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Idc if this is dumb, I pour it in a bucket and when it’s full I dig a hole in the back yard and pour the oil in there and bury it. I do this 1-2 times a year.
You’re begging the US Army to liberate your yard.
Depends on the oil but cooking oil is organic material so it shouldn’t be an issue.
It would get pretty stinky.
The moles must hate me
Honestly not the worst idea now I think about it. I have been using the paper towel soak method, but this could actually be less wasteful and easier on the organic composter. Thanks for the tip!
Edit: Ok so I dug into this a bit more (no pun intended), and seems its not the best idea due to the oil potentially seeping into groundwater.
Ken M vibes
If you have a metal bowl that you no longer need, you can put a roll of toilet paper in there and then douse the whole thing in cooling oil.
Once ignited you will have a stinky lamp, so I would only recommend doing this outside.
I built a wick holder and have now free candles :D
don’t they stink?
No. I filter it through a coffee filter and it smells neutral
If the only grease you need to get rid of is bacon grease, it’ll smell like delicious bacon 🤤
Just wait for it to cool and solidify then scrape it off into the trash.
Are you thinking of fat?
This is what I do with fat. With cooking oil, it’s only a tiny bit at a time, I don’t deep fry. I pour it out in the lawn.
What a waste of perfectly good lube.
I just drink it.
this kindof, but more serious.
Unless we’re talking deep frying, the cooking fat makes for a perfect base for a sauce. With some flour and some stock you have the beginnings of something beautiful, such a waste just throwing it away.
Collect in in a jug and use it for the burn pile lol
Coming at this from more of a common sense angle, I was always told oil doesn’t go down the sink. For most people, it ends up in the normal rubbish.
Putting oil in the normal rubbish seems like it would have basically no issues at all. I think it would either be incinerated or end up in a landfill. If the energy from burning rubbish is being harvested (it might not be) then I would think the oil would help and that could be a useful way to recycle it.
If it ends up in a landfill, I don’t see any problem with a bit of oil being buried with other junk. A lot of people seem to be saying they would bury it anyway.
The only real concern would be if you have a lot of oil and you’re worried about your bin leaking or something. If you put most oil immediately into the bin then this shouldn’t really be an issue.
Of course if you just have a few little drops of oil in with a bunch of water then you would probably pour that in the sink anyway and it would most likely be fine.
Collecting stuff in a bucket, making soap or using it for something else seems like a lot of hassle to mitigate quite minor concerns. Most people don’t have a serious use for a bucket of used cooking oil.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong about any of this.
I’ll usually wipe the oil with some paper so I can throw it on the trash. Many moons ago, my family used to collect the oil to make soap at home. Last time I recall seeing that was some 30-ish years ago.
We had a grease can under the sink when I wasgrowing up. My fiancee and I use an old jar. I can’t believe people didn’t know better. They probably think it’s fine to dump car fluids in the storm drain too. Idiots.
Plenty of auto shops in my area will take car oils free of charge. Same with the tip, bottle it up and drop it off on the next tip run.
The shop I worked in, and I assume most other shops in a cold climate, had a waste oil furnace. We’d save oil all summer, and it would keep the shop warm all winter.
Pour it in a jar. Wait for it to cool a little (but not enough to solidify) then dump it in the trash.
Or just wait for it to cool and toss the whole jar away. And that way there’s not just a ton of liquid oil in your trash can.
Glorious grease fire!
What on earth are you all cooking to have so much oil left over that you can pour it into anything?
Yeah, like what the fuck. People here really think that you can’t fry with just enough oil.
Well, not normally, but for example crispy breaded anything should be dunked in oil at least half way.
Have you every heard of the method of cooking called frying?
Sure, but not usually with enough oil to pour out of the pan after cooking.
Do you make potato fries in a pan?
A lot of people do, actually. Seasoning them right for them to come out more “french fry” than “dried potato” is more involved than a lot of people might like, but I personally don’t do it because I’m being picky about the flavor. I don’t own a deep-frier and salted-dried-potatoes are good enough with a lot of entrees.
That depends on the dish - a Wiener Schnitzel for example should be able to move freely in the oil (because it should be kept moving while frying), or the breading will be pretty underwhelming. Same goes for most stuff with breading. I always try to be very conservative in my cooking oil usage, but in those cases it’s just not an option.
Ooh that makes sense, and I want schnitzel now.
For me it’s mostly the deep fryer. When I change the oil it takes about 4 1/2 liters to refill.
My parents could keep that going for a good long time by filtering it through a few layers of kitchen paper, it got rid of a lot of the burnt stuff, came out quite clear each time.
Don’t they warn against reusing too much because it breaks down into carcinogens?
Probably, but don’t most things these days go out of their way to kill us anyway? 😅
I use paper coffee filters in a metal strainer.
Takes a while, but the oil comes out clear and back to its original colour and flavour after 2 passes.
I just got a deep fryer literally two days ago how often should I change the oil?
Drain it through a filter and refrigerate it if you aren’t using it constantly. It’ll go rancid pretty quick.
They say around around 10 uses or a max of three months, depending on how often you use it and what you’re frying.
For me personally I tend to stretch it a bit further… the main thing is that it isn’t rancid or starting to get too dark.
Sweet thanks!
Most importantly, old oil can have a lower smoke point than is safe. Definitely replace your oil if anything starts to taste burnt.
That makes sense, I didn’t imagine that many people bother deep frying at home, but I guess I’m wrong :D
But in this case people are describing adding a little oil to a bottle at a time where with deep frying you could fill a bottle every time I think.
Here in Belgium nearly every household has a friteuse to make fries.
Wow, I just bake them, I’m sure it’s not as good though.
Blasphemy!
I don’t call it oil since it’s solid at room temperature, but if you fry meat you’ll liberate fat (dripping)
Meat! I was forgetting about meat…
If you have a fireplace, used cooking oil burns great.
Also a great firestarter if you like to go camping.
As a 90s kid, I prefer a more twisted firestarter.
I hope you get your chimney cleaned often because that flue probably looks bituminous otherwise.
Why? (Honest question, seems like a good PSA type moment)
You know the grease you see on the range hood or ceilings of your kitchen/restaurants above the cooktop/stove?
Same thing would happen in your chimney, but combined with wood fire ash.
But the oil is being burnt?
Is there something from the combustion process that causes issues?
Or are you saying some won’t immediately combust and would go up the chimney?
Would be interesting to see research into this.
Complete combustion of hydrocarbons is difficult and usually requires specialized equipment for that hydrocarbon. A fireplace is probably for wood (I assume nobody here is throwing cooking oil into a gas fireplace), but it’s not even good at that. Cooking oil will spatter and polymerize
Nothing burns cleanly in a fireplace, even gas ones except for ventless ones.
Anything you burn in a fireplace like wood, oil, fat etc. will produce organic compounds that the fire is unable to break down into non-flammable substances because it does not burn hot enough.
A wood fireplace accumulates creosote, which can build until it is capable of igniting and cause a chimney fire. Oil and fat combust very poorly and will coat the flue with material that is easier to ignite than creosote. This ends up being a hazard worse than just wood byproducts because they can ignite and then set the creosote burning.
How’s the smell though?
Like French fries
French Fry grease will coat your lungs. No reason to be subjecting yourself to that smell if not actively consuming french-fries. I’ve spent enough time frying fast-food and donuts that there’s only the two ways that smell isn’t making me puke: actively cooking or eating. Otherwise, I’m not stepping foot in your fry-scented cancer den.
I didn’t notice a smell, all the smoke goes up the chimney obviously.
