How long will lard or Crisco store?

[The Expert]

Anyone know any hard data about the storage time for lard when it is kept in the sealed plastic buckets available from the store?

How about Crisco?

I'm not asking about the "use by date"...I mean the realistic practical storage time.

Why lard or Crisco? Gotta have fats to cook the grains, and besides, the greases contain huge amounts of energy by weight.

Thanks in advance!

[oldgoat46]

Crisco unopened should last a minimum of two years. In your arteries longer than that. Vegetable oil and derivitives should go indefinately if the bottles are protected from the UV.

[Bunker]

Crisco unopened should last a minimum of two years. In your arteries longer than that. Vegetable oil and derivitives should go indefinately if the bottles are protected from the UV.

og: Would you recommend Oils over solids?

[oldgoat46]

og: Would you recommend Oils over solids?

Yes, I think so. Vegetable oil has an indefinate shelf life, Thats why it makes such good hydraulic fluid. You can buy the oil in bulk at a good price and store it in a clean rust free GI type jerry can. Keep it in a cool place if you can. It is easily filtered and if not burned while cooking at too high a temperature can be used over and over. We have a five gallon can of vegetable oil at our cabin I know had to have been bought over 8 years ago.

[Ben-in-KS]

og: Would you recommend Oils over solids?

Crisco is whipped, it has air mixed in. I would go with oils.

[AmmoSgt]

Stored cooking oils most certainly have a shelf life... how long that shelf life is depends a lot on how it is stored

articles

http://www.ochef.com/64.htm

http://www.survival-center.com/foodfaq/ff10-fat.htm

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t043800.asp

Best bet IMHO for non rancid cooking oil over the long term is to press your own with a rig like this http://www.piteba.com/eng/index_eng.htm

[FIVESHOT]

I used olive oil over 2 years old

dont know if im doing wrong but

seems ok



fiveshot

[The Expert]

Health considerations aside, (and we won't be worried about lifespan due to heart disease if bad things happen, we will just be worried about staying alive), oils are necessary for an adequate diet, due to their energy content.

[reiver]

storage conditons determine shelf life.
used oil needs to be filtered after a cpl of uses or it will take on tastes of what you have been cooking in it and go badi.e rancid and bad taste.
stored oil will probably be good after a while but just go to any surplus food outlet and get some out of date oil most is starting to turn old or rancid.
start raising hogs and render the fat into lard every winter and you won't have any problem.

[reiver]

lard or crisco is best for baking, gives flakier pie crusts and lighter cakes and biscuits.
off hand i would say if you kept it around 60-70 degrees it will prob keep good for cpl yrs.
after it goes rancid it can be used for grease for various things. should last for several yrs after that. i use old veggie oil for fire starting in my BBQ pit-doesn't give the petroleum smell to wood

[Caribou]

If you cant eat it, it has a thousand other uses..

Burn it for light/heat/cooking, fire starter, bait traps, lubricant, metal protection applications, ect. ect.ect.

[Alden]

Canned Olive Oil is good for at least two years at a clip and I really appreciate the taste (though it depends what you are using it for i.e. eating vs. cooking with). Vegetable oil? Just greasy and tastes really odd once it has aged. I buy premium virgin olive oil regularly (alot more than I use) in large cans when it is on sale and make 4-Season's dressing out of the older stuff cycled out of stock. One of my favorites is Bowtie Pasta Bean Salad with it -- mmm.
Alden

[Spector]

What stores handle canned olive oil, or is it something I'd need to order and have shipped?................Mike

[reiver]

most grocery stores have olive oil in large cans-gallon or half gallon. if not in your area sams, cosco etc handle them. i have even seen some in qt. size. in cans. keeping UV or other light from hitting them helps shelf life

[greyheadedguy]

My wife use to work at a fish and chips type of restaurant and they would fry potatoes in the oil to pull out other flavors. At least that is what I am told. They ran their fry oil a lot longer then I figured they would, but they also filtered the oil on a regular basis. My two cents.

[Alden]

Where was that restaurant that supposedly had the best best fries in the country and, after being in business since something like The (1st) Depression and never changing their fry oil, moved and the oil was police-escorted to the new location!?

You can find nice virgin olive oils in big cans on the bottom shelf of a bigger shopping market's oil and/or pasta area. Buy both but wait till they have a sale which is common for these.

Alden

Olive Oil Can.jpg

[reiver]

Where was that restaurant that supposedly had the best best fries in the country and, after being in business since something like The (1st) Depression and never changing their fry oil, moved and the oil was police-escorted to the new location!?

You can find nice virgin olive oils in big cans on the bottom shelf of a bigger shopping market's oil and/or pasta area. Buy both but wait till they have a sale which is common for these.

Alden

Olive Oil Can.jpg

not to nitpick:
their oil would be like the 'solera' vats in bodegas in spain some drawn off and more added as there is a loss of oil in cooking,filtering, vaporizing and the food absorbing some of it. %wise and technically there was 'some' of the original oil in it but not much just well blended and aged.

[Alden]

Quite right. Didn't wanna get into the weeds but they did point out that any fry might only have atoms of the original oil in it still. Same as the water I'm drinkin' -- an atom of it is shared with George Washington.
Alden

[reiver]

yep thats why 25 yr old balsalmic vinegar and 30+ yr old sherry is so good.