Easily Clean Used Frying Oil With One Pantry Staple

Frying up your favorite foods automatically makes them more indulgent and deliciously crunchy, but after it's all said and done there's always one head-scratching question: "What do I do with my oil now that I'm done with it?" For many, that answer is to simply dispose of your used cooking oil. But that's a lot of oil (and money) to be throwing away. Luckily, you can actually reuse your frying oil to get the most bang for your buck. If you know how to correctly clean your used frying oil, you'll be able to get at least two more uses out of it.

The most common way to clean your frying oil is using a strainer with a coffee filter placed inside and sieving your oil through the tiny, porous holes. The problem with this method is it takes a long time, and opens the door to bigger, oily messes in the kitchen. Instead, we recommend you try the cornstarch method for cleaning out the leftover food scraps from your frying oil. All you need to do is create a cornstarch slurry by mixing ¼ cup of water, with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, for every cup of oil you use. Then add the mixture to your cooled oil and heat it on low for 10 to 12 minutes until the mixture starts to solidify. Once it's all coagulated you can use a strainer to fish out the blob of cornstarch and solids, or pour it through a fine-mesh strainer (no coffee filter needed). 

There are people on the internet who think the cornstarch method might just be a gimmicky way to run some culinary experiments in the kitchen, but those who have tried it swear by it. The cornstarch works as a binding agent for any scraps of food or batter in your frying oil. When cornstarch is added to water and heated up, the molecules within the cornstarch begin breaking down and bursting, essentially gluing themselves to water and food scraps, creating a thickened, gelatinous (easy to dispose of) substance in the process. Keep in mind that this method doesn't work with frying oil used for fish or frying oil that's gone beyond the smoke point because both are infused with a flavor that cornstarch won't be able to get out.

Once you've used the cornstarch method to filter out all the gunk from your frying oil, you might notice that the leftover mixture isn't as clear as it was when your poured fresh oil. But do not fret, this is perfectly normal. When you reheat your oil, all cloudiness should clear right up. If you're not reusing your oil right away, you can either refrigerate it or store it in the freezer until you're ready to use it again. Your oil should be good for two to three more uses with the proper cleaning of course. And if, you're not sure whether or not your oil has expired, check out these useful indicators for oil gone bad.