I love to fry foods. From clam fritters to homemade potato chips to chicken sandwiches, fried foods are tasty and they are special since most people find frying to be daunting. But frying foods is easy and as long as it is done correctly, it's not as unhealthy as most people think. We fry something up every few weeks and if I start with a full bottle of oil, I tend to have nearly all of it left when the frying is done. I hate the idea of just tossing it out, especially if it hasn't been used hard, so I try to clean it up.
Experts say you can reuse oil a few times before it needs to be tossed as long as you have not used it to fry something potent, like fish. Fry oil will take on the flavor of what you cooked in it, so be choosy as to when you clean your oil and when you toss it. And always give it a smell test before you use it. If the oil smells "off" - it probably is, so out it should go!
So now you have a batch of used oil and you want to clean it - where do you start? You will be amazed at how easy this is! After frying, cool the oil so that it is warm or cool. If the oil has chunks of food and debris in it, run it through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of the junk.
Once slightly cooled and strained, whisk together ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon cornstarch for each cup of frying oil you are cleaning. Add the mixture to the oil and heat it gently over low heat, stirring constantly and making sure it does not come to a simmer. Be patient, you are not cooking this oil as much as you are working it. The starch mixture will begin to solidify after 12-15 minutes or so. Once that happens, remove the oil from the heat and then strain it again through a fine-mesh strainer. If pieces of sediment remain, try to spoon them out or run the mixture through cheesecloth or butter muslin.
The oil may appear a little cloudy, but that's ok. It will clear up when you reheat it. It can be stored and reused again and again. It will eventually break down and become unusable, so just check it out before you use it and know that when it seems questionable, it probably is. At that point it is time to toss it and start with a fresh bottle of oil.
I just love a new lease on life and clarifying fry oil is just that. For a few minutes of time and a few tablespoons of cornstarch, you can save money and save the earth with this simple and easy technique.
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