My mum had a fine grade steel mesh filter as well, that sat on top of a metal jug. She’d put a layer of paper towel on top too (she used it to drain freshly fried items). Once it all filtered through she’d reuse the oil in curries. Nowadays she doesn’t fry enough stuff to do this any more. Neither do I.

Though one time I used too much oil when roasting some fennel so I poured the excess oil (infused with dry thyme) off the baking sheet into a glass jar and used it later to fry up onions and garlic and veg for a pasta dish. That was delish.