Cooking Oil Management Principles
Saving money while safely managing used cooking oil begins with the selection of oil and proceeds to receiving oil, filling fryers, filtering, polishing and then recycling the used cooking oil.
What is the best choice for cooking oil?
The best cooking oil is the one that provides the ideal balance of flavor, cost, and nutrition for your menu.
The oil you choose may depend on what you are frying: chicken, fish, meat, potatoes, and what you want that food to taste like. For instance, canola oil has a neutral flavor and is great if you don’t want the oil to impart any flavor to the food. Peanut oil might work well with a variety of foods cooked together in a wok.
Durability of the oil is an important factor as it directly impacts how much your oil will cost you over time. High temperature frying (425°+) breaks down oil more rapidly than frying at 375°. Safflower, sunflower, peanut, rice bran, soybean and corn oils all have relatively high smoke points. This chart of oil smoke points shows where each oil begins to break down. Olive oil has a lower smoke point and is usually used for sauteing.
Knowing how many times you can reuse cooking oil is important to both great tasting food and keeping the cost of cooking oil as low as possible. More and more, the big restaurant chains are using blends of different cooking oils to get the best balance of flavor and durability. McDonald’s uses a blend of canola and other oils.
Receiving and Storing Cooking Oil
Cooking oil can be delivered in jugs, boxes or in bulk, deposited in your permanent tank. All cooking oil should be stored in a cool dry place. Heat is the enemy and storing it on the floor can result in leaks, injuries, falls and also attract rodents. It should be stored on shelves or in tanks away from heat and busy pathways.
The Importance of Filtering Your Cooking Oil
To keep your oil at peak performance and minimize the cost of cooking oil it is essential to filter it. Filtering your cooking oil removes those burned bits of food, bones, blood and other contaminants that can break down cooking oil quickly. How often you filter depends on the volume and frequency of use but consider filtering after each meal service.
A cost-effective and simple way to filter is to use a PFM or portable filter machine. One of the best and most cost-effective PFMs is the Frymaster available here. This unit is able to filter a maximum of 50 pounds of oil; the process is quick and runs about 5 minutes. The pump is reversible so you can pump oil from the frypot, then back into the pot. Regularly filtering oil is an important part of fryer maintenance; when done routinely, it can extend the life of your oil significantly. The Frymaster fryer filter rids oil of crumbs, sediment, and other contaminants that would taint the flavor of the oil and the food you cook in it.
You can also use these portable filter machines to transport oil from the fryer to an indoor used cooking oil recycling tank or cooking oil management system, the gold standard for recycling used cooking oil.
Polishing Your Cooking Oil
Polishing your cooking oil extends its life and reduces your cost. Polishing cooking oil is a process of using a chemical filter to bind proteins and blood and remove them from your oil. Filtering does not typically remove these contaminants but polishing does. Chemical polishes are made by a number of different companies.
ReBirth’s Used Cooking Oil Recycling Service
Whatever cooking oil you choose, ReBirth is the best choice for handling your used cooking oil recycling needs. Rebirth is local to New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. Rebirth can provide cost effective indoor used cooking oil recycling systems. We also provide free outdoor used cooking oil recycling bins. And we are licensed experts for grease trap cleaning.