I used to pour it into a glass jar. But these days I’m just using a paper towel or 3 after it dries and chuckin it in the bin.
Left… over?
If I’m deepfrying, I set it aside and reuse it.
If I cooked something like bacon that gave off fat, I save it and use it to cook other things later.
If I was sautéing something, I used the correct amount of oil and there’s none left over.
If I was roasting something, I turn the pan drippings into a sauce.
I will say, if you’re having this problem a lot cooking meat, you’re probably not trimming the cuts properly before cooking. Trim those and throw the scraps in the freezer until the next time you make stock.
I have fat in my freezer and am a total noob at stock making. The fat is leftover from a slab of pork I cut up into 8oz portions and froze.
I would like to hear / read more about this earth thing called stock, if you are willing to share.
Get a bunch of bones: Your local butcher is probably willing to give you some for free if you’re buying something as well. If that’s not an option, look for packaged of chicken backs and chicken feet. Backs on their own are fine, feet you should mix with backs and not use alone.
Get a big pot. Bigger than you’re thinking. The biggest, basically. Must have lid, lid need not fit tightly. Whack on the heat medium high and throw a small amount of oil in and then the bones, backs, feet, whatever you’re using. This is the time to throw in fat scraps, too, or old Parmesan rinds.
While that’s sizzling, browning, defrosting, whatever, wash three large carrots and three or more large stalks of celery. Roughly chop and throw 'em in. One very large yellow onion or two medium ones, leave the skin on if it’s not dirty, cut in eighths while leaving ends intact and throw in. Take a whole head of garlic, don’t peel it, cut in half across the cloves and throw both halves in. Bay leaves if you have 'em, two or three. Twelve whole peppercorns. Rough chop and apple. Thin slice whole ginger, no need to peel — this is a great way to use up older ginger that’s gone dry. Good way to use up old wrinkly veggies in general.
Do not!!! add beets or radish, the flavors are too strong. Do not add potatoes, it’ll ruin the texture of the stock; you can add them later when you’re turning stock into soup.
Get your largest stirring thingamajig and stir the veggies around with the meat. Salt everything and stir again. Don’t worry about using too much salt, it’s almost impossible to make homemade stock and end up with more sodium per serving than packaged broth.
When evertting smells sizzlin’ good, add as much water as physically fits in the pot. Cover, bring to a low boil, reduce to a high simmer and leave the lib slightly cracked so pressure doesn’t build but not too much steam escapes. You want to eat that steam, after all. Then basically ignore it for four or more hours. Seriously, go to bed and wake up in the morning to a house that smells amazing.
Skim off any grit or scum that floated to the top, kill the heat, let cool somewhat, then strain through a collander. Press the veggies and bones slightly to extract maximum goodness, then bag them up and throw them out. Strain it again through a fine mesh strainer, or if you want to get fancy, a cheesecloth or tea towel overtop of a fine strainer. Throw out the slime left behind and admire your delicious stock. Drink some from a mug. It’s delicious.
Now this last part is both optional and advanced, it’s called “clarifying”. You can crack an egg or two in a bowl and whisk it together with the eggshells. Bring your stock back to a rolling boil, throw the egg and shell in there, and it will soak up all the remaining particulate matter. The eggs turn a horrible grey color and the stock turns to liquid gold. Skim off the egg raft, filter through a cheesecloth again, and impress your Parisian friends. I urge again, this step is only if you need to feel fancy, because you can absolutely bork your hard-earned stock if you do it wrong.
Good luck and enjoy!
wow, this is such a excellent comment! Very informative.
Paper towel -> trash.
Also a reason why we don’t deep fry something and only fry semi submerged
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
I try not to deep fry anything, my body doesn’t need it, and the convection oven does a decent job. Shallow frying can also do a similar job most times at the cost of some extra time.
Decent quantity of bacon grease get collected for reuse. Small amounts just get paper toweled. If I did give in and deep fry something, that oil is being reused all week. Go big or go home.
When I’m done with it, I grab the smallest sealable container from the recycling, out the cooled fat in it, and it goes in the trash. It usually isn’t more than a cup or 2.
Reusing cooking oil many times increases your cancer risk more than cooking alone. Fyi
Don’t overreact. Depends on temperature and mostly how many times.
Appreciate the concern. The air fryer has all but eliminated my home frying. I always hated throwing out the oil, but I know it’s not great to keep around, so I was never big into frying at home.
I pour it into a bowl. Once full ill freeze it then toss out on trash day
Good for a cold winter chimney firing.
This depends on what kind of fat it is. Bacon fat I save, then clarify when there’s enough, then use it for cooking.
A little bit of oil in the iron skillet? Pour kosher salt on it when it cools down enough, use the salt & oil to scrub it clean, wipe it out & rinse it (and dry of course).
Duck I render it first and save the fat, then finish cooking it.
I don’t really deep fry so mostly what happens with other cooking oil is I eat it, in the food.
I have a spot in my yard that I pour cooking oil.
I pour it into an empty can and freeze it then eventually trash
Down the drain, the tenant special.
Into a teacup, into the fridge, then when full and solidified, peeled out and thrown into the trash.
I pretty much use your method, although sometimes after making breakfast sausage, I will fill up the pan with soap and water and let it soak for maybe a day. Then, I will go outside and dump and kinda hose it off then take it back inside to wash in the sink proper.
I don’t have enough oil left over to bother doing something other than wash normally
if there’s enough fat left, either cook more food in it, or wipe it with a paper towel. but that’s rare
I don’t cook with that much that there is relevant leftovers to begin with. I just wash my pan with soap and hot water.
paper, then boil
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