Bacon Drippings

[GregLaROCHE]

When I was young, frying bacon was a normal thing. There was a tin can at the back of the stove where the fat from cooking bacon was put. It was used for a lot of things. I can remember a turkey being covered with it before going into the oven. Later I learned how great it was to fry fish in. Then bacon was deemed a killer and we started avoiding it like the plague.

Anyway, with new studies are starting to show that high LDL may not be that bad as thought and the seed oils, that we have switched to could be harmful. This post is not to debate health and diets. I’m just explaining why now we have started consuming a fair amount of bacon and are generating a lot of bacon drippings.

My family never filtered the drippings. They were put into the can and solid pieces either floated to the top or went to the bottom. I think some people used to filter the drippings and that sounds like a good idea. I’m thinking of stainless mesh filter, normally used for coffee and using it. What do others think? Is it a good idea or a waste of time.

Thanks

[MrWolf]

We don't actually cook with the leftover bacon grease as we mix it with oatmeal and feed it to our girls (chickens). They love it and I think it gives them some extra fuel especially in the winter. My Mother never really saved the bacon greasebut then again we rarely ever had bacon. Now we have it almost every week.

[GregLaROCHE]

You’re right. Fat helps most carnivore/omnivore animals, especially when it is cold. I used to buy five gallon buckets of pig fat to supplement my sled dogs normal diet when it was colder than -20F.

[DCB]

Where would we be without pig fat? My grandfather Had some type of fried pig (Eggs) for breakfast everyday he lived to be 93.
We eat lots of Bacon and we do not filter the bacon fat. Those little brown pieces in the grease is flavor, makes the best fried potatoes you can have.
we made a thing called Speck, it was a chunk of pig fat cured in garlic and a few other seasonings in a brine tank where salt was added till an egg floated to the top. after the Speck was cured it was put on a stick and turned over a bed of coals ,careful not to burn it. when the grease started to run it was drizzled over a piece of rye bread with a few vegetables.

[jdfoxinc]

I use it to make soap. Filter through cheese cloth. I also cook corn pone and biscuit bread in it.

[GhostHawk]

I still have a small container in the fridge half full of bacon drippings. Mostly it gets saved to cook the celery for a batch of clam chowder.
I bring home the bacon, so all bacon grease is mine by fiat.

[DougGuy]

I save my bacon fat and use it in cornbread. Recipe calls for 1/4C and I mix butter and bacon grease. I pull a cast iron skillet out of a 450F oven, put it over a gas burner on high and pour 2 tbsp bacon grease into it, swirl it around then pour my cornbread batter into it. It almost screams at you when that batter hits the hot smoking iron, and the bacon grease comes up around the sides and comes bubbling out onto the edges of the batter, then back into the hot oven for 25mins. It makes that really dark crispy crust that you don't get using a cold skillet.

[MUSTANG]

Yep - Since the time I could not see the top of the stove I could see the Coffee Can on the stove where bacon grease was stored in our house, and all the extended Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins (of age) did the same.

I still have some bacon drippings in the fridge for use in frying. It is dwindling as the price of bacon has escalated so much we do not use it; finding that Jimmie Dean sausage from Costco on sale has pushed the bacon way down. I do have a few packages in the freezer; may get one out this week.

Have never used bacon for anything except frying and using with Baked Meats.

[Kestrel4k]

It goes into my cream of potato soup - stretches the flavor of the small amount of bacon I also put in.
Yes bacon has gotten expensive; one of my alternatives is homemade chorizo sausage made w/ ground (uncured) pork. Ideally, fried in bacon grease. :-)

[Nueces]

Late model countertop drippin's containers often come standard with a stainless mesh top filter, no need to adapt a coffee filter. I use the strained oil for cooking and sometimes scrape the particulates off into dirty rice.

I now cook bacon on folded paper towels in the microwave which gives me perfect evenly cooked bacon, but I lose the oil. So, I buy tubs of bacon grease at the HEB grocery store. Armour lard, too. Bacon grease for eggs and cornbread, lard for corned beef hash. The grease can gets everything.

After a hot skillet of smoking bacon grease, the house smells like Grandma's.

[Daver7]

We use bacon grease for our popcorn. Some times were feeling rich we put raw bacon in the whirly pop with the popcorn and let it cook. Ya end up with little bacon bits in your popcorn, its great. I want to try using bacon grease when baking bread.

[swamp]

I grew up with saving bacon grease. I filter mine thru a paper towel. Helps it keep better. I filter all my rendered fats. Use for cooking, soap and once in a while candles( with a little beeswax to stiffin).
swamp

[GregLaROCHE]

As I remember, in the US most of the bacon was smoked. Here in France it’s mostly fresh. Smoked bacon is sold, but much more expensive. It’s hard as a rock. I use it when cooking things like sauerkraut. Also, bacon is normally sold in slabs by local butchers. They cut off a piece depending on how much you want. Funny how it’s always a little bigger than you asked for. They look at me surprised, when I ask them to slice it. I like it 3/8-1/2 inch thick. I don’t cook it crispy. I like to taste the fat.

[country gent]

Mom had a container of bacon grease on the stove. It wasnt any thing fancy just a washed out soup can. Just about everything fried on that stove had a spoon or two of it in the cast iron pan. Green beans fried in it were really good. It wasnt filtered or strained. Added a small amount to egg salad and ground bologna also. It was the "go to" seasoning.

This wasnt todays lean bacon, this was the old style bacon from a true sows belly seasoned cured and smoked sliced to what you wanted when it came out of the fridge. Todays bacon and sausage arnt the same.

[MaryB]

Can make buckboard bacon to offset cost of store bought, not as fatty but it makes great sandwiches!

I occasionally get a buy on fresh pork belly and make my own bacon. Dry cure bacon is soooo much better than that liquid oozing brine injected store bought bacon!

[Winger Ed.]

The first rule of Southern cooking is: Save all bacon grease.

The old coffee can on top of the stove is OK, unless ya can do better----

[HWooldridge]

My mom and both grandmothers kept an aluminum can on the stove that was intended for bacon grease. The lid had a deep ring and was perforated with a bunch of small holes that kept out the bigger chunks of meat. Every few weeks, they would wipe off the pieces and clean out the holes.

I keep a coffee mug full of bacon lard in the butter drawer on the fridge - and use it in all sorts of dishes. My wife likes to fry walnuts in a bit of butter and grease - one of her favorite snacks.

[CastingFool]

I buy 15-20 lbs of pig fat at a time and render it at home. Stored in the refrigerator for later use. We also buy the thick smoked bacon, and save the fat. It's our back up when the lard runs out, or when we want extra flavor

[dale2242]

Venison has to be fried in bacon grease.

[Arkansas Paul]

Venison has to be fried in bacon grease.

Comments like this one is why we need a "like" button.

I'm following the keto eating plan so I'm keeping all my bacon grease. However I have not been filtering it.
I have been thinking about it, and would like to have good clean bacon grease.

[brassrat]

I now use an electric griddle with tray and carefully guide the oil into the tray and use a very fine sieve to go into a couple jars. Yankee here but this seems to be a good method. My fat is a, pure, off white color but especially free of any bits at all.

[Winger Ed.]

Those bits are pretty good too.
Some people strain them out, then buy bacon bits in a jar at the store that aren't as good as what they threw away.

[SoonerEd]

When I was young, frying bacon was a normal thing. There was a tin can at the back of the stove where the fat from cooking bacon was put. It was used for a lot of things. I can remember a turkey being covered with it before going into the oven. Later I learned how great it was to fry fish in. Then bacon was deemed a killer and we started avoiding it like the plague.

Anyway, with new studies are starting to show that high LDL may not be that bad as thought and the seed oils, that we have switched to could be harmful. This post is not to debate health and diets. I’m just explaining why now we have started consuming a fair amount of bacon and are generating a lot of bacon drippings.

My family never filtered the drippings. They were put into the can and solid pieces either floated to the top or went to the bottom. I think some people used to filter the drippings and that sounds like a good idea. I’m thinking of stainless mesh filter, normally used for coffee and using it. What do others think? Is it a good idea or a waste of time.

Thanks

My wife has a can that looks like a small double boiler. The top part has holes to filter out pieces. You lift the top off to get to the fat underneath. It's an overly engineered can with holes from Willams-Sonoma but I don't complain as she makes great gravy and fried eggs with the bacon drippings. Because it has such good flavor we actually use very little to impart the flavor.

[jdgabbard]

My grandmother always saved the grease. My parents, never... Dad was always so paranoid about grease, and fats. But, the guy is 72 now and doesn't look a day over 50. He'll probably outlive me...

That said, I don't normally save it. But occasionally I'll reserve some if I'm going to cook something that can benefit from it.

[GONRA]

When I wasa kid, GONRA thought EVERYBODY hada Can of Bacon Grease sittin' on their stove....
Back in WW II we NEVER wasted anything!
Our family was the only one on the block (Suburban Chicago) that NEVER hada canfull to turn the War Effort....
We used it in cookin' - popcorn on-the-stove, etc. YUM! YUM! !!

[Kavein]

Anybody make bacon grease gravy? Served over homemade biscuits, and you won’t get hungry again for a while.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I save my excess bacon drippings. I filter it through a paper coffee filter (conical) when things in the skillet get a bit thick. I use it to fry my finely diced potatoes, my eggs, bagels, and lots more. None of mine is ever sent to the birds.

[MT Gianni]

I grew up saving it. My folks had matching aluminum salt and pepper shakers with a matching sugar bowl and one that sat on the back of the stove for bacon grease. We fry bacon so rarely we just toss the grease. We use bacon in soups, dutch oven chicken and potatoes and pork ribs. We want the flavor from the bacon grease to add to what we're cooking. The few times we eat just bacon it doesn't pay to keep 3 tablespoons of fat for months.

[Sandro_ventania]

When I was young, frying bacon was a normal thing. There was a tin can at the back of the stove where the fat from cooking bacon was put. It was used for a lot of things. I can remember a turkey being covered with it before going into the oven. Later I learned how great it was to fry fish in. Then bacon was deemed a killer and we started avoiding it like the plague.

Anyway, with new studies are starting to show that high LDL may not be that bad as thought and the seed oils, that we have switched to could be harmful. This post is not to debate health and diets. I’m just explaining why now we have started consuming a fair amount of bacon and are generating a lot of bacon drippings.

My family never filtered the drippings. They were put into the can and solid pieces either floated to the top or went to the bottom. I think some people used to filter the drippings and that sounds like a good idea. I’m thinking of stainless mesh filter, normally used for coffee and using it. What do others think? Is it a good idea or a waste of time.

Thanks

The last pig I fattened gave me 5 15-liter cans... more than 20 gallons of lard (pork fat). What causes health problems are industrialized vegetable oils, such as corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and especially Crisco!! Margarine is also another villain. Good, natural fat, like olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil, is essential for heart and brain health!

[AlaskaMike]

I used to filter bacon grease through a paper towel, but I don't bother anymore.

What I typically do though, is put it all in a little sauce pan on low or med low heat and slowly work off the moisture (store-bought bacon up here is the brined kind and full of water). I'll then pour it back into the container and freeze it. When I bring it back out and let it thaw, it's got a super creamy texture and still has all the bacony goodness.

For me it's not just bacon grease though--I'll dump sausage fat, beef fat, pork fat, etc in there too.

[45workhorse]

I save my bacon fat and use it in cornbread. Recipe calls for 1/4C and I mix butter and bacon grease. I pull a cast iron skillet out of a 450F oven, put it over a gas burner on high and pour 2 tbsp bacon grease into it, swirl it around then pour my cornbread batter into it. It almost screams at you when that batter hits the hot smoking iron, and the bacon grease comes up around the sides and comes bubbling out onto the edges of the batter, then back into the hot oven for 25mins. It makes that really dark crispy crust that you don't get using a cold skillet.

NO better way to make cornbread. Except maybe some fresh jalapenos!

[Txcowboy52]

When I was growing up , I thought bacon grease was a staple. We used in seasoning most everything. Making gravy or cornbread. Momma always had a bacon grease container. Nothing like fried taters with onions cooked in bacon grease!

[libertyman777]

When I was young, frying bacon was a normal thing. There was a tin can at the back of the stove where the fat from cooking bacon was put. It was used for a lot of things. I can remember a turkey being covered with it before going into the oven. Later I learned how great it was to fry fish in. Then bacon was deemed a killer and we started avoiding it like the plague.

Anyway, with new studies are starting to show that high LDL may not be that bad as thought and the seed oils, that we have switched to could be harmful. This post is not to debate health and diets. I’m just explaining why now we have started consuming a fair amount of bacon and are generating a lot of bacon drippings.

My family never filtered the drippings. They were put into the can and solid pieces either floated to the top or went to the bottom. I think some people used to filter the drippings and that sounds like a good idea. I’m thinking of stainless mesh filter, normally used for coffee and using it. What do others think? Is it a good idea or a waste of time.

Thanks

I just pour it off and use it. Eggs are their absolute best fried in bacon grease.