Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with grease

Stop Burning Dinosaurs.

Jon-o — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:40:06 -0800

Waste Oil Diesel. Any satisfied users? I found a couple AskMe posts from '05 and '06 and I wanted some more current information.
I've been doing some research into running a diesel Benz on waste cooking oil and I was hoping to probe the hive mind in regards to a couple unresolved questions that I have. I'm trying to figure out if I need a special kit or not. All of the grease conversion kit websites say that a kit is critical. However, I've met people in the real-world who own and operate a number of waste oil diesels without a conversion kit (just an extra superfine filter) who claim to experience no ill-effects. Their cars start and run fine, despite the insistence by conversion kit retailers that the waste oil needs to be at least 160F to ensure correct viscosity. There are also some concerns about the waste oil causing corrosion and damage to the stock fuel system.
The science behind the kit is very convincing. However, pouring grease into a car, starting it, and seeing it run fine is pretty convincing, too.

So, do you run veggie oil in your diesel?
Did you buy a conversion kit?
Did you annihilate your car after running veg oil without a kit?
Have you had years of trouble free driving, just pouring veg oil in your tank?
Do you have an awesome recipe for SVO fuel that ensures stability and correct viscosity?

Thanks folks!

How effective is dabbing a pizza slice with a napkin?

1001 questions — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:25:32 -0800

How effective is dabbing pizza with a napkin in terms of reducing total grease content? I realize there are a number of variables here, but in general I was curious how effective dabbing pizza with napkin is. I often eat pizza and seldom dab, but I watch people do a bit of dabbing and sometimes they act as if they suddenly reduced 75% of the fat content in the slice. How much fat am I removing by doin' the dab?

How can I wash oil/grease out of my leather gloves?

autojack — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:09:55 -0800

How can I wash oil/grease out of my leather gloves? About a week after I bought a really nice pair of leather motorcycle gloves, my bike broke down on the road and I spent 45 minutes fixing it, getting my hands absolutely filthy in the process. By the time I was done it was raining pretty hard, and I decided that it would be unwise to tempt fate by riding the rest of the way bare handed. As a result, the inside of my gloves are very, very dirty.

The tag on them says simply, "Do not wash." Is there anything I can do to get them clean that won't ruin them? I'm not even sure if I can turn them inside out, because they have plastic impact armor on the knuckles.

What are the true risks associated with eating a greasy meal?

hungrysquirrels — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:39:42 -0800

What are the true cardiovascular risks associated with eating a greasy meal? Out of curiosity, over the last couple of years I've seen many people comment on various sites about the so called heart attack inducing food that Americans are eating these days. Bacon, 'Hungry Man' dinners, and oversized hamburgers are often involved. Generally things that are greasy.

I understand how arteries can clog, but my assumption is that it would take a fairly long time of eating fatty foods for clogging to become a problem. So, the question is, could a single non-healthy meal induce cardiovascular distress, or is this an internet meme? How quickly does an unhealthy greasy meal get into the bloodstream?

Not looking for a thorough explanation, just whether it's possible.

They don't shoot dryers do they?

mrhaydel — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:29:15 -0800

Should we put a misbehaving dryer in permanent time out? Two-part-washer-dryer-question filter:

Ms. mrhaydel has a washer and dryer pair that is newer than my washer and dryer pair by roughly 5 years. We will be engaging in full fledged cohabitation in about one month, thereby eliminating the need for two washers and two dryers.

However, her dryer has a nasty habit of leaving grease streaks, randomly, on articles of clothing (photo one, two, three). For the most part, it doesn't show through clothing (washing everything inside-out, natch), but the possibility is still there that the dryer leaves a mark on the outside of a piece of clothing.

So, my first question is, should we toss her dryer to the curb, and bring in my dryer (which works perfectly fine), thereby creating a mismatched pair? How hard is it to sell a mismatched pair? What about selling washers and dryers separately? For what it's worth, my washer does not agitate quite as well as hers, so that's why we're not using my pair.

The second question is, has anyone ever had a similar problem of a dryer leaving grease streaks on clothing? We've concluded with certainty that it is *not* the washer doing it. The only thing we've come up with is that *maybe* the pieces of clothing are somehow getting stuck momentarily in the latch of the door (it's a front loading dryer), but, we just haven't been able to track down the source of the aforementioned grease.

So, what say you, Hivemind?

Trade you for your peanut butter

darksasami — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:23:28 -0800

How can I make elementary school spaghetti sauce? Remember school cafeteria spaghetti? The noodles were skinny and underdone in places, and the sauce was thick and full of some sort of cheap meat ground very fine. Anything it touched was left coated with strange orange grease that stained worse than Cheetos. Tomatoes were probably involved, but no identifiable parts ever appeared, and they seemed to be less a base than a seasoning.

I have all kinds of recipes for spaghetti sauce, but they all have the same problem: they're designed to be good. How can I recreate the horrible old school lunches I remember so well?

I take showers every day! Really!

Skyanth — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:43:46 -0800

How does one get body grease off a wooden table? Instead of a desk I have a rough old wooden table. It looks very cool. I'm behind my laptop quite a lot, and after two years you can very clearly see where I usually rest my arms on this table. Not so cool.

How do I clean off the grease? I've thought about sanding and I might do that, but I'm afraid I might ruin the old ruggedness of the table.

Please bear in mind that I live in the Netherlands and that American product names might mean nothing to me, or that the products could well be unavailable here - if you have a great tip, I would appreciate it if you could use a more generic description, if at all possible. Thanks!

Fry me to the moon

cosmicbandito — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:23:27 -0800

What should I fry? Give me your favorite fried food ideas. I'm throwing a "fry party" at my house this weekend, and am looking for ideas of what to fry. We're using small household deep fryers, so no turkeys or sides of beef. We're making the obvious items: cheese curds, mushrooms. onion rings, coconut shrimp. I'm looking for your ideas and favorite fried food items and recipies. We're going to try funnel cakes and snickers bars, but I'm anxious to hear some other ideas as well.

Help me save my shirts from being sliced up and made into rag rugs!

Stewriffic — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:05:41 -0800

How have you successfully removed old grease stains from shirts using common household items, rather than specialty products I'd have to go out and purchase? I've got a ton of solid colored t-shirt type shirts that I no longer wear because I dripped food on my chest and the spots didn't come out in the wash. I don't want to trash/recycle them, but I'm very self-conscious of the darker spots the grease left behind.

The kicker is that they've all been through the wash and dryer at least a few times. Some I've caught before doing laundry and pretreated with dishsoap (think Dawn, not Cascade) or commercial laundry pre-treaters, but that didn't work.

Description of shirts: cotton and/or cotton knit in a variety of colors, including both pastels and darks/brights.

I'm looking for a way to try to once and for all get rid of these stains, using something I'm likely to already have at home and that won't ruin my clothes or washer.

Have any of you done this successfully? How? I have a few shirts I'm willing to experiment with (i.e. potentially ruin), if anyone comes up with a particularly creative solution.

I don't want to go out and buy a specialty product, but I will if that's the only solution. Thanks!

Cleaning grease off a wall

lackutrol — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:21:41 -0800

How do I clean grease off a kitchen wall? My New York apartment's stove is situated next a regular painted white wall. I've noticed lately that I haven't done such a great job cleaning off the grease that splatters from the stove (and I cook really often). If it's been there for a while, how do I get it off? I've tried soap and water, regular surface cleaners, and Goo Gone. None have worked that well.

Scrubbing the Stovetop

k8lin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:52:23 -0800

I'm having trouble cleaning my electric stove top. My main problems are the eye pans underneath the burners. I had great success getting the blackened stuff off of the stainless steel eye pans without scratching using Barkeeper's Friend. But now there's a slightly sticky residue, especially on the edges, that I want to also remove. Is there a product that will do that?
Also, do you have any general tips on cleaning a stove top? Mine isn't particularly dirty, but it's the first time I've cleaned the thing since moving in to my rental and I will I'll be cleaning it regularly from now on, so any general hints would be appreciated.

How do I get fried chicken smell out of not-very-washable clothing items?

fiercecupcake — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:46:55 -0800

How do I get fried chicken smell out of fabrics? I would just wash them, but two of them (a jacket and a shawl) aren't very washable. We made fried chicken last night, and now everything we were wearing smells like fried chicken -- her jacket, my sweatshirt, and my shawl. This is making me really unhappy.

I Googled and searched AskMe and I am not getting anywhere. Baking soda? Vanilla extract? Coffee beans? Time? I'm not keen on Febreeze, but if someone tells me that's the only thing that works, I guess I'll do it.

Too alcohol, the cause of and ...ooh bacon!

fiTs — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:29:53 -0800

Why do I crave greasy food when I am hungover? Googling for hangover remedies, I find that I am to avoid greasy food. Please tell me why I feel like eating a pound of bacon right now.

What are your healthy alternatives for your guilty pleasures?

WCityMike — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:04:15 -0800

What healthy -- or at healthier -- alternatives do you eat to fulfill cravings for emphatically unhealthy food? Clarification and examples inside. I am on a path towards an end goal of losing a considerable amount of weight, and basically, a lot of the places I've already found success have been where I've successfully substituted one food for another, while still concentrating on fulfilling the craving. I took a food quiz that indicated that my eating problems were very sense-based, so I've tried to concentrate on things that have strong flavors.

An example: instead of Ben & Jerry's Heath Bar Crunch, I've found that the very tart taste of a Edy's Whole Fruit lemonade bar is strong enough to fulfill the "cold, strong flavor" craving that I often have after dinner. Or, instead of a king-sized Snickers bar, I might have a piece of Life Savers Chocolate and Caramel hard candy, or maybe a small piece of Dove dark chocolate. (No, this isn't a Pepsi Blue post, I'm just giving examples of what I've used.) For some people, Triscuit pizzas might fulfill the pizza desire. And so on.

Basically, though, what I'm asking is: what successful substitutions have you found that fulfill your cravings for something emphatically unhealthy? If you have Craving X, and Product A that fulfills that craving is too high calorie, high fat, whatever, what is your Product B that manages to (happily?) fulfill the urge? Product B doesn't necessarily have to be healthy, in and of itself, it just has to be healthier. For example, in the example above, gorging on the hard candy wouldn't be healthy at all ... but two hard candies is going to be a hell of a lot less calories than a king-sized Snickers bar. Get my drift?

Ask MeFi braintrust, don't fail me now! ;-)

the smooth mouse buttons syndrome

a007r — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 09:29:53 -0800

I noticed that as times goes by, computer mice (and other plastic items) get used by skin friction. I notice my mice have "smooth" areas on their buttons that obviously seem to be there because of use. Is there a way to prevent that? Now, that's not a big deal, but it's annoying, because, the mouse being smooth, my logical deduction is that finger grease or filth of some kind can be felt much much more easily when the surface is smooth. Maybe I'm crazy, but I noticed some kind of "dirt bumps" that can be scratched off, but they come back pretty quick and I have to wash my hands, wipe the mouse buttons, scratch the little "mouse poo" as I call it, and then I'm ok for maybe a little while.

This problem has annoyed me a lot more since I bought a logitech MX510, which has a glossy surface. This thing has no texture, so I feel the dirt a lot more!

So, the question might be as follows:
a) is there a way to prevent this?
b) are there furry mice (computer mice huh, not living ones), kind of like the furbook? :)
c) am I just crazy or this does annoy some people out there? I always feel like "my hands are dirty" because of this.
d) are there computer mice out there that are more resistant (like, they will never loose their texture) to this effect? If so, could anyone advise me of their experiences?
e) should I wear gloves or consult a psychiatrist? :)

What I need a mouse to do is simply to have silent, easily clickable buttons, a silent mousewheel (requires no effort), and one additional button, because I am a Linux user who uses XGL and Compiz. What that means is that I can't live without my dear "scale" plugin (that does the same thing as the Exposé feature of Mac OS X) being mapped to a button of the mouse.

why do I lose my cheese to my napkin?

piratebowling — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 11:08:39 -0800

Stupid Pizza Question: I sometimes attempt to blot the grease on the top of pizza. How come sometimes this works just fine, but other times I end up pulling half the cheese off the pizza? I don't even press the napkin down with any force, I just place it on the surface of the cheese and when I attempt to remove the napkin, a large amount of cheese is quite stuck to the napkin. I would assume it is the temperaute of the cheese, but I've had plent of hot pizza where the blotting trick worked fine without losing cheese.

Thank you for putting up with such a dumb question.

How can I clean a dirty pasta maker?

teem — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 19:42:54 -0800

What is the best way to go about cleaning a very dirty pasta maker? I bought an Atlas Marcato at a very reduced price because it had been sitting on the display shelf of a supermarket's deli section (along with the other props they use to make it look like a cosy little Italian grocer). It is in great structural shape, and there is no rust or corrosion to be seen, but it is covered in grease. What would be the best way to clean this thing up?

It says here strictly not to wash with water. I'm trying to understand why. If it's to prevent rusting, would thoroughly drying it be enough to combat rust? Or is there something inherently damaging about the machine contacting water?

What cleaning methods would be fine to try, and what should I definitely not do?

So I have a very ditry commercial oven

bh — Mon, 16 May 2005 20:38:08 -0800

I've recently acquired a Vulcan oven from a restaurant that was closing down. To say it is dirty is an understatement. I've used lye based cleaners, a pressure washer, scrub brushes, and anything else I had lying around. It still isn't clean. It is mostly stainless steel, with some cast iron here and there. I have it sitting outside for the time being, because I don't want to attract rodents and bugs into the house. I really need to get this thing clean soon so I can get the propane tank installed. This oven was in use for 8 years without having a real cleaning. The grease was dripping off in the heat of the sun. But it is still quite grimy. Any advice? Nothing is too drastic. Help!

How to remove bike-chain grease from upholstery?

goatdog — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:23:11 -0800

How do I get bike-chain grease stains out of my girlfriend's car's upholstery? There are a kazillion different products that claim to remove grease stains. What works best? (The stains are on cloth upholstery.) I'd like product recommendations, so I can just run into a store and know what to buy.