Saving cooking oil

Last night I fried a lovely bunch of catfish filets. Now I have a lot of used peanut oil. Is there a good way to clean it for re-use?

If it went over 400 degrees, or smoked at all, you should toss it.  If not, I would strain it through several layers of cheesecloth and store it in something airtight.  You may find, however, that anything you fry in that used oil will taste a little like catfish.

You can always reuse it frying fish.

......or hush puppies.

Peanut oil is pretty hardy, even if it smoked. As above, it's best frying fish now as it's absorbed the taste. Another consideration is how dark it's become after you used it. The optical darkness doesn't matter that much unless you're frying foods that are usually light colored. If you're frying foods that end up pretty dark anyways, you can use the oil longer. While I haven't tried this, I've heard that Vitamin E can be used to neutralize fish taste. I've also heard that slices of raw potato with the largest surface area can also absorb residual flavors. Cheesecloth is a much better filter then trying to use coffee filters like most recommend, they will take forever and quite a bit of stirring before you get the oil filtered. 
 

in my home deep fryer I usually leave it in the fryer, wrapped in a gagbage bag & reuse it a number of times & then just toss it & clean the fryer & add new oil & start again.
resteraunts don't clean their oil after every use.
anything fried in peanut oil tastes like peanut oil.

At home you most likely will not use your oil daily like in a restaurant. So, it is best to filter the oil and store it in the refrigerator. Even then it most likely will not have much shelf life than any other meat refrigerated foods.

DawnT
 
 Cheesecloth is a much better filter then trying to use coffee filters like most recommend, they will take forever and quite a bit of stirring before you get the oil filtered. 
 

In have used a Bounty paper towel folded in quarters and placed in a funnel to filter used cooking oil with quite a bit of success.  It doesn't seem to take too long, and it seems to filter the oil quite nicely.  I got the idea from years ago when we would filter stuff in chemistry lab with paper filters in a funnel.

the first time i used a turkey fryer i had the same problem.... what to do with the leftover oil, which i considered too good and too expensive to throw away after one use.
 
 my local cash & carry sells paper filter cones designed for straining frying oil, 50 in a box for $10, and a wire holder for the filters for $15. they filter much better than cheesecloth or paper towel and are less messy to use. after filtering, i pour the oil back into the original bottle, write the last useage date on the bottle with a sharpie, then put the bottle in my chest freezer until it's needed again. 
 
 i finally recycled the turkey oil after 4 years of use, it was getting a little dark and was starting to bubble... i still have 2 other jugs of used oil, 1 for seafood and one for potatoes/doughnuts/funnel cakes.

Use it again for anything, if you can taste fish, your dreaming, heat it first to cook off any leftover fish scraps, a fish cinder has no taste nor does the oil retain the essence of fish. 

marzsit


the first time i used a turkey fryer i had the same problem.... what to do with the leftover oil, which i considered too good and too expensive to throw away after one use.
 
 my local cash & carry sells paper filter cones designed for straining frying oil, 50 in a box for $10, and a wire holder for the filters for $15. they filter much better than cheesecloth or paper towel and are less messy to use. after filtering, i pour the oil back into the original bottle, write the last useage date on the bottle with a sharpie, then put the bottle in my chest freezer until it's needed again. 
 
 i finally recycled the turkey oil after 4 years of use, it was getting a little dark and was starting to bubble... i still have 2 other jugs of used oil, 1 for seafood and one for potatoes/doughnuts/funnel cakes.

 
Exactly! I bought a holder and a box of the filter paper cones several years ago & still have lots of it left. If you go this route, also get a food grade plastic 5 gallon bucket. The wire holder will fit right on the bucket & you just pour you oil into it. No mess and only takes a few minutes. One of the best "kitchen gadgets" I ever bought, and I have bought my share:-)
 
I also store my oil in a freezer...helps keep it from becoming rancid.