Cooking Oil Tips

Bottle of olive oil with olives and leaves in the foreground.

We use cooking oil for many recipes. Some are better for cooking at high temperatures such as when making stir fry. Others add a nice flavor to your dish. This is a guide containing cooking oil tips.

Solutions: Cooking Oil Tips

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How to Tell When Oil is Ready for Frying

I came up with a fun way to remember the rules of checking for proper temperature of oil for frying battered foods, without a thermometer in a skillet or pot based on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" ;-)

If the batter immediately turns golden and raises to the top then the oil is too hot. If you drop a teaspoon of batter into the oil and it sinks to the bottom right away then the oil is too cold. If the batter takes about 30 seconds to rise then the temperature of the oil is just right.

By Deeli from Richland, WA

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Store Oil in a Squeeze Bottle

I use vegetable oil to prevent messes when I boil pasta, rice, etc. but I hate having to take the cap off the oil bottle to pour it into the boiling water. So I poured some into an old ketchup bottle. Now I just squirt a little whenever I need it, and it's so much easier.

By yoder178 from Elkhart, IN

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"To-Go" Coffee Cup for Cooking Oil

Know those "to-go" coffee cups? The ones with the little plastic lids that form a natural drinking spout? Instead of disposing of barely used cooking oil from your skillet after frying, use a rinsed out to-go coffee cup to pour it in. The cup can even be flattened slightly at the rim as your pour, to better accommodate the size of your skillet rim. Then pop the lid on the cup and use the drinking spout as a pour spout, to pour the oil back into its container.

The cup can withstand higher temperatures since it is made for hot coffee, but don't overdo it! This also works great for other liquids, and things such as sugar, rice, glitter, and seed beads as well.

Next, take the cup and stick it in your bag of charcoal, or your firewood box. Next time you grill out or light a fire, you have a handy fire-starter helper. Then don't forget to put the wood ashes in your compost bin!

By dollyslaffn from Darien, GA

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No Cooking Oil Mess

To prevent cooking oil from messing up your shelves, simply cut the tops off of old socks and slip them on the oil bottles.

By Ronda

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Invest In Oil Sprayers

Instead of buying cooking spray all the time, invest in a oil-sprayer. It's basically the same thing as the spray cans, except you can refill it with whatever oil you prefer. Plus, there's no aerosol or chemical propellant (great if you're allergic to soy). You can even make flavored spray, which is usually expensive, for much less. You can find the sprayer with kitchen gadgets.

By Camilla

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Avoid Wasting Cooking Oil

When I open a container such as cooking oil, I peel the seal on the bottle just enough to allow a trickle to flow. This prevents a huge splash of oil that was not part of the recipe. It saves time, saves oil, and there are no gadget needed!

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Checking Oil Temperature When Frying

Dip a toothpick or a match (be sure it's made of wood!) in the hot oil. If it's ready for frying, there will be tiny bubbles around it as if the wood is "boiling". If it's not ready yet, try again. Each time you check, make sure to use a fresh piece of wood.

By Ahuva from Israel

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Best Oils for Cooking and Dressings

Extra-virgin olive oil is full of health benefits but loses a great deal of those when the oil is heated.

The rule of thumb is that you use the olive oil on your food unheated but use groundnut oil to cook with. Groundnut oil can be heated to a higher temperature and has no taste that will mask the flavour of your food.

By Monique

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