Some cooking oil questions

[Mobsta]

How long should a bottle of sunflower oil last before it goes off, if stored in a deep fat frier? Doubt I'll be able to keep it airtight without taking it out. Should it be stored airtight?

I snapped up a cheap pot/wire basket combo frier from Tesco for under a fiver... I have enough bread making/sandwich toasting devices which never get used (waste of space) so I never could bring myself to buy a proper deep fat fryer.

I dont deep fry anything, so went for sunflower oil, which I guessed might be the best choice...?

Edited by Mobsta on Friday 17th July 00:06

[Dizeee]

Groundnut oil.

[Wadeski]

groundnut / peanut oil is the best tasting and among the healthier options.

you'll want to bin after a few days, or drain and put back into the bottle.

once food has been cooked in it IIRC you want to use it up within a week, but you can reheat it a few times (although flavours will carry over so fish will give some strange flavours to your next veg!)

[Pferdestarke]

In realiy I doubt those of us with deep fat fryers actually change the oil or decant to a bottle every few days. Mine is in the garage so the aroma of oil doesn't embed itself in the curtains etc. If i'm frying chips, the oil stays very clean for a long time and I would use it around 10 times before changing.

If I'm doing tempura, breadcrumbs or fish/seafood then I would change it after every third or fourth fry.

Mine holds almost 4 litres of oil and at £5+ makes it an expensive cooking method!

Beer-battered onion rings anyone?

[Wadeski]

ah, i use a wok so maybe its different.

[Don]

Pferdestarke said:

In realiy I doubt those of us with deep fat fryers actually change the oil or decant to a bottle every few days. Mine is in the garage so the aroma of oil doesn't embed itself in the curtains etc. If i'm frying chips, the oil stays very clean for a long time and I would use it around 10 times before changing.

If I'm doing tempura, breadcrumbs or fish/seafood then I would change it after every third or fourth fry.

Mine holds almost 4 litres of oil and at £5+ makes it an expensive cooking method!

Beer-battered onion rings anyone?

I only EVER use the deep fat fryer for chips so the oil remains clean for at least the ten times. I use groundnut oil as since it has virtually no taste at all it doesn't taint the chips.

When the wife deep fries other stuff I filter the oil to get the crumbs out - that would otherwise burn and ruin the oil. But this happens so rarely that I usually just chuck it out.

These days we rarely use the deep fat fryer at all - the Mrs has been on a diet so deep fried foods have been off the menu. You can make surprisingly decent chips in the oven with virtually no oil...

[Shaolin]

Don't use sunflower for deep frying - it forms some nasty chemicals at high temps which are carcinogenic. In a deep fat frier which is re-used they will build up more and more. Rape seed is the best one apparently for high temps and repeated use.

[oldbanger]

Shaolin said:

Don't use sunflower for deep frying - it forms some nasty chemicals at high temps which are carcinogenic. In a deep fat frier which is re-used they will build up more and more. Rape seed is the best one apparently for high temps and repeated use.

Or lard (which besides being much more stable at high temperature is actually mostly monounsaturated fatty acids, principally oleic acid, the same MUFA that makes "experts" rave about olive oil)

Edited by oldbanger on Saturday 18th July 18:38

[Balmoral Green]

Interesting about the Lard. Who else can remember the big old chip pan that forever lived on one of the back burners, the basket perma-fixed into a huge lump of solid lard?

[neilsfishing]

Wadeski said:

ah, i use a wok so maybe its different.

[Balmoral Green]

What about chips in beef dripping? A bit like doing your tatties in goose fat.

[DocJock]

Beef dripping = chips fit for the gods.