Storing frying oil in milk jug?

March 29, 2018 3:02 PM

I have an empty milk jug (cleaned, washed, dried) and I want to fry chicken tonight - the problem is I don't have a big enough stainless steel container to store the oil in.

I was wondering if once the oil cooled (and I mean cooled, like maybe room temperature) - can I store the oil in a milk jug? I tried google but nothing immediately popped out at me so maybe I'm searching wrong as I can't be the only person that ever thought of this.

posted by lpcxa0 to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Store for future use? I haven't successfully stored oil in a milk jug without it leaking through the jug's seams. I usually use glass pasta jars for old oil but, obviously, those aren't as big.
posted by hijinx at 3:06 PM on March 29, 2018

Not sure about the milk jug, but my parents used to pour their frying oil back into the plastic bottles they bought the oil in.

If the milk jug is indeed prone to leaking (per hijinx above), one solution would be to store it in the freezer, maybe in a plastic bag. The oil would freeze and not leak.
posted by hydra77 at 3:15 PM on March 29, 2018

Should be fine from a safety perspective: milk jugs are usually HDPE, oils are usually sold in HDPE or PET, both are regularly used for a wide variety of foods. I would probably stick with original jugs if I could.
posted by SaltySalticid at 3:20 PM on March 29, 2018

I've stored oil in a milk jug for a couple weeks and it was fine. It may last longer, but you probably should find a more stable long-term solution.
posted by Everydayville at 3:20 PM on March 29, 2018

We're talking about a one-gallon polyethylene milk jug, right? Not a paper carton? (I don't think of plastic milk jugs as having seams.) It should be fine. Polyethylene is the same type of plastic as cooking oils come in when they don't come in glass. You say you cleaned it well? I can see no problem with this.

Well, one potential problem, but it sounds like you've thought of this: hot cooking oil would melt your jug. So do make sure you let it cool.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:22 PM on March 29, 2018

It will definitely be a draw for rodents, if you plan to store the oil for any length of time. We ended up with a big mess when a squirrel found the peanut oil in our garage :(
posted by padraigin at 4:21 PM on March 29, 2018

Thanks all, so the general consensus is get something better but for a short term solution, it's fine and put it in a grocery bag so if it leaks, it's easy clean-up.

I'm storing it in the fridge so no worries (I hope) about rodents. If that becomes a concern, that's a different question.
posted by lpcxa0 at 4:33 PM on March 29, 2018

Here's why I wouldn't store it in an old milk jug: cross contamination and fouling.
Unless you're sure you can clean out all the old milk in the bottle, I wouldn't do it, and in my experience, it's really hard to get all the milk out.
posted by plinth at 5:45 AM on March 30, 2018

Whatever you do, don't store it in a dishpan on the back porch.
That was a bad week for Moe and everyone else in the house.
posted by buildmyworld at 10:25 AM on March 30, 2018