(AP) -- Phil DeVore pulls a folded piece of aluminum from a murky pond. The aluminum looks like a piece of siding that's blown off a building, but DeVore knows it's much more valuable than that. He slips a rubber band off the aluminum and unfolds it. He likes what he sees -- 50 or 60 glistening black leeches. They're your common ribbon leeches, Nephelopsis obscura to aquatic biologists.
Store the oil to be reused in cooking or deep frying for no longer than three months and avoid re-using the oil for deep frying more than once or twice, as the smoke point of used oil is reduced after multiple uses. Avoid pouring your used deep fryer oil down the drain or tossing it in the trash.
You can often reuse peanut oil more times than other types of cooking oil. Allow the oil to cool to a temperature of 110 degrees F after deep-frying. Strain the oil through a fine strainer or cheesecloth into a clean container. Cover and refrigerate up to two or three months. Peanut oil is unfit to use if it foams, fails to bubble or smokes excessively when you add the food during deep-frying. Do not use if it has a rancid smell or turns a darker color.