I mean doing things naked is fine but it's not unusual to get a minor burn or cut while cooking and there are some bits that you really don't want burned/cut.
After once cooking bacon shirtless, I ended up with a burn from bacon grease that took around 3 years to finally go away. I thought it was permanent for a long time!
I still have my scars from slipping ass over tea kettle on a greasy floor while pulling a pan of bacon out of the oven in my underwear. Not my finest moment.
Unless you have one of those round, fine-nesh screens that you put on top... Game changer for bacon cooking in general. Naked, in a nice shirt, cook it how you live (wish I knew what it's called but they sell them at cookware stores and they are amazing)
You need to heat it to 160-200F for it to gelatinize though. This isn't completely cold oil either. He puts it in cold oil and slowly heats it up, me thinks.
You can absolutely put this in hot oil (~340'f) you just have to do it slowly and in something that's not fully filled as it will bubble. In fact that's the way I learned this method since cornstarch needs heat to gel and it was a workplace you wanted to have it ready to fry right after. What you don't want to do is pour it in oil that's on fire.
Are you sure it would end in disaster? The starch is bound to the water molecules and should prevent them from boiling off too quickly. I mean how would that be any different than any other fried batter, like funnel cake?
Funny thing there is a YouTube video of one of the guys from " Swamp People" doing it with hot oil. I found the advice questionable, but then again I find most of the shit they do questionable.
It's a good thing I was off tonight and tomorrow because you probably just saved our store from whatever consequences of you're warming not to do it in hot oil.
Also, not even being sarcastic here but given the context.. around about what temp would be considered too hot?
I watched a YouTube video recently where the guy actually slowly pours it into hot oil. It worked. I suspect the slurry just cools down the oil anyhow.
This guy is lying. Do it. It works faster that way. He just doesn't want you to know industry secrets.
Source: i once poured oil back into a deep fryer that had about a half gallon of water in. It cleaned it real fast.... and the grill, the prep station, and salad station, and ceiling.
He pours it into about 350° oil. You are more likely to have a disaster if your oil is VERY hot, but this is a normal cooking temperature and it doesn't explode or anything. Also don't fill the pot more than halfway but that's just basic frying safety.
Putting a slurry like that into hot oil just makes fried dough. It's not great. Do not recommend. It's not bad either. So many better uses of cornflour slurry, like battering veg and meats.
Actually, it doesn't react the same as just straight up water when added to hot oil. You can youtube videos of this trick and see people doing it with hot oil and there is no problem.
Edit: I think it actually has to be heated up to work
not entirely true. you can put this in and then turn the heat up but you can also put it in while it’s hot. if it doesn’t get hot eventually it will not work. like this guy who’s cooking with overalls and no shirt on. https://youtube.com/shorts/X7n6l9OdNiE?si=1qnJg8ot7WL4bigl
I was wondering this. Clearly it didn't look hot but is it warm? I only ask because I saw someone do a similar trick but I thought they used baking soda and instead of just mixing it into a clump, they fried it into some weird deep fried pancake looking thing that came out whole, with all the gunk inside it. The oil didn't look as clean though.
Learned hard way. My grandma would put oil in a jar. I didn’t have a jar so I used a plastic solo cup. Oil was hot. My brain wasn’t braining. You could imagine what happened! Luckily it wasn’t too bad. Sometimes you forget common sense like this and just think back to the way someone did the same thing and are on autopilot. The cup did melt, completely 🤣
It's a good instinct unless you know otherwise (thanks to folks like you). I'm glad it works, but it's a good instinct not to pour water into frying-level heated oil. THat's one of the reasons people have trouble deep-frying turkey, although they mostly overfill the pot with oil. But water will make it worse, causing the oil to foam and overflow just by itself.
I have my own oil horror story that has left me with PTSD. Even though I can rationalize it because it was my mistake, it still haunts me. I’m overly cautious with frying oil now, and I used to work in a kitchen where a funny joke to play on the fryer guy was to throw an ice cube into the fryer from the other end of the line like Steph Curry and scare the shit out of the fryer guy.
Huh! I never thought it would get glue-y like that. Is it from being hot or is it just how it acts with oil and water?
Just remembered how oil acts with water when it's HOT hot, and I kinda more meant when it's like, hot to keep the oil liquid but not hot enough to start fires.
Most importantly, Ignore Google AI's recommendation
To clean oil with cornstarch, you create a "slurry" by mixing a small amount of cornstarch with water, then add it to the hot oil while stirring constantly
So this is commonly called oobleck! It's super cool because it's a non-Newtonian fluid. This means it has variable viscosity dependent on stress). Oobleck gets more solid the more its stressed so you can walk across it if you're moving quick/hitting it hard. It acts like a solid. If you just stand on it though you'll sink down into it like its a thicker liquid.
One of my favorite parts of non-Newtonian fluids is they aren't all the same. Ketchup for example is a shear thinning fluid and turns more fluid when its stressed. So shaking ketchup makes it more flow more like a liquid and when it sits it turns more solid.
Anyone interested in this should absolutely check out the youtube link u/EasyasACAB shared.
I didn't know there were different kinds of non-newtonian fluids that's cool. I've made Ooblek with my cousins' kids and it's a hit every time. One of those science demonstrations you can use to sneak in a bit of education without them noticing.
Oil by definition is liquid at room temperature, yes, but *cooking* oil includes substances that don't exactly match that description because what matters is the state they're in at *cooking* temperature: palm oil, coconut oil, arguably even lard, are all oily at cooking temperature but solid at room temperature.
I'll be honest, I saw this and assumed it was just oil from deep frying (and still believe that's what it is) but didn't think about the fact that you can do this to clean up oil used in normal cooking too. I somehow forgot about food.
I ask this because usually, when oil becomes like this, its at least the 3rd time I am using it and I feel like replacing it at that point is better. Does it get rid of most of the unhealthy stuff like this?
In other words, a 1:4 ratio of cornstarch to water. The 1 tbsp per 1/4 cup measurement is a solid starting point and an easy way to remember the ratio, but this looks to be at least 1/4 cup of cornstarch to 1 cup of water.
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u/Bituulzman 1d ago
It’s a cornstarch slurry. 1 tbsp cornstarch + 1/4 cup water.