I've managed to scandalise dp with my cooking oil, recycling habits.

[WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo]

We very rarely cook deep fried food, maybe once every 3 months the urge will strike and I'll do proper fish and chips or something. But it will be a one off (( nothing against fried food, just usually go to the chippy because it stinks the house out ))

Last night we cooked tempura chicken and.chips (( also had salt and pepper mushrooms, rice and curry sauce for anyone who cares. ))

Dp washed up, and as usual I poured the oil from the pan into a jug via a sieve then into an empty carton. Where it lives in my pully out cupboard. I was caught in the act and dp is now horrified and.convinced we'll all get food poisoning and die. I've just caught him trying to smuggle my hoarded oil into the bin.

I however pointed out the congealed, oil, with dead flies and God knows what living in it housed by a pan inches thick with grease and burnt offerings that lived in pretty much every house in the 70s and 80s. The oil, if I remember rightly would be topped up and only ever cleaned and changed on highdays and holidays.

I also think it's wasteful binning perfectly useable oil after being used once........chip shops etc won't do that.

So AIBU and a food poisoning harbouring slattern ?

Or is dp being a wasteful snob ?

Oooh!! the chips from the pan of lard were amazing!! We had egg and chips (and proper bread ) on Tuesdays... I can still remember the joy!!
It cheered me up no end and my brother and I used to argue over who had the most chips😁
Then....
Bloody Oven Chips 👹👹👹👹👹
That was the end of a beautiful tea 😭
I hated them in 1979
I hate them now
I have a little deep-fat fryer - and my favourite tea is still egg and chips and proper bread!
Fry in hell McCains👹

I wouldn’t reuse it after 3 months. A few times in a week or maybe two, sure, but sieving is unlikely to get every tiny morsel of food out and 3 months gives plenty of time for bacteria to grow.

Also oil isn’t the same as lard, which is what your family likely used. It starts to break down after reaching certain heats and shouldn’t really be reused at all. It also starts to taste pretty bad after re-use.

Our chip pan was the iconic dark blue catherineholm enamelware.
But it makes me to think about a chip pan sitting on the hob for months nowadays.
We never deep fry anything at home.

Apparently it's perfectly safe to reuse 'several times' as long as you don't overheat the oil.

www.theguardian.com/food/2019/aug/24/dont-waste-chip-frying-oil-use-it-again

Heat might kill bacteria, but it doesn't destroy the toxins those bacteria create as they live.

Omg the joy of chips cooked in lard! I had a couple of friends who still used lard well into the 80s and remembering their chips makes my mouth water more than 30 years later. One of them lived near my local and we'd sometimes go back to hers after the pub and she'd end up cooking egg & chips for everyone at 2am. Bloody gorgeous.

My late mum switched from lard to oil because it was "healthier" when I was still at school. When she still used lard she used to double cook chips, and I think of her whenever I see "twice cooked" or even "triple cooked" chips on menus.

I don't have a deep fryer of any description, it's strictly oven chips at our house, but I now have an irresisible urge to go and buy an old-style chip pan and a couple of packs of lard.

We got a deep fat fryer about a year ago, and use it a couple of times a month. Usually DH uses it, and makes the most amazing chips. I took it out a couple of weeks ago and nearly died at the state of it. So I took out the oil, cleaned it all out and put fresh oil in. The chips have been crap ever since...they're so much better with old oil, but it's so bad for you.

The main risk of harm isn't from bacteria (though that is possible too).

But every time you heat oil, you increase the amount of PAHs and acrolein etc, which are a cancer risk (amongst other things).

Inhaling frying fumes is harmful anyway, but reusing it is compounding that risk.

And yes, it is wasteful to throw it away. So it would be better to find alternative methods of cooking and not fry at all.

Lakie I just use my wok.........it doubles up really well as a chip pan.

Use a coffee filter instead of a sieve & pour back in the bottle once cool. Chips used to taste best cooked in dripping or lard.

I hardly ever use oil for deep frying, probably twice a year or less. But I wouldn't reuse the oil, maybe if I was using it the next day. But if it's going to sit there for 3 months I wouldn't like to!

In my childhood 60s and 70s we used beef dripping to fry chips - used to get a block from the butcher - reused again and again - fabulous!

It's fine to reuse but leaving it 3 months is grim!

You can tell the really young posters who didn't grow up in the '70's

My Aunt is in her 90's she makes THE best chips. Oil, not lard, sieved ,reused, topped up.

'Chip pan oil' is fine. Your sieve is fine.

I suppose I'd feel differently if it wasn't part of my childhood. A long ago 'Ex' just about cried one night when I did the dishes & washed his meat fry pan. I soon learnt that it never gets washed! (I don't eat meat so it didn't really affect me, except for feeling ewwww)

Just seemed so much worse having meat in it & being reused all the time.

Oh OP. This is Mumsnet where they’ll only handle their husband’s penis with tongs. You should have known the hygiene stasi will be here.

I use lard for my roasties.Totally yum

Lol Sad DP once fell out with SIL because she washed our teapot.

She was round for some family do and she took it on herself to do some washing up and I walked in the kitchen just as the teapot went in the sink.

Teapots, like meat fry pans, stir fry pans and omelette pans rarely need washing, if at all. That's where the flavour and non stick properties are, where relevant.

Think in laws still have the same oil in the pan that they had when DH was a teenager in the 70’s. Not killed them off yet.

I am feeling a little bit ew about reusing old oil but I I don't know why.
As you say chippy's do it and growing up in the 70's we had the obligatory chip pan with lard sitting on the stove for months on end without it ever getting changed.

Loving the lard in pan nostalgia! The chips cooked in it were gorgeous though.When I was a child we had both a chip pan full of lard and a frying pan with lard in it. Both were reused time after time, chip pan full of lard was left in the cupboard until needed again. The frying pan was left on top of the cooker. I remember seeing tiny mouse footprints in the lard in the frying pan no one cared !

I didn’t think you were supposed to reheat oil over and over as it can give you cancer.

Haha! Lard! I remember that! My grandmother used to pour the used lard into an enamel pot, put a lid on it and leave it next to the stove, ready to use next time. Never gave us food poisoning...and it made the best chips ever!

Cooking oil in a commercial setting isn't changed every day but it's also not left for three months. That's gross and I'd be worried about it being rancid.

Oil in a restaurant kitchen will just sit in the fryer uncovered, sometimes for weeks.

In kfc they have a special powder to dissolve the bits so it can be reused for longer!

I think you're fine OP!