Quick ? about the ideal oil for WVO - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

MattBelliveau · #1 04-21-2006, 02:31 PM

I've done a lot of reading, and understand that I should try to find WVO that has not been used to fry meats. However, I see that a lot of people get their grease from Chinese rest., who do a lot of frying of chicken and pork. Is this kind of grease OK or not? Thanks!

Austin85 · #2 04-21-2006, 03:10 PM

Hey Matt;

I tried WVO for a chinese takeout where I know the owners. Great food, but you're right. Bad oil . MOst of what chinese deep fry is meat,
Good oil by me is
liquid- non hydrogenated
clean- they don't use the fryer oil for 2 weeks before changing it
and no meats-
I try Japanese places fry few meats, some fish and mostly veggies for tempura.
If you can find a place that fries potatoes for chips or fries or nacho chips that's even better
Maybe some bars or Mexican.
Best is to ask around and hopefully not have to drive too far.
Good luck.

andmoon · #3 04-21-2006, 03:14 PM

Vegetarian Indian places have the best oil.

Bill()C · #4 04-21-2006, 08:14 PM

...I've found just asking how often they change their oil is key. If they say by the look of it... well... maybe maybe not... if they say twice a week on schedule, it's probably fairly decent to filter.... and to me partially hydrogenated only matters if you have difficulty filtering oil in the winter. Nothing to do with performance.

Bill

kitchenrat · #5 04-21-2006, 09:02 PM

i've been in the restaurant business for 30 years, trust me, there is NO restaurant anywhere of any kind that changes its fry oil twice a week. most restaurants filter their oil on a regular schedule and can run 12-14 days depending how hard their fryers are used. some don't filter at all and toss their oil on the 6th or 7th day. a lot of breakfast operations partially or completely cook their bacon in the fryers. i would be more worried about flour carbon than meat fats, almost everything that goes into a fryer is floured, and that's what blackens the oil. meat fats are emulsified into the mix and it's unlikely they would separate from it.
chinese restaurants have the lowest food costs in the industry and their owners generally use salad oil with beef lard added for flavor. japanese restaurants aren't much better, although the high end ones should be using peanut oil. hydrogenated veg oil and canola are the industry standard in most other restaurants, again many add beef lard. many mexican restaurants use straight beef lard, some add veg oil to stretch it.
and it isn't just used oil being dumped in those black containers behind the kitchen. all the solids removed from the fryers go in there, crap cleaned out of the floor drains and any other stinking mess that can't be dumped in the trash. this oil is generally picked up by a recycler that sells it as an additive to cattle feed. if the feed market is down, the recycler dumps it in landfills or areas that are often illegal for dumping.
i've made several trips to the south pacific and can tell you they are using a 20% coconut oil mix with diesel that burns cleaner than straight diesel and has a really nice smell. diesel trucked into tahiti and the neighboring islands retails for about the same as it does in the US, and here's the reason why. whenever fuel prices rise, the citizens band together in a noisy outrage and physically get out and stop the government's business. they shut down the airports, mass transit and block gov offices in a general strike that lasts until a concession is made and the price goes down.

Austin85 · #6 04-21-2006, 10:23 PM

K Rat;

I make 2 trips to Sushi Yama ( a Japaneese restaurant.) per week.
This is because the guys who work in the kitchen empty the Veggie side fryer 2X per week, and fill my two 5 gallon pails 2X per week with UCO 2 X per week.

I met with the owner of this restaurant and they ONLY use 100% liquid oil on their fryer, no lard, to keep this side vegetarian.

The same is with the other Japaneese restaurant I get UCO from Kyoto On the Go. Empty fryer 2X every week, & no LARD Only 100% liquid corn oil. And this is a small restaurant. They use about 20-30 gallons per week depending on business.

So I don't think what you say is necessarily "gospel". But some will belive you and probably never use WVO in their cars because of that.

kitchenrat · #7 04-21-2006, 10:53 PM

that's close to $500/mo for fry oil, an expense that could be easily be reduced by half simply by filtering and extending their oil life by 50%. the reason that 9.7 out of ten restaurants fail is due to uncontrolled costs like this. enjoy this uco source while you can, they're giving you about $100 worth of oil a week.

Austin85 · #8 04-21-2006, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kitchenrat

that's close to $500/mo for fry oil, an expense that could be easily be reduced by half simply by filtering and extending their oil life by 50%. the reason that 9.7 out of ten restaurants fail is due to uncontrolled costs like this. enjoy this uco source while you can, they're giving you about $100 worth of oil a week.

Which is close to $500 per week? # 1 # 2 or both combined???

The first one is large and has a few locations, they've been in biz for several year in an affluent part of Boca Raton, FL

The second is small niche in a more suburban part of town, but seems to be making it. Less overhead.

WVOtoGO · #9 04-22-2006, 12:39 AM

I get my oil from a little sandwich shop that’s been around for years. I’ve known the owner since I started using their oil two years ago. They only cook French fries and an occasional order of jalapeno poppers in what is labeled as a “vegetable blend”, light golden yellow liquid. It comes in a milky colored plastic jug that‘s inside a cardboard box. Looks to be about 4ish gallons. He changes his little fryer out every three days. Even gives me the empty jugs, if I want them.

imagesinthewind · #10 04-22-2006, 01:54 PM

At my bar and grill I fry about 150 pounds of fresh chicken wings per week and find that the oil gets chicken-y tasting after about the first 50-60 pounds. It makes all the rest of the stuff; fries, meatballs, and the other things we deep fry have a checken-y aftertaste. So I change the oil on Sunday and Thursday. We have cheap wings on Monday nights and All You Can Eat Wings on Friday nights. The oil gets changed the day before each of those events.

Now I use my own fryer oil, my small fryer holds 5.5 gallons of oil, so I use about 11 gallons per week at a rate of $26 per week, or about $100 per month. Not a bad trade off to be sure it all doesn't 'taste like chicken'.

I make bio from it and my oil titrates at .5 so I know it's great oil to make bio from. Knowing I'm going to use this for bio, I don't use the powder stuff to filter. Don't want that in my fuel.

junqueyardjim · #11 04-22-2006, 03:54 PM

I get all my oil from two of our school bus drivers. Both have concession deals in the summer and follow the County Fairs, car shows and tractor pulls. Both of them I feel make maximum use out of the oil. I really can't imagine eating anything cooked in some of the oil I get, but I guess that is their business. The one cooks nothing but fish, and specializes in a walleye fish sandwich. The oil I get from the other one is very dark and I think she might be doing "elephant ears" and corn dogs. But I dump their oil together and clean it up and now I am beginning my second season with it. Hopes it works as well as it did last year. Use it clean and use it cold - it runs absolutely great on it. Great and simple formula, straight cleaned up WVO, mix one quart of RUG to 5 gallons of WVO. That quart of gas makes for instant starting, very smooth power, and definetly more power then straight cold grease. Try it and you will like it!