My mother in law cooks-fries foods with cooking oils but after the food is fried, she pours the used cooking?

Question

My mother in law cooks-fries foods with cooking oils but after the food is fried, she pours the used cooking oil into a container and then continously reuses it for future frying of foods. Is this safe and healthy?

Answer 1

Using it once or twice over...frying similiar foods is ok so long as the oil is kept in an air tight container in the fridge.

***She should strain it first as well.

Answer 2

ya know, the sheer stupidity of some of these responses is just hilarious to me. i hope anyone who said this is not safe and healthy never eats fried food from any restaurant. YES, it's fine. when oil is too old it smokes horribly (it also does this if it is too hot though, so just because your mom's oil is smoking doesnt mean it's bad, just turn the gas down a little when she's not looking) AND when food is fried it does not make it unhealthy. if fried properly, the fried food item retains little to none of the grease you fry it in. there is nothing wrong with fried foods, however, eating only fried foods in excess is bad for you. but the same goes with popcorn, or water for that matter. back to the subject at hand-
i would only reuse oil four, maybe five times, depending on what you make with it, and how long it has been in between uses. it's really a personal call on this one. (except for the b.s. you are being fed about it being unsanitary)

Answer 3

Fried food in general in not healthy. I would not be reusing the old oil though. Many Italian people who fried meat put some of the used oil into the gravy for flavor I never did. I would not insult her as everyone has there own way of doing something.

Answer 4

Safe, yes, healthy, no. Any food fried is unhealthy for you, because it clogs your arteries, and blocks the path of blood to be pumped into vital organs. However, yes, fast food restaurants, and even one I worked in during high school, reused the oil a lot. Once it becomes dark in color, then it is no longer good. However, the more they used, the more it soaked up flavor from foods, especially if it is used for the same food over and over. Once the oil gets above the boling point it kills off all germs, just like hot water in cooking, just like high tempertures in cooking.

Answer 5

Actually, the oil retains some of the flavor and seasoning. If you look at deep frying, that is what they do. They use the oil over and over again, but they store it in a big storage container called a fryer. In the old days they saved their bacon grease and other material to reuse in cooking. Health or not, it taste great.
Piss: I do it too. LOL

Answer 6

We have always cooked with oil. Animal meat naturally contains fat and oil that gets released when cooked. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I'm sure it wasn't long before people started using this oil to cook vegetables and other foods. I also heard that in chinese culture(at one time at least), only the rich can afford to fry with oil, while the poor have to steam with water.

Answer 7

I WOULD SAY IT WOULD DEPEND HOW SHE STORES THE USED COOKING OIL. THINK ABOUT FRIES IN A RESTAURANT. YOU DON'T THINK THEY CHANGE THE OIL EVERY TIME THEY GET AN ORDER DO YOU? THEY USE THAT OIL OVER AND OVER FOR A LONG TIME, SOMETIMES A WEEK OR MORE. SO, I WOULDN'T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT IF SHE PROPERLY STORES IT BETWEEN USES.I WOULDN'T WANT TO REUSE OIL FOR SOMETHING THAT I HAD FRIED ONIONS OR BEEF IN, BUT THAT IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. MAYBE OTHERS HAVE ANOTHER OPINION.

Answer 8

NOT HEALTHY! My mom does that, and my dad has had to tell her that there is no nutritional value in doing this. To begin with it's greasy, NOT HEALTHY, then to top it off, she cooks with old leftovers. To reheat, and reuse food makes it go bad faster, and I can understand why they don't want to waste food. Heck, when my mom was young, they,"didn't have food..." so food prepared for second and third meals, is an unhealthy, not tasty, and can be more wasteful than to save for when people will really finish it off, it's much healthier that way too... As for my mom, she is learning. She made soup she reheated three times, and was kept in favorable condition where it could be... edible. Well anyways, she ate her soup, she got FOOD POISONED, and then began to hallucinate. She can eat almost anything, but that had to have been bad soup. I am sure that your mother-in-law is a nice lady, but calmly and carefully explain the risks that can be taken with the way she cooks. Same goes for refreezed, and constantly reheated food.

Answer 9

even though restaurants do this, their fryers are probably running hotter then we fry at home. i re-use oil after a batch of french fries, but not anything else. the coatings on meat or veggies can turn the oil rancid and the seasonings on whatever you are frying will alter the flavors of what you're cooking.

Answer 10

My mum used to do that when i was a lilttle girl because all that oil will go for a waste.
Highly i will not recommend it , It sounds kinda gross but unless she is frying the same foods in the same oil otherwise it might have a fowl taste, i guess it's ur decision whether or not your stomach can tolerate this.

Answer 11

Yuck. Sounds like mcdonalds. Cooking oil shouldn't be used more than three times. It won't taste as good, and it'll be just gross! Not only that, the food you fry will taste and smell like what's been fried in there before. It'll collect burnt food pieces... So no,not healthy. How long does she store this oil? May be you can 'accidentally' knock it over outside.