can you pitch it in a planet-friendly fashion? Put it in your eco friendly car.... or recycle it... there are filters out there that can help you reuse your oil Many times over...

5) What are your favorite things to deep-fry? The real question is what cant you deep fry... Ive tried everything... But battered seafood is good... Akras... with a spicy mayo..

6) Any tips, tricks, etc to avoid blowing up the house and to encourage optimal fryage? Um.... unless your using gasoline... or dumping ice or water into your fryer... i think you should be fine... DONT LEAVE IT UNATTENDED...

[RAHiggins1]

1) What’s the best oil for deep-frying, anyway? People say peanut oil – but where and how does one buy gallons of this stuff (especially in New York)?

2) And why does it sometimes turn fishy? What can one do to prevent this?

3) How many times do you reuse the oil before you pitch it?

4) How can you pitch it in a planet-friendly fashion?

5) What are your favorite things to deep-fry?

6) Any tips, tricks, etc to avoid blowing up the house and to encourage optimal fryage?

Thanks,

TK

←

1) /agree SeanDirty; Beef fat rocks the deep fryer. Peanut is #2.

2) Change oil after frying fish. Sean and I are scarily similar....

3) See SeanDirty #3

4) I save the oil by frezzing it until the container is full, then I'll take it to a local restaurant and ask to add it to their receptacle outside. Alternatively, you could give it to a bio-fuel geek driving his diesel mercedes 1500 miles on a gallon of the stuff.

5) You can deep fry anything, ask the Scots! Fish, potatoes, wings, any number of croquettes, onion rings, it just goes on and on..

6) a.) Pay closer attention to your fryer. You need one that recovers heat quickly and controls heat efficiently. Common mistakes are to put too much in at one time which lowers the heat too much, causing the food to absorb more oil and make it greasier. A quick recovery of cooking temperature helps this greatly. Electric models just don't have the BTU's and Gas models are expensive and usually Industrial. I use a Cast Iron Dutch oven at home and wing it. I'll turn the burner on high when I put food in and reduce heat to ideal temp as the oil recovers.

b.) Allow the food to drainly thoroughly over the fryer. Oil cools down quickly and will stick to the food if you fish food out and put it on paper to drain and then you have greasy food staying in contact with greasy paper as well.

c.) Ideal temp for pretty much anything is 365ºF.

d.) Food continues to cook out of the oil, Golden Brown will darken further after you take it out.

Edited December 1, 2008 by RAHiggins1 (log)

[Pam R]

2) And why does it sometimes turn fishy? What can one do to prevent this?

Are you asking why does canola oil smell fishy even when you don't fry fish?

Apparently for some people, canola oil does give off a fishy odour all on it's own. I've never experienced it, and I use canola often for frying.

[nickrey]

I filter my frying oil through a disposable fry oil filter cone after each use. This removes a lot of taste contaminants and seems to increase its longevity. This doesn't apply to oil used for frying fish, which probably needs to be recycled much sooner.

[HowardLi]

A coffee filter with disposable paper filters might do the trick as well.

[Chris Amirault]

Some deep frying tips I've learned hereabouts and elsewhere:

Toss in old oil whenever you're using new oil; 10% is a good amount. It helps to crisp up the food. You want a little breakdown.

Use your ears. Deep frying is about oil and water; when the latter burns off in the former, the sound changes from a bubbly rumble to a slight hiss.

Oil temperature drops 50-75F when you put in a batch of stuff, so heat the oil higher than you want it.

[SeanDirty]

I dunno about the old oil thing... The way i see that is... if i had old ground beef why would i throw it in with new ground beef... just because its aged it doesn't mean its better...

Oil breaks down from Light abuse, as well as oxidation, and age... Chefs work so hard to have the best product and cooking tools, and of course quality of ingredients... oil being one of them as well... I just dont understand why you would want to add old oil to good oil...

Could you explain how Alittle breakdown in new oil by adding old is good....?? What could the benefit be?

[HungryC]

Regarding oil disposal: it is a simple matter if you're a home cook with a yard or compost heap. Vegetable oil is a natural product; it will biodegrade quickly. Dig a hole in the yard or corner of the compost heap, pour in the cooled oil, and forget about it. n.b., if you have a dog, this won't work, unless it is a very well-behaved or finicky dog. The poor dog can get very sick from eating greasy compost (don't ask).

I'm partial to peanut or soybean oil; I abhor the odor of canola oil, which is intensified by frying (to my nose, anyway). Practically every supermarket & sporting goods store in the Deep South carries peanut oil in huge containers (up to 5 gallons), so it's not exactly hard to find 'round here.

How long the oil lasts depends on what you're frying--some things gunk it up faster than others. Beware that the flash point of oil decreases as the oil ages/breaks down--old oil is more likely to catch fire than the fresh stuff.

Hmm--favorite things to fry, a potentially very long list: beignets, onion rings, leftover boiled potatoes, tempura-battered veggies, fresh fish, oysters, shrimp, bread dough, battered oreos, chicken wings, bone-in chicken, natchitoches meat pies, samosas, pakoras, breaded blue crab claws (already cracked)...but the hands-down favorite at my house is potatoes. Properly made fries are a thing of wondrous beauty.

[Chris Amirault]

Could you explain how Alittle breakdown in new oil by adding old is good....?? What could the benefit be?

←

It's the soaps, I tell you. Back here I quoted Russ Parsons from his How to Read a French Fry, the relevant selection of which follows:

Have you ever noticed how something fried in absolutely fresh oil never completely browns? In fact, it may not cook through at all. ... [F]rying is essentially a drying process. When a piece of food is dropped into hot oil, the heat evaporates any moisture on the outside of the food. Since the food is surrounded by oil, the moisture forms a very thin barrier between the oil and what is being fried. Fresh oil can't penetrate that barrier.

Fortunately, some of the by-products of the breakdown of oil are chemical compounds called soaps. ... The chemical soaps created in the frying process ... penetrate the water barrier and bring the oil into direct contact with the food being cooked, allowing both browning and thorough cooking. For that reason, old-time cooks always saved a ladleful of oil oil to add to the fresh batch when they fried foods.

[RAHiggins1]

Could you explain how Alittle breakdown in new oil by adding old is good....?? What could the benefit be?

←

It's the soaps, I tell you. Back here I quoted Russ Parsons from his How to Read a French Fry, the relevant selection of which follows:

Have you ever noticed how something fried in absolutely fresh oil never completely browns? In fact, it may not cook through at all. ... [F]rying is essentially a drying process. When a piece of food is dropped into hot oil, the heat evaporates any moisture on the outside of the food. Since the food is surrounded by oil, the moisture forms a very thin barrier between the oil and what is being fried. Fresh oil can't penetrate that barrier.

Fortunately, some of the by-products of the breakdown of oil are chemical compounds called soaps. ... The chemical soaps created in the frying process ... penetrate the water barrier and bring the oil into direct contact with the food being cooked, allowing both browning and thorough cooking. For that reason, old-time cooks always saved a ladleful of oil oil to add to the fresh batch when they fried foods.

←

I learned on "Beakman's World" (saturday morning kids science program) that soaps work by breaking down water's surface tension, there by making water wetter. Now I'm wondering if it's the moisture barrier on the Fry or the oil that is effected by the soaps?

I'm going to say soaps effect the water making it evaporate more efficiently.

[Fat Guy]

I confess I usually just pour it down the drain and run hot water for a while until I'm confident it's all out of the system.

[Chris Hennes]

I have read (someplace) that you aren't supposed to dump it down the drain because it forms a slick on the surface of the water in the treatment facilities. This is bad, for some reason that escapes me...

At any rate, I save the container the oil is from or use an empty gallon milk jug, fill it with the cooled oil, and throw it in the trash.

[rooftop1000]

We have a septic system....I make a newspaper cone and pour it in there, then into the trash can

[Kerry Beal]

Compost for me.

[petite tête de chou]

I believe it's a less-than-great idea to pour it down the drain with a long, hot water chaser but I've done it. Usually I pour it into a large coffee can or milk jug and toss it in the trash. Neither of these solutions appeal to me at all. I'm not sure what else to do!

[Magictofu]

I fill an empty can until its full and then dump it.

[Holly Moore]

A little club soda, a wedge of lime ...

Actually I dump it down the sewer opening on the corner if liquid. Into the garbage if solid.

[Magictofu]

You could burn the oil in a basic oil/grease lamp but the smell might not be appreciated by most people.

[Andrew Fenton]

I have read (someplace) that you aren't supposed to dump it down the drain because it forms a slick on the surface of the water in the treatment facilities. This is bad, for some reason that escapes me...

It's worse than that. As I understand it, as grease cools, it clogs the sewers. Grease clogs are the bane of sewer departments: cleaning it is the most difficult and dirty thing they have to do. In lots of cities (including New York, at least for businesses), it's illegal, and it's definitely a bad thing to do in general.

If I have a little bit of grease, I'll wipe it up with a paper towel and toss it. If I have a lot, I'll pour it into an empty yogurt container or whatever and toss that.

[JimH]

Everything but bacon grease gets poured into a jar and tossed into the trash when full. Bacon grease is stored in a jar in the frig until I need to fry something or cook cornbread in cast iron.

[KingLear]

I used to set the tap water to hot and pour it down the drain.

Thankfully, things have changed for the better here in the part of Ontario in which I live. Not only do we have a great recycling program, but we now have a green bin program. We put all our food scraps, including bones and oil, as well as used facial tissue, paper towels, dryer lint, dog hair and the like, into biodegradable bags that are then placed in a small green bin. It's picked up once a week for compost.

Great program.

[project]

Fireplace, but while being careful!

[Pierogi]

Being inherently cheap, and living in a circa 1940's house with corresponding plumbing........

Also, having been thoroughly indoctrinated by my Dad that "grease doesn't go down the drain......."

I have what we here in Southern California, at least amongst my circle, call the "Surprise de Trashman" or SdeT. Its a large jar, with a tight lid (commercial pasta sauce jars are the BEST) that lives in a corner of the freezer and gets all pourable quantities of any grease (except bacon, or Please God, duck) dumped into it when cool, re-lidded, and then re-stashed in the freezer.

When full, it gets a sticky note posted somewhere I can see that says "SdeT" to remind me to deposit it into the trash bin on the morning of pickup, so it stays frozen and doesn't slime my huge, city-issued trash bin, thus causing me to waste water to wash the darn thing out.

My mom used an empty tin can with an aluminum foil lid. I like to think my generation has improved the concept. The usual life-span of my "SdeT" jar is at least 3 or 4 months. Then its time to buy more jarred pasta sauce.