Frying Oil

aaron.m.kent

Where do folks buy their frying oil? I tend to buy high heat safflower oil from Spectrum, but that gets expensive. Suggestions?

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Comments

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Canola, Costco. http://www.ciaprochef.com/canola/takesheat.html

Matthew_Snyder_68770

I'm all about peanut oil for frying, but I'm not particularly wedded to a source.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

+1 for peanut. Inexpensive, neutral, and it doesn't take on those fishy notes that canola can if you get it smoking hot. The only issue is that it's allergenic, but if you're just cooking at home and don't have a peanut allergy, you're good to go. I also keep lard and tallow on hand for special occasions, but they're expensive. Quite stable though (especially tallow) and there's something oh-so special about potatoes fried in beef fat.

brian_martin2001

I usually get soy bean oil from Costco

malcolm.mccaffery

Me too...I love frying with peanut oil

artstype

Whole foods brand safflower oil is cheaper, I agree @canola being fishy. Grapeseed, Sunflower, Rice bran also good. Here's a chart that might help you find locally available, cheaper alternatives (doesn't include duck fat, my fave)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

Another chart with animal fats

http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/oilchart.html

aaron.m.kent

What are thoughts on reusing the frying oil?

Matthew_Snyder_68770

After use, strain it to remove any gunk that came off whatever it was you were cooking. Store in an airtight container away from sunlight (in the fridge would be better, but the container will eat up a lot of real estate). Depending on what you've been frying, you can get perhaps three fries out of a batch of oil. You might be able to go beyond that, but by then the oil has likely broken down too much; you can tell when it's off if the oil has gotten more viscous, almost like motor oil. Also, do not ever heat the oil beyond its smoke point. Once it goes beyond that, it will polymerize (getting to that motor oil goopiness) right away.

Also, I wouldn't reuse oil that you made fried cod for fish and chips to cook a batch of ChefStep Old Fashioned Donuts.

GaryT_92514

Lard and tallow can be very cost-effective if you render them yourself. The fat can be obtained for next-to-nothing from butchers. I mince it cold in a food-processor, then render it in a pressure cooker with the minimum water required by the manufacturer. It can then be strained/filtered and simmered around 100-110C to slowly evaporate off the water. Strain again through a fine filter and its done. The process may sound a lot of bother, but there is something primally-meditative about the simmering stage. An overnight sous vide @85C works too, and has the advantage that no water needs to be added to the bag (although it will still require a short simmer to remove any traces). If you are concerned about saturated fats don't be, maybe check this out.

artstype

I used to use waste vegetable oil as fuel for an old diesel car I had converted to run on it. You absolutely must remove residual water or it will destroy the fuel pump, so the method I used was to heat the oil to @180F and then let it cool. In @ a day, the water will totally fall out of solution. For your purpose, you could then just decant it (I had it in a recycled barrel, so I just had a pipe fit with the opening a few inches off of the bottom to drain the good oil, but that's another story!) All of this lead to my first sous vide device, as I used the barrel heater (@US$40) that I used for dewatering oil with a PID and an aquarium pump ($5) in an ice chest to cook sous vide. But, I digress...

GaryT_92514

Agree - if there is a lot of water a first step is to separate it physically. I leave it overnight in the fridge for the fat to solidify on the top. Below that is usually not water but a flavourful water-gel (there are usually meat scraps in the starting fat, especially pork backfat, and the proteins gel and add flavour). The gel is easily scraped off and makes a good flavour-enhancer for sauces etc. The fat still benefits from a subsequent simmer to remove the last traces of water.