Happy Thanksgiving! If you’re having a bunch of people over for the holidays, whether it’s for a single meal of a for the entire week, we hope everything goes well with the cooking, cleaning, and prep for this great holiday.
But as important as the turkey is to many people, there are still some hurdles that exist when it comes to cooking one, and also what to do with what’s leftover afterward.
The Turkey’s Grease: While turkey itself is pretty lean, there is still a certain amount of grease that will be produced when you bake it. Many people simply use this to make the gravy, which makes a lot of sense. Whatever you do, don’t pour it down the drain, which can lead to you needing drain cleaning service (and eventually sewer cleaning). If you don’t use the grease, let it cool and pour it into the trash, or wipe it away with a paper towel. Just because it’s in liquid form when you’re doing the dishes doesn’t mean that it will be when it hits the cold water in the pipes, so don’t send it down in the first place.
The Deep Fryer Oil: Oil and grease are two sides of the same coin, so if you are deep-frying a turkey…well, watch out. If you’re not familiar with the term “turkey fryer explosion” there are videos all over YouTube showing just what happens when you put a frozen turkey in a deep fryer. (When the ice crystals get below the oil, the water vaporizes and pushes the oil out of the pot, and then the oil catches fire on the burner below. So while they’re technically not explosions, flames reaching two stories in less than a second is close enough for us.) The advice of most experts is…don’t even buy one of these in the first place! They’re simply too dangerous on too many levels.
But if you do (and we know some of you will…we’ll watch for the flames), what do you do with the oil afterward? You’re not going to pour it onto your lawn, and it’s irresponsible to put anything other than water down the storm drain. The best thing you can do with it is recycle it; check with your local recycling center, because there’s always someone looking for liquid oil to use in the oil-burning diesel engine.
From your home’s perspective, the worst thing you can do is to pour all that oil down the drain. Think of your drains like your body…a little oil here and there is okay, but imagine trying to take 8-gallons of it at the same time! Sending all of it down is bad for your drain, bad for your sewers, bad for the sewage plant. Find a recycling center to take it and everyone wins.
The holiday’s are a great time, and you don’t want to complicate them with any problems like the need for emergency sewer cleaning. Sure, eventually you’ll need to call Garvin as your drains start to clog, but you can delay that by taking care of your drains during Thanksgiving (because Thanksgiving problems can haunt you at Christmas!) Have a great Turkey Day!
