Make the most of your resources post SHTF. Have many strainers and filters on hand to clean your cooking oil and glass jars to store them in. It's best to seperate the oils into types.
Reusing Cooking Oil
After its initial use, cooking oil can be refrigerated or frozen and reused for another six hours of cooking (see References 2). Don't reuse cooking oil if it smells rancid or you can't heat it without smoke developing, as this indicates significant deterioration.
Allow the oil to cool down to a safe handling temperature. Strain any food particles floating in the oil by raking through it with a slotted spoon and discard them.
Place a coffee filter or piece of cheesecloth around the mouth of the jar or original container. Arrange the cloth or filter so that it rests slightly inside the container to prevent the oil from spilling over the side. Slip the rubber band around the coffee filter or cheesecloth to keep it in place.
Pour the cooled oil slowly into the jar. You may need to replace the coffee filter or cheesecloth at some point so that the oil continues to flow into the jar.
Remove the rubber band and filter or cheesecloth from the jar. Put the lid on it, and store the oil in the refrigerator, or freeze for up to six months.
Remove the oil from the freezer or refrigerator when you next need to use it. The oil may appear cloudy after being refrigerated, but it should clear up as it warms up. Use the saved oil as directed in your recipe.
Items you will need
In hard times in the past, many people have cleaned their own engine oil so their internal combustion engines would not wear out from the use of old, dirty oil. Because it is a simple process to do, and may be necessary in the future, I will give you that information now. Once implanted in your mind you will never forget this process. If you ever need to do this, remember me.
Engine oil does not wear out. It becomes contaminated with grit and combustion residue, and the additives for detergent action and anti-foaming dissipate. Cleaned oil will also lack those additives, but if used at a ratio of 3 quarts of cleaned oil and one quart of new oil, sufficient additives will be present to work while also stretching your supply of new engine oil.
The concept of cleaning used engine oil is based on the capillary action of natural fibers and siphoning which is gravity assisted. A clean natural fiber rope (cotton, hemp, sisal, etc) contains hollow fibers. When oil passes through the cell walls of the fibers the contaminants are trapped in the cells, while the oil passes through readily. A half-inch thick cotton rope about 3 1/2 feet long is best: anything else will work, but slows the process considerably. The trick is to get the oil to go through the rope all by itself, and that is where we use both the capillary action of the fibers and gravity to our advantage.
The typical system is to use two 1-gallon glass containers, like used wine jugs (A visit to your local "waste disposal" or recycling site, a little pilfering, and a trip to confession usually does the trick.) One of the bottles holds the used oil -- the other one will receive the cleaned oil.
Now that you have the bottles you will know how tall they are, so a rack must be built. One side of the rack will have a shelf high enough so that the bottom of one bottle is at the same height as the top of the other one. Just about anything strong enough to hold the bottles securely will work, so this is not a complicated procedure.
Then the bottle full of used oil is put on the top shelf, the empty one on the lower shelf, side by side, and the ends of the rope placed down to the bottom of each bottle. The rope must form a nice hoop from one bottle to the other, not touching the top of either bottle. If necessary, straight pins may be used to hold the rope in the middle of the bottle openings, but the rope must not be pinched. (It is less messy to get the length of rope and the exact placement of the bottles set before filling one with oil.)
The oil will climb up the rope by capillary action, through the loop, then start down toward the empty bottle. As the oil level passes the bottom of the upper bottle, gravity will begin to take effect and the oil will start flowing faster -- still slow, but faster. After a couple of weeks almost all of the oil will be in the lower bottle -- and clean!
Now for the "fly in the ointment." As this process takes several weeks at a minimum to complete, you need to keep dust from contaminating the oil. That means building a housing to cover the rack and bottles. This is easily accomplished using thin lath, for example, and covering the lath with clear plastic. The clear plastic sheeting will enable you to see what is happening, otherwise the suspense would drive you nuts.
When the process is complete, the oil soaked rope can be burned. In the old days, the oil soaked rope was wrapped around the base of gate or corner fence posts, and the slowly seeping oil would kill any termites, thus prolonging the life of important posts considerably. Now, however, the EPA would probably have you shot on sight for exposing the soil to the nasty oil soaked rope.
CAUTION: All oil is not created equal. Engine oil is NOT a rust preventive oil. If you need to preserve any carbon steel products against rust (as in buried storage), a real rust preventive oil must be used. The best product I have found for rust prevention is NAPA brand "Chain and Cable" lubricant. It comes in a spray can and sprays out as a highly penetrating foam. The foam dissipates into an oil and penetrates into the pores of the steel. After awhile wipe off any excess, cover the item carefully with moisture-proof material, then seal the seams against any water infiltration. Don't forget that "Seal-A-Meal" bags are available in 20 foot lengths and either 7 or 10 inches wide - ideal for sealing long, narrow objects you would want in a future dire emergency.
The package can then be placed into a sturdy container (metal or thick PVC pipe), coated with liquid paraffin, wrapped again with black plastic sheeting (to protect the paraffin) and the seams sealed with vinyl tape, then buried. Bury at least 3 feet deep, cover the object with a foot of dirt, throw some scrap iron or old pipe into the hole, then finish covering with dirt, finally replacing the surface material so the landscape does not appear disturbed. If anyone with a metal detector gets curious, they will find the scrap iron first and hopefully get discouraged from digging further.
Reusing Cooking Oil
After its initial use, cooking oil can be refrigerated or frozen and reused for another six hours of cooking (see References 2). Don't reuse cooking oil if it smells rancid or you can't heat it without smoke developing, as this indicates significant deterioration.
Allow the oil to cool down to a safe handling temperature. Strain any food particles floating in the oil by raking through it with a slotted spoon and discard them.
Place a coffee filter or piece of cheesecloth around the mouth of the jar or original container. Arrange the cloth or filter so that it rests slightly inside the container to prevent the oil from spilling over the side. Slip the rubber band around the coffee filter or cheesecloth to keep it in place.
Pour the cooled oil slowly into the jar. You may need to replace the coffee filter or cheesecloth at some point so that the oil continues to flow into the jar.
Remove the rubber band and filter or cheesecloth from the jar. Put the lid on it, and store the oil in the refrigerator, or freeze for up to six months.
Remove the oil from the freezer or refrigerator when you next need to use it. The oil may appear cloudy after being refrigerated, but it should clear up as it warms up. Use the saved oil as directed in your recipe.
Items you will need
- Slotted spoon
- Clean jar with lid or original oil container
- Coffee filter or cheesecloth
- Rubber band
- To help keep your cooking oil clean, remove any loose crumbs from food items before placing them into the oil.
- Your cooking oil will decompose more quickly if you do not immediately turn off the heat when you finish cooking.
In hard times in the past, many people have cleaned their own engine oil so their internal combustion engines would not wear out from the use of old, dirty oil. Because it is a simple process to do, and may be necessary in the future, I will give you that information now. Once implanted in your mind you will never forget this process. If you ever need to do this, remember me.
Engine oil does not wear out. It becomes contaminated with grit and combustion residue, and the additives for detergent action and anti-foaming dissipate. Cleaned oil will also lack those additives, but if used at a ratio of 3 quarts of cleaned oil and one quart of new oil, sufficient additives will be present to work while also stretching your supply of new engine oil.
The concept of cleaning used engine oil is based on the capillary action of natural fibers and siphoning which is gravity assisted. A clean natural fiber rope (cotton, hemp, sisal, etc) contains hollow fibers. When oil passes through the cell walls of the fibers the contaminants are trapped in the cells, while the oil passes through readily. A half-inch thick cotton rope about 3 1/2 feet long is best: anything else will work, but slows the process considerably. The trick is to get the oil to go through the rope all by itself, and that is where we use both the capillary action of the fibers and gravity to our advantage.
The typical system is to use two 1-gallon glass containers, like used wine jugs (A visit to your local "waste disposal" or recycling site, a little pilfering, and a trip to confession usually does the trick.) One of the bottles holds the used oil -- the other one will receive the cleaned oil.
Now that you have the bottles you will know how tall they are, so a rack must be built. One side of the rack will have a shelf high enough so that the bottom of one bottle is at the same height as the top of the other one. Just about anything strong enough to hold the bottles securely will work, so this is not a complicated procedure.
Then the bottle full of used oil is put on the top shelf, the empty one on the lower shelf, side by side, and the ends of the rope placed down to the bottom of each bottle. The rope must form a nice hoop from one bottle to the other, not touching the top of either bottle. If necessary, straight pins may be used to hold the rope in the middle of the bottle openings, but the rope must not be pinched. (It is less messy to get the length of rope and the exact placement of the bottles set before filling one with oil.)
The oil will climb up the rope by capillary action, through the loop, then start down toward the empty bottle. As the oil level passes the bottom of the upper bottle, gravity will begin to take effect and the oil will start flowing faster -- still slow, but faster. After a couple of weeks almost all of the oil will be in the lower bottle -- and clean!
Now for the "fly in the ointment." As this process takes several weeks at a minimum to complete, you need to keep dust from contaminating the oil. That means building a housing to cover the rack and bottles. This is easily accomplished using thin lath, for example, and covering the lath with clear plastic. The clear plastic sheeting will enable you to see what is happening, otherwise the suspense would drive you nuts.
When the process is complete, the oil soaked rope can be burned. In the old days, the oil soaked rope was wrapped around the base of gate or corner fence posts, and the slowly seeping oil would kill any termites, thus prolonging the life of important posts considerably. Now, however, the EPA would probably have you shot on sight for exposing the soil to the nasty oil soaked rope.
CAUTION: All oil is not created equal. Engine oil is NOT a rust preventive oil. If you need to preserve any carbon steel products against rust (as in buried storage), a real rust preventive oil must be used. The best product I have found for rust prevention is NAPA brand "Chain and Cable" lubricant. It comes in a spray can and sprays out as a highly penetrating foam. The foam dissipates into an oil and penetrates into the pores of the steel. After awhile wipe off any excess, cover the item carefully with moisture-proof material, then seal the seams against any water infiltration. Don't forget that "Seal-A-Meal" bags are available in 20 foot lengths and either 7 or 10 inches wide - ideal for sealing long, narrow objects you would want in a future dire emergency.
The package can then be placed into a sturdy container (metal or thick PVC pipe), coated with liquid paraffin, wrapped again with black plastic sheeting (to protect the paraffin) and the seams sealed with vinyl tape, then buried. Bury at least 3 feet deep, cover the object with a foot of dirt, throw some scrap iron or old pipe into the hole, then finish covering with dirt, finally replacing the surface material so the landscape does not appear disturbed. If anyone with a metal detector gets curious, they will find the scrap iron first and hopefully get discouraged from digging further.
I found this one interesting.
