We don’t fry much anymore, but my daughter had a birthday recently and she wanted burgers and real, home fries. Hey, it’s her day. She gets what she wants.
And they were yummy. But afterward, there came my usual fried food cleanup quandary. I don’t like to pour the used cooking oil down the drain. It could clog things up. I hate to fill the garbage up with this stuff knowing the bag could tear and then what a mess. Throwing it out in the yard seems wrong as well.
What to do? Save it for your next grilling adventure.
Recently, we were cooking chicken wings and Richard discovered we had no lighter fluid. It was time to get those bad boys on the grill so he did a quick Google search. Low and behold, cooking oil is a fine substitute for lighter fluid. Cooking oils of all kinds are quite flammable. Just soak 3 paper towels or pieces of newspaper in the oil. Place in the grill and stack your charcoal around the oily papers.
Using a long match or stick to reach within the pile of charcoal, light the papers in several places. You will soon have plenty of heat, sans the nasty, smelly lighter fluid. It seems a gentler method and you don’t have to worry about the strong smell or added taste of commercial lighter fluids.
What’s more, your oil disposal problems will go up in smoke!