What to do with Bacon Grease?

[Constance]

Lots of hungry families got their tummies filled with bacon grease gravy and bread or biscuits during the depression.

 

[kadesma]

Lots of hungry families got their tummies filled with bacon grease gravy and bread or biscuits during the depression.

Amen Connie, I'm pretty sure my grand mother did. She lived to 96 her mom to 98 and my dad to 92...
kades

 

[DaveSoMD]

I like to cook up the little grape tomatoes. Especially in one of those pans for the grill. I usually put some olive oil on them, but will have to try some bacon grease.

Then toss em with some romain lettuce and some croutons or toasted bread cubes and you have a BLT salad minus the bacon.

If you like pierogi, boil them then fry them off till just a bit crisp in bacon fat!

 

[kadesma]

Then toss em with some romain lettuce and some croutons or toasted bread cubes and you have a BLT salad minus the bacon.

If you like pierogi, boil them then fry them off till just a bit crisp in bacon fat!

What say we throw those croutons in there as well?
emmm emmm
kades

 

[luvs]

awesome, i'll make pierogi & bacon soon. kraut/potato for me & cheese/potato for jake.
he-he, i'm hungry for pierogies after this, & jake cooked the ones in the freezer, dagnabbit.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Sacrilegious, but I nuke my bacon. I like my bacon crisp and non-greasy. I'm probably killing myself by putting it between paper towels, but if I die with bacon taste on my lips I'll be happy enough. I fry it out only if I need the drippings right then for what I am cooking. This thread makes me want to save drippings!

My Mom had a stoneware crock in a cupboard. Poured off the bacon fat each time she fried it unless the crock was full. Mom lived to 82, her sis who lived with Mom and Dad made it to 97. Dad was 75 when he went, but I think it was the 3-pack-a-day habit that got him.

My DH loved the drippings-over-sunnyside-eggs deal...that's how his Mom cooked them. My great aunt owned a luncheonette and would make sunnyside up eggs on the grill by steaming them. That's how I cook his now and he's perfectly happy. He'd better be happy or he can cook his own eggs!

 

[Claire]

Mom always had a jar of it in the fridge (she doesn't any more!), and I keep a little on hand. There are just a few things that taste so much better when bacon fat is used. There are a few things that call for lard as the fat, and when it is appropriate I'll use a spoon of bacon fat rather than butter or olive oil (I don't use it often enough to buy a pound of lard). Some Mexican and Eastern European things I make that use corn meal really taste much better if made with the bacon fat rather than vegetable oil. And I don't do it often, but I love corn popped in bacon fat.

Oh, yeah, my father is turning 80 this year, and Mom will be 76 soon. She really doesn't cook the way she used to, but obviously the bacon fat didn't kill any of us. Oh, and another aside, for a few years Mom & Dad bought entire sides of beef and Mom rendered the beef fat and we cooked with that. The process really, really, really smelled awful, but the taste of food cooked in the lard was delicious!

 

[ggeoff]

Covering the bacon tightly and refrigerating it will be adequate to keep it almost indefinitely. I usually put mine in the freezer and then use a knife or spoon to scrape what I need. I've had the same container in my freezer for years.

I love to add bacon drippings to the pan I cook cornbread in and also add it to green beans when I want a nice smoky bacony flavor.

What a lovely idea

 

[Able Hands]

I'll put in a third vote for popcorn, but nearly anything that can be fried is augmented by bacon fat.