We have bacon every weekend. I have a grease keeper. No room in the fridge, so I’m keeping it in a cool cupboard.
So… What do I do with the grease? If I want to make gravy, I use the grease from the bacon and/or sausage I’m making. I suppose I can mix it up with bird seed and put it out for the chickadees; but the raccoons would probably get it. How else can I use it? How long is it good?
Why would you ever have bacon grease left over? Just toss a slice or two of white bread into the pan after the bacon’s done and let it soak up the fluid.
I often use it to fry my potatoes in, especially home fries. For hashbrowns and eggs, I tend to use butter. I keep my bacon grease in the freezer and just chisel off a chunk when I need it. I know that duck fat will keep indefinitely in the fridge, but bacon fat has bits of bacon in it, so I suppose it could go rancid on a shelf.
Put it on popcorn.
How about for pie crusts?
Brian
It’s a good fat base for any kind of stew you are making (or really, anything you need to fry), as long as you are fine with that smoky, bacon-y taste in whatever you are making. Whenever I cook a stew, I go into my fridge and pull out whatever animal fat I have available and begin that way, instead of using oil or butter.
As a baker I can say there are oil crusts, but bacon isn’t all that good for them.
I do have a cake recipe from my grandmother, called "Eggless, Butterless, Milkless Cake, that has oil in it. Her original card states that bacon grease can be the oil used. The recipe comes from Depression days, when people didn’t waste anything, and also came in handy during the war when grocery rationing made some fats harder to get.
Hmm…I’m actually surprised that it wouldn’t work in a lard-based crust. I’ve never tried it, but bacon grease certainly solidifies like lard and I would expect it to have similar properties in making a flaky, though somewhat bacon-y (bacon fat actually is a good deal subtler than bacon itself), crust provided that it is kept cool and not man handled (melting it.)
Googling around, it does appear to be a thing. Here’s a recipe for Johnny.
When I was a kid back in the '50s, my mom saved bacon grease in a coffee can, and stored it in the “milk chute” in the kitchen wall. That is, until Halloween, when some kids took the can and smeared bacon grease all over our car.
Whenever I make bacon, I always end up using the grease in the same thing I’m using the bacon for.
Use it as the frying fat when you start out to make chili. One of the best chili recipes I used came from America’s Test Kitchen, and it started out with rendering some bacon for the frying fat. The smokiness adds a great dimension.
Ditto for clam chowder.
I understand that if you smear it on and in between your toes before you put on your socks and boots in the winter, it puts off frostbite. Handy if you’re trekking around the Yukon, I guess.
Other than that, I have nothing original to contribute.
Exactly. But with whole wheat bread.
When I fix green beans, I put a dollop of bacon grease in them to cook, adds a really nice flavor. I also like scrambling eggs in bacon grease. And the best grilled cheese in the world was made in a pan that had a Tbsp of bacon grease melted in it. MMMMM!
Ya gotta have bacon grease for preparing liver and onions.
Bacon grease is a cooking essential. Nothing better for eggs and other breakfasty items. I keep a can in the refrigerator. When it starts getting low, I cook up a big batch of bacon just for the grease. And I get to eat the bacon! It’s a win-win!
For almost anything you don’t have enough duck fat for.
Though beef tallow (fat) has its uses too, I’d place it ahead of bacon fat in many categories including fries.
But yes duck fat is the trump card of fats.
Use some to make a wilted lettuce salad. Heat a bit of grease in a skillet add vinegar and sugar to taste. Pour while warm Over leaf lettuce and thinly sliced onions. Yum!
Fried chicken. Bacon-grease fried chicken is an old family recipe from the lumber camps, and it’s delicious. Especially good for feeding lumberjacks if you have any around.
Similarly, you can use bacon grease and white sugar over pancakes instead of syrup. I’ve actually never tried that, but my dad has fond memories of it.
Other than that, what everyone else says - eggs, potatoes, veggies etc.
Close, but goose fat wins.
Oh and use some to make cornbread. Delicious!