How to tell if or when your oil starts to spoil.

[GadgetGuy]

How do you tell when cooking oil starts to go bad?

The other day, I was frying some pork chops, and noticed that the oil I was using had foamed up! I was wondering at first, if there was some soap resdue left in the skillet after washing it.

But it was the cooking oil! Dicover that the freshness date on the bottle had long ago expired!! But i was NOT throwing away the pork chops, and I ate them!!

 

[Caribbean girl]

I have never had the experience of cooking oil going bad before. I guess it is because I use the oil so often that it does not get the chance to go bad before it is all used up. I suppose if I had a large bottle of oil and it was seldom used and was sitting there for a long time, I would probably test it by smelling it to see if it was still smelling fresh. As long as it smells fresh, then I know it is still okay to use. On the other hand, if I am getting anything other than a fresh scent, then I would know that the oil is starting to go bad. I don't know if there is any other way to tell.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

this one has me curious... rancid oil should not foam... oil is (obviously) fat... fat heated with something alkaline can in the right circumstances create a soap - that is after all how soap is made (traditionally): a source of fat with lime (as in ash, not lemon/lime) in it which is then heated... water is added to clean up the soapy liquid through a sieve, (and boiled off again afterwards...)

Are you sure that the oil was soapy foam and not just excess moisture from the oil (or pork chops) which was basically heating up, creating steam and then making the oil look like it was foaming - this would stop once all of the water was out of the oil and the oil would be fine to continue to be used. It is often seen in potato fryers...

 

[GadgetGuy]

It didn't smell bad, but I did not like the foaming either.
Never said that it was soapy foam. What I said was that at first, I wondered if there was any soap residue left in the pan before I used it.

I ALWAYS make certain that the oil in the skillet is hot before I place anything in it. Yeah, fries DO cause the oil to foam when the are first put into it, but the foaming disipates in a few seconds or so. The foaming in the skillet was present the whole time that the chops were cooking.

 

[xTinx]

Depending on the type of oil you're using, you'll have to take note of various expiration dates: http://www.eatbydate.com/other/condiments/how-long-does-oil-last/. We often use bottled corn or vegetable oil at home. To ensure we don't use them beyond their expiry date, we try to make sure the oil is consumed early on. Thankfully, there's a lot of cooking in the household so we hardly experience accidentally using expired oil.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It didn't smell bad, but I did not like the foaming either.
Never said that it was soapy foam. What I said was that at first, I wondered if there was any soap residue left in the pan before I used it.

I ALWAYS make certain that the oil in the skillet is hot before I place anything in it. Yeah, fries DO cause the oil to foam when the are first put into it, but the foaming disipates in a few seconds or so. The foaming in the skillet was present the whole time that the chops were cooking.

apologies, I was rather tired last night - more so than I think I had realised.

It is not unheard of for pork to contain a very high quantity of water which I guess would take a lot longer than a potato to release. I have also heard of extra water being added to meat to make it weigh more. I guess if the chop was thicker it would take much longer for the water to work it's way out and this is probably the most likely explanation if the oil didn't smell bad. How much did the size of the pork chop change by? this is usually a good indicator of the quantity of water in the meat.

 

[nutmegprincess]

I know that cooking is already bad when it smells funny. It's like musty. I experienced this a lot because I don't really fry stuff that enough.

 

[GadgetGuy]

apologies, I was rather tired last night - more so than I think I had realised.

It is not unheard of for pork to contain a very high quantity of water which I guess would take a lot longer than a potato to release. I have also heard of extra water being added to meat to make it weigh more. I guess if the chop was thicker it would take much longer for the water to work it's way out and this is probably the most likely explanation if the oil didn't smell bad. How much did the size of the pork chop change by? this is usually a good indicator of the quantity of water in the meat.

No problem.