How can you best minimize the smell, mess, and waste of deep fat frying at home?

Have a fume hood.

I find frying at a lower temperature minimizes the smell.
You can also try boiling bay leaves or used coffee grounds along side (for indoors) to offset the smell.

If you don’t have a venting system that vents it outdoors, you can put a fan at the window facing out so most of the fry smell goes out doors.
If the smell is really strong in the house take a 3 paper towels of dipped in vinegar and wring it out and wave it around once you are done frying. It really does cut down the fry smell in the air and the vinegar smell does not stick around either.
Once done frying. Let it cool off outside. If you let it stay indoors it seems the fry smell sticks to the pan and keeps being released into the air.
Once cooled. Use cheese cloth to strain it.
Use the vinegar wrap towels around it and throw it in the trash.
I use to have a friend who would reuse bacon fat for frying. She would just strain it and reuse it the next day.

I never reuse oil or bacon fat. The thought of it just makes my stomach queasy.
It is best to fry outdoors if you can. Frying indoors just makes everything greasy with time. You get a film of grease on everything in the kitchen. So unless you like cleaning a lot, I think the small fry daddy is best.

The waste bothers me too. I once saw a show where this guy converted his car engine to be able to run on used cooking oil. Seemed like a good idea to me.

I rarely deep fry. To get rid of the smell after we eat I clean the kicthen with original scented Pine Sol. I often just wipe down counters with a soapy sponge, and the smell is completely anonymous, or a natural spray cleaner, but for very pungent foods I get out the Pine Sol.

My husband hates when the house smells like food. I think maybe I should forget this open floor plan concept for the next place I live and close up the kicthen so I don’t have to hear him complain about it. I have never known anyone else who walks in to favorite foods cooking and complains the house smells like X.

dine out

My Ex would reuse frying oil for frying and keep it in a separate container from the “clean” oil used for sauteing, etc. It kept for months and worked fine. I don’t deep fry now that i’m on my own.

We occasionally deep-fry. Even with a chip pan (deep fryer) used in the conservatory (enclosed patio), the smell still lingers. I have found that deep frying on the stove under the vent is the better way to control the odor. Either way, it will eradicate more quickly if there is a decent air flow throughout the house afterwards.

More importantly, have a temperature gauge. Different oils reach the proper level for deep-frying at different degrees. Letting one type get too high can not only result in more pungent odors but a potential fire.

I Have a range hood, too, @talljasperman, but it doesn’t take out the odor of deep fat frying.

Great tips, @Pandora! I love the smell of vinegar, so I’ll try the paper towel trick. I always make sure I fry in a pot with a tight, heat-proof lid so I can cap the grease asasp after I finish frying. I hate cleaning, especially grease, so, like @stanleybmanly, I may stick to eating fried foods ‘out’.

I hate wasting all that oil, but if you rarely fry it’s only good for 1–2 meals, @JLeslie. That’s crazy not liking the smell of food cooking! Or even after the meal. He probably equates it somewhere in his mind with being low-class, tenement.

bbl

Just in the cupboard, or did he refrigerate the used oil, @janbb?

My vent isn’t strong enough to get all the odor, @Pied_Pfeffer, but I do use a candy thermometer to measure the oil temperature.

Just in the cupboard. One oil container for used oil and one for new.

Okay, thanks, @janbb.
I was wondering if refrigerating it would prolong the life. My other question about polenta is making me want to fry polenta and green bananas. I quit with clicking links after that those two.