Bacon Fat - do you use it? How?

[chef chicklet]

In the past I have tossed this just because I've wanted to really watch my fat intake, but last weekend after making some great bacon, looked at it sadly I quickly found a tiny jar, while it was still hot, slid it in then stored it the fridge. I need to think about it (and check the damage for the fat of 1 T) I mean I do bet that I eat some things that are worse.
So I wanted to consider the possibilities first before I just throw it away.

Growing up my parents had a cannister set and in the smallest stainles steel one, was stored the bacon fat. I know my mom and dad used it, how? I'll never know, their both gone it's an unanswered food question now, that and why my mom saved her potato water to thicken her sauces. I forget to that too.

Do you save the bacon fat and if so, how do you use it?

[monkeyrotica]

Dice some boiled potatoes, toss with the bacon fat, and bake at 400. Most of the fat renders off, leaving a nice crips brown skin.

Or just slice raw potatoes flat, place in a hot pan with a cup of water and the bacon fat, cover and boil. By the time the water's evaporated, the potatoes are cooked and sizzling. Works with olive oil as well, but bacon fat gives it that tasty brown skin.

[pikawicca]

I just used some this morning to make cornbread. Put a couple of tablespoons in a cast iron skillet and place in the preheating oven while you mix up your batter. Pour the batter into the sizzling fat and bake. You will have a delicious, crunchy crust.

[Glencora]

Do you worry about getting the fat on the sides of the pan? I usually give it to my skinny old cat, but this sounds tempting.

[pikawicca]

The fat obliging sloshes up the side when you add the batter.

[Val]

Yeah, besides wanting to just roll around in it...I use it for cornbread in my cast iron skillet also...ex-spouse threw my jar of saved drippings away once that I had in fridge; jeez, it wasn't HURTING anyone, and it wasn't rotten but it was damned good for some specific uses--I wanted to cry (I think I did!)...sort of like the day he combined the 3 different mustards I had in the fridge "so that we don't have so many containers of the same thing!" I had Creole mustard, the yellow cheap stuff and Dijon and he found it unacceptable...oh, dear!

[amy_rc]

it is a good thing you got rid of him!

[cayjohan]

Oh my...an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond had Frank throwing out a container of Marie's "good fat."

I can relate. Touch not the fat!

[Cookiefiend]

I do save it! It's wonderful stuff.

I don't use it for many things, but primarily for eggs and frying cabbage with a bit of onion. If I'm making pork chops, I'll sometimes add a bit along with the oil for the extra flavor.

You can also use it in a bacon dressing for a salad, spinach or hot German potato.

I know it's frowned on (dietary police and my doctor who just told me last week my cholesterol was too high) but... as you said, I bet I eat some things that are worse.

I don't know about the potato water to thicken the sauces but I bet it's because of the starch in the water.

You're going to get some wonderful suggestions on how to use that fat. I'm going to keep checking for my own information! ;-)

[fearlessemily]

Hi Chef Chicklet --

We do save our bacon fat... My DH uses it to fry up eggs, but this summer I have discovered the best use for it -- added to burgers! OMG, melt a little bacon fat (not much is needed, maybe 1 Tbs per pound of meat) and add to your usual burger recipe (I make mine with the addition of some bread soaked in milk)... If you do the burgers on the grill, most of the fat will render anyway, but the bacon fat just makes the burgers more luscious... Its not that you taste bacon in the burgers, just that the burgers taste better!

Emily

[chef chicklet]

mmmm....a hint of bacon in every bite!

[cayjohan]

We do the same with burgers. Our red meat of choice (habit) is venison, but it's far too lean for some applications calling for ground meat. The bacon fat really helps.

I keep my bacon fat in the freezer - pretty easy to hack off a knob.

Also, it's brilliant as the fat component for a vinaigrette to put over a warm beet salad.

[pikawicca]

I like to make a venison chili using either good lard or bacon fat. Tasty!

[dinner belle]

Bacon fat's almost as good as duck fat!. I put bacon grease in my cheese grits. It's good stirred into a pot of white beans or into soup, too.

[chocchipcookie]

I just made bacon yesterday for the main purpose of using the fat in my ceasar salad dressing. Of course the kids gobbled up the bacon. I only use a T but it makes the dressing that much tastier. I also use it to fry up the eggs like other posters . Yum!

[chef chicklet]

WHAT!!!! OMG! I love that idea! I'm so one-potato minded all I was thinking was adding it to my mashed potatoes!

[meatn3]

They have mentioned most of the ways I use it. It will last longer if you filter it. I use a coffee filter tucked into a funnel placed over the jar.

Suspect the potato water saving was to utilize the starch and/or capture any nutritive value rather than pour it down the drain.

[danhole]

I use it to cook my corn or green beans. Just melt it in the pan and add the veggies, toss and serve. It makes it taste more countrified, without adding bacon, ham or salt pork.

[WCchopper]

If I have some saved, I also use it for green beans and corn. I put it in the water when I blanch the beans. It seems to flavor the vegetables without coating them with the actual fat. Creamed corn tastes great with a little bacon fat, as does braised cabbage.

[scharffenberger]

I use it to coat baking potatoes. A little does go a long way, since it is a fat with flavor. The better the bacon the better flavor the fat will have.

[chef chicklet]

WOW, what a bunch of great ideas! Now I know why NO ONE could fry an egg like mother, she used the bacon fat. I'm sure it's used in a lot of good restaurant cooking.

Now I'm willing to try the duck fat too.

I have a glorious little jar of fat in the fridge right now, I love the thought of adding it to breads, soups, and veggies. YUM! YUM! YUM!

Thanks for the outstanding responses I love you people!!

[ESNY]

I've heard of chefs cooking up their roux for gumbos with bacon fat.

You can add it to your hamburgers or if you make hamburgers in a cast iron skillet you can melt the fat and then fry the burgers in it. I imagine it would make the best grilled cheese ever.

[drgreg]

Exactly - I did this for the first time Saturday night making Shrimp Creole (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/seriou... It was a fantastic result, one of the best things I've ever made.

[Candy]

I do all of the above, seasoning veggies, it is great added to the fat to fry chicken, must have with baking cornbread, though I do sometimes use lard for it. Don't waste it. My mom always kept an aluminum tin with a strainer in it on the range top. It was stamped grease. All bacon grease went into that can and I don't think it was ever refrigerated either.

[sgwood415]

Sautee brussels sprouts in bacon fat. They are great together. I slice the spouts in half lengthwise and sautee them until they are bright green and softened. Really good flavors together.

[Honey Bee]

Add a little chopped mint, sirracha, and kim chee to the brussel sprouts cooked in bacon and it is wonderful.

[coll]

I fry eggs for my husband in half bacon fat and half butter. Also anything Mexican, especially refried beans.

[bkhuna]

Refried beans always begin by frying up some bacon!

[MeowMixx]

Great ideas. Would you save the fat in the refrigerator or on the shelf? How long is it good for?

[pikawicca]

I refrigerate it, but Mom never did. The stuff seems to last forever.

[chef chicklet]

I don't know much about it MeowM. Anybody???

My mom's had a cannister, and lifting the lid, the first piece (strainer) was under the lid, under that was the fat and it sat on the counter with the other cannisters. I don't know how often she used it, or the shelf life. My inclination was to refrigerate it and store it in a jar. There were no little bits of meat just the pure bacon fat. I would strain it though if it were necessary....maybe.

[amy_rc]

In a jar with a tight lid in the fridge

[bkhuna]

Bacon drippings are one of the groups that make up the Southern food pyramid.

[torty]

You have had great replies. Addressing your dietary issue I can only comment that a tablespoon of fat is a tablespoon of fat whether canola oil or bacon grease with respect to calories . But seriously- one tablespoon of bacon fat melted and tossed with a head of cauliflower and roasted (Oh yeeah!) - I think it balances out on the good side of nutrition especially cuz it is so good you eat all your 5 serving of veg.

[yayadave]

Not quite!! Right after I had the first stent put in my heart, my doctor said to avoid animal fats. He knew it was a waste of time giving me some restrictive diet with 101 rules. Just avoid animal fats. He didn't have a problem with cooking in olive oil.

[Greta]

Add some to the pot while cooking greens or peas. (Southern favorite!)
Use as the oil in O&V dressing. I did this when I was young and could eat whatever I wanted. Not so much anymore!
Add to chili.

My mom used to put it in a coffee cup and add water. After a while, the grease congealed on the top and the brown things sunk to the bottom of the water. Then she scooped the grease off the top and added it to her refrigerated bacon grease jar.

[yayadave]

Nice trick to filter it. Thanks.

[Lemonii]

Does it need to cool a bit before you add water? I don't want it popping all over.... HOT grease!

[mockturtle]

Around here in NC I get Ossabaw brats and save the fat. "They" say it's closer to olive oil than other animal fats. I definitely use it for browing potatoes and topping baked potatoes and I'm thinking about trying mafongo. It's almost duck fat and allegedly healthier.

http://www.tienda.com/press/articles....

But, yes, bacon fat for potatoes, scrambled eggs, fritattas, grits/polenta, shrimp and everything else offered here. I once dated someone allergic to dairy and so I had fun using it as a butter substitute for her.

[jgg13]

In terms of calories, fat is fat. In terms of heart health and other such issues, yes - they're not all the same.

[yayadave]

I have a recipe for the best pancakes I ever made, and it has 2 T of bacon grease. The rest of the recipe seems perfectly normal - nothing special. Just use bacon grease.

There was recently a thread about stew and someone suggested putting bacon in the stew. I have a feeling that the idea is to chop up some bacon and put it in the pot first so that you would use the bacon grease to brown the stew meat and saute your vegetables if you care to.

[saraeanderson]

As a kid, my mom made pancakes for me almost every day of my life (and I loved them every day), but I remember on the days when we had guests for breakfast, and there was bacon, I loooooved the pancakes that were made on the griddle right after the bacon. Yum!

[podunkboy]

Most of our piggie fat goes into a cleaned sour cream/cottage cheese container (after it's cooled), and refrigerated, then given to my mother-in-law, who uses it in various culinary crimes against nature. My personal favorite are her fried potatoes in bacon grease, which are served under a ladle of ham and beans, with nice crumbly cornbread on the side.
On occasion, I'll sneak a spoonful into a skillet to fry an egg over-easy, or grease a biscuit pan with some bacon grease, and then flip the biscuits before baking so the top gets a thin sheen of bacony goodness.

[tatertotsrock]

Fried Eggs LOVE Bacon Grease...a match made in heaven.
Homemade Hashbrown Potatos LOVE bacon Grease.Beans LOVE bacon Grease.
Bisquick (yes, Bisquick) LOVES Bacon Grease...make drop biscuits, pancakes, waffles)
Waffle Irons really LOVE Bacon Grease.
Cast Iron Skillets LOVE Bacon Grease...pancakes love to enjoy them together.
I LOVE Bacon Grease.

So....Bacon Grease is either a total slutt (gets used everywhere!!!) or there is just a lotta love for the stuff.

Grama always had an MJB Coffee can on the stove with the grease in it...was never refrigerated unless we went outta town for a while...see, it used to warm up on the stove everyday when she cooked, so maybe that help keep it safe...actually, think of confit..fat is a preservative...how can a preservative go bad? Anyway, the can was never refrigerated, neither was out pot of beans.

I'm not dead yet...maybe it's all the bacon grease I've eaten over the years.

[amy_rc]

My mom always has a jar of bacon grease in the fridge. Whenever she makes green beans she minces onions and sautes them in a small amount of the fat then adds the beans and water, salt, etc.

One more thing, I love wilted lettuce! Use the bacon fat in the dressing (I've never actually made it, but I watched my mother. It is hot bacon grease, sugar and vinegar. Pour the hot dressing over washed greens, diced green onion and crumbled bacon. A summer favorite!

[Chris VR]

No one mentioned chard yet?! I wouldn't eat chard without bacon fat, so the healthy green veggie karma must cancel out the bad bacon fat karma, right?

Throw a tablespoon or two in a large hot skillet and add chard that's been cleaned and chopped up a bit (center rib removed unless it's fresh young chard), along with some chopped garlic. Cook until wilted and then splash a bit of balsamic vinegar over it all.

I also use it to fry eggs and last week I was making a recipe with ground veal and added a few tablespoons to the veal to add some fat. The results were quite good- not at al dry and with just a teeny touch of piggy goodness.

[Mawrter]

I use chard's coarser cousins in my bacon grease: kale and collards. Sometimes with garlic and/or fried onions.

I also like to use bacon grease to fry my onions and garlic when I make white bean soup, sort of a corrupted caldo gallego.

[JungMann]

I was told to strain my bacon grease through a coffee filter in a funnel. The resulting bacon fat should be cleared of impurities and appropriate for myriad uses. I use it to make salad dressing, wilt bitter greens, drizzled over roasting vegetables, in savory oatmeal, to brown meat for a stew, to make roux for gumbos and soups, for pie crusts, etc. It's my preferred fat for cooking Central European foods (e.g. goulash), definitely lending a hearty and satisfying taste to autumnal and winter foods.

[chef chicklet]

My Mom made a French salad dressing, she called it "French Housewife's Dressing" it was a common dressing one that she cooked, I think I now know why we remember that dressing so fondly. Over salad greens, romaine, red leaf, leeks, and since we had a huge garden, our salad base changed with the harvest. But the constant, was this dressing.

I'll bet that she made French toast and pancakes with it as well as the eggs.

We have the fondest memories of her "French Apple" pie. So do you just swap the bacon fat out for the butter or lard, or what?

[JungMann]

People always ask what the secret is to my dressing. Now you know. As for pie crusts, yes, you swap bacon fat for the butter or lard, but it is best for savory pies like chicken pot pie or a pork pie. It adds another incredible dimension.

Another great use is the simplest: on toast. There are lots of German recipes for bacon fat-based spreads with chopped sausage and meat, but I love simple fried bread in bacon grease with my English fry up. It is an utterly decadent treat.

[pikawicca]

There is no guiltier pleasure of mine than bread fried in bacon fat, which I learned to love while living in England years ago.

[scuzzo]

I want to know what is in the French Housewife's Dressing...please.

[chef chicklet]

Scuzzo
We have tried to find it before, the recipes that are out there are not what my mom made. I have seen other recipes claiming to be French Housewifes and when I've made it, it's not the same.
But you know how that goes when we go on a "quest" to find Mom or Grandma's recipes we search and search until we find it. Several of my Mother's recipes are like that, we are searching for what she made us. But after reading Jungmann's post, he said that he used bacon fat and it was his secret, I have a feeling that this hers too!

Anyway, It was her standard salad dressing for whatever went into the salad bowl. She made all her own dressings, and they were all good, but we ate this one the most.

Oil - or Bacon Fat - I know she would cook the salad dressing at times
vinegar - redwine or apple cider
herbs - I don't know which ones - maybe it was just parsley
Dijon Mustard
shallots or red onion minced fine (going by memory here)
Perhaps a little sugar
pepper and salt

I wish I could give you exacts, but I need to work with it.

[JungMann]

My dressing is pretty similar. I use 2 parts bacon fat to 3 parts balsamic vinegar and season with garlic powder, parsley, thyme, chives, 1/2 tsp. mustard, splenda, seasoned salt and cracked pepper. It is very versatile and changes based on what kind of salad I am dressing, but is always very forgiving.

[foxy fairy]

Do you heat the bacon grease first? or the entire dressing? or nothing?

[pikawicca]

You get the fat hot, so that when it's poured on the greens, they wilt. Cold bacon fat as a salad dressing would be a very bad thing.

[chef chicklet]

Do you cook it? to at least melt the fat? .

Yes it does sound similar, she did not use balsamic, we just didn't have access to it, hence why they made their own of "whatver" and experimented.
(she is an original New York Pizza maker- Pepperoni with thin crust!)

The dressing is tart, and there was no garlic (that I can remember), just shallots with a just a tad of sweetness to take the edge off the vinegar. It is delicous on the softer lettuces,butter, red leaf and baby beet leaves (and with blackberries).

[JungMann]

You don't "cook" it, per se. You just heat it up enough to melt the fat so that you can emulsify it with the vinegar. If it's too hot, it'll wilt your salad which is sometimes okay, but I usually add blue cheese to my salad, which I don't want melted.

Your mother's salad and dressing sound great. My version is probably a little sweeter and more piquant than hers, but I think it might go well with that blackberry/beet leaf salad you described. I'll have to try it with the shallots this weekend!

[scuzzo]

Thanks! Sounds great, and versatile.

[welle]

Swedish ginger cookies - delish! http://www.chowhound.com/topics/34658...

[TBird]

i don't save bacon grease, but love including it in pan fried brussel sprouts with chopped hazlenuts.

[chef chicklet]

Welle - Whoa! these look seriously good!

[Ruth Lafler]

I found that recipe recently and made it -- they are delicious! The bacon fat gives the cookies a wonderful richness and smokiness.

[welle]

yup, i made another batch substituting with butter as the recipe suggested and it was not the same! bacon fat is the way to go.
I made cookies really thin, btw, it added some sophistication to the cookies, imo - delicate cookies with a punch.

[vanillagrrl]

I know this isn't about the fat but it is about the flavor: I cook bacon in a jellyroll pan in the oven at 400 F for about 20 minutes and when it's crisp I put it on newspapers, pour off the fat, and loosen the browned bits in the pan with a little water. I save that liquid in small containers (an ice cube tray would work, too) in the freezer. You can add it to soups and rouxs to add a nice smoky accent without the extra animal fat. You could probably simmer it down until and add it to your warm dressings, too. Yum. I consider eating bacon and frying in bacon fat a treat; this is something I can do easily every time I bake a batch of bacon and doesn't add the animal fat to our diets.

[sharonanne]

Fried rice.

[chef chicklet]

Gosh that could very well be the "wok hay"!

[Hungry Celeste]

Bacon grease (in moderation) is a culinary weapon of interstellar magnitude. Save it every time you cook bacon. Strain it if you want to, I don't bother. I pour it into a recycled glass jam jar with a tight lid and keep it in the fridge, mainly 'cause I don't use enough of it to run thru it before it goes rancid (and I live in a very warm climate, which also shortens the shelf life, as my room temp is quite high). Use it wherever you would use olive oil for an added porky flavor, wonderful dark savory notes, and a nice smoky counterpoint. I use it for rouxs, added to rich bread doughs, in cooking almost all fresh veggies (just a little), as the sauteeing fat for just about any recipe that requires browned meats or veggies, etc. It is indispensible for good crusty southern cornbread and a flavorful pot of red beans.

Regarding its saturated fat content, eat like an old poor southerner and you'll be fine: use the bacon grease to plump up the flavor of good stuff like fresh veggies, skip the meat all together and you'll be healthier overall. A quart canister of bacon grease helped my grandma live to 94.

[jgg13]

How long will it keep if in the fridge?

[scuzzo]

Yes! Save bacon fat! Add a couple tablespoons melted to pancake mix, or cornbread for sure. And yes, bacon fat is great to keep a cast iron pan in good shape. When I did this regularly, I could fry eggs and have them slide out perfectly.

[giveittomikey]

Try frying thick slices of fresh tomato (ripe or green) in bacon fat and adding them to your bacon and eggs. In the UK slices of bread fried in bacon fat are a traditional part of a "full English breakfast".

[chef chicklet]

Hungry Celeste you are so right!

[foxy fairy]

The best creamylicious smoky baked mac and cheese starts with a roux that, in turn, starts with bacon fat. Mmmmm. I add grape tomatoes to my mac and cheese too and the bursting juicy jewels with the smoky bacon background is just wonderful.

Also, bacon grease is excellent for refried beans and fried green tomatoes! mmmm.

I would love the recipe for a salad dressing incorporating bacon grease.

[chefbeth]

We cook Nueske's applewood-smoked bacon and always save the grease. Kept in the fridge it won't go bad for months, I would guess. We use it anywhere we'd normally use butter: to sweat vegetables for a soup, stew or sauce, tossed with veggies to roast, in just about any potato application.

Loved the idea of including it in salad dressing.

[KaimukiMan]

what to do with it???? well, all I can tell you is how my grandmother used it. Turn on the stove, put some bacon grease into a skillet, and then decide what to cook for dinner.

[Sharuf]

Yup, that's about what Mom did. With a largish family and some hired hands to feed, she was not about to spend good money on store-bought butter or oil. Any time a pan needed greasing, in went the bacon fat.

[valdavid]

One word: popcorn

My parents aren't Southerners so we never had bacon fat in the house, but dear Lord, I have a Southern one-generation-from-the-farm friend who showed me the light.

She just knows the proportion of fat to kernels, so I can't give any measurements, but she popped it on the stove top in an aluminum Dutch oven, constantly swooshing the pan over the burner. Once they finish popping, a little bit of Morton's salt goes on top, and you're in business.

[tatertotsrock]

Oh My Stars!!!
You brought back a great bacon memory...I hadn't had popcorn made in bacon grease since I was a kid.
One night, after training one of my clients, she told me she had gotten my first package from the Grateful Palate's Bacon of the Month Club...we fried the bacon, opened a bottle of cab, ate some bacon while we popped the popcorn...bacon, bacon popped pop corn and a bottle of red...can life get any better?!

[Antilope]

Use the bacon fat to make sawmill gravy. Serve it over biscuits.

[chef chicklet]

Hey..... I just saw this, what is sawmill gravy please???

[danhole]

It's a sausage gravy that you serve over biscuits. It like a cream gravy with sausage in it. My SIL makes a mean gravy that I could eat all the time - if I wanted to gain a bunch of weight!

[yayadave]

Sounds like you could use the bacon grease as the fat, replacing butter, to make the roux before adding milk and then pre-cooked sausage. Some people cook the sausage and sprinkle flour over to make a roux with sausage, then add milk and thicken. When I get a package of breakfast sausage, it does not always have enough grease to make a roux. I guess that would be a good time to add a little bacon grease before dusting with flour. Makin' me hungry, here.

[chef chicklet]

Last night we had rib eye's, salad, and zucchini. Pretty simple.

This whole bacon fat thing is really getting me so excited! I feel I've discovered a secret!
I only had about 3 T ( trust me I'm kicking myself) and wanted to use it so bad! ( that zucchini was meant for MMRuth's risotto recipe, I just couldn't stop myself, I'll get more)
didn't have time to warm it and then cool it for the salad ( DH was starving) so I cut red onions and garlic up, then heated a sautée pan for the bacon. My DH, came walking inside and was at the back door, and I hear this "MMMMMMMMMM what are you making? it smells GREAT in here!!!"
Then I dropped the onions, let that cook, the garlic, then the zukes, salt and pepper. MY oh MY the best tasting zucchini I have ever had.

I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from everyone, THANK YOU!

[scuzzo]

Yea! Zuchini and bacon fat! Sounds perfect. I'll have to try that.

[Morganna]

I have a hard time finding good pork lard up here in Vermont, so I use it when I'm making tamales, in place of the lard.

I also fry up liver and onions in bacon fat, if I"m not having bacon along with it.

I use a bit for frying up eggs sometimes, hmmm pretty much any place I'd use lard where the smokiness or saltiness of the bacon won't wreck the flavor.

Oh yeah, I fry green beans (haricote vert) and garlic in it, too.

[chef chicklet]

i love liver and onions. I always forget about making it. Another dish my mom did great I mean what kid eats that! Me, that's who. I have got to make this, do you double soak the liver in milk twice?

[Alice Letseat]

Bacon fat to saute onions to add to spinach...maybe sauteed in the same pan. And to cook chicken livers! (with onions, of course!)

[Morganna]

Nah, I usually just rinse off the liver then coat it in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and some sage (it's easy to get too much sage, so be careful). I fry up bacon to crispy, pull it out to drain, then put in the onions and liver. I get my liver sliced fairly thin, so it cooks pretty quickly. After it's done, I toss the bacon back in to warm it up, then serve the whole mess. :) But sometimes, if I'm just not feeling like having quite THAT much fat, I'll just use a couple tablespoons of bacon fat I have stored in the fridge, so I get the flavour without the meal being quite so heavy.

Since my husband has been off liver and onions for years and this is a very very rich meal, I only have it once every couple of years or so, when I have a craving. :)

[chef chicklet]

See this is what I'm seeing. I'm willing to bet that SO many people that are really outstanding cooks, forget to mention the addition of a little bit of bacon fat when they write a recipe out for us. I have been looking through quite a few of my cookbooks just out of curiosity, and I have only found it in a couple of recipes for cornbread. Wonder why that is?

[Hungry Celeste]

Are these southern cookbooks? If you get any sort of southern cornbread mix (like Jiffy or Martha White or White Lily), the package instructions always state "oil or bacon drippings).

[Kelli2006]

Both of my parents were second generation German immigrants, so bacon fat was almost a food group in itself. It can be used anywhere butter is used.
We used to have bacon and eggs on Sunday morning before mass and the rendered fat was placed in a glass jar for use during the week. You will notice that many northern European recipes start with "render bacon, and sauté onions in fat"

My cholesterol is high, so I have given this up, except for the rare holiday meal or a occasional splurge.

[chef chicklet]

Has anyone made bacon fat in a spray can yet?

[Hungry Celeste]

As a saturated fat, bacon is solid at room temp, so it wouldn't exactly be easy to spray.

[chef chicklet]

Sure go ahead, burst my bubble!
ok a pump then! I'm running to the patent lawyers office!

[AMFM]

this is SO weird. i hadn't seen this thread yet and just posted to the one below about lima beans that since my mom always taught me to save the bacon fat i toss some in the water when i cook them and then pull them out when done and salt. same with green beans. and of course the eggs. i usually (gasp heresy) use turkey bacon to be healthier so i don't always have some but these are some other great ideas.
not southern by birth (although am now) but mine was definitely a irish and german heritage thing like listed above.
strange coincidence.

[neelie]

There are thousands of uses for bacon fat. Out of my top 10, my number one has to be to use it to fry southern fried chicken. My dad was from Mississippi, and an excellent southern cook, he never made his chicken any other way. Is it good for you.......well you know the answer to that. But fried chicken isn't great for you, but if you are going to do it, you might as well do it all the way.

[Hungry Celeste]

Here's a nifty trick for getting that bacon flavor without all of the saturated fat: use peanut oil for the frying, but fry a strip of bacon in the oil before you put the chicken in. All the smoky flavor, a mere fraction of the bad fats.

[Olivia]

Not sure if this was already mentioned (this is #90 in this thread!) but when boiling frozen perogies, I fry onions in bacon fat, and when the perogies are cooked, I brown them with the onions and fat.

[chef chicklet]

Oh now you've done it Olivia! Fess up with the perogie recipe!

And yes the onion and bacon fat thing are meant for each other. Cooked the best brussel sprouts last night. I swear all I have to do is add a tablespoon and my DH is mmmmm,and now the baby is mmmming too! It is like love potion!
Mind you I am not doing this every night, just on occassion, I do love them!

[foxy fairy]

How did you do the brussels sprouts? Sauteed in the bacon fat?
I usually cook mine in butter, than swirl into a yogurt-dijon-dill sauce. Hmmm. I beth they would be great in bacon fat.

My sweety cooked some onions in bacon fat the other night and then made a *creamy pink sauce* that we used for a pasta bake with roasted vegetables. It does lend such richness and depth to a sauce like that, and it carries that flavor through the entire dish.

[Olivia]

Oh jeeze... I wish there was a recipe involved. Sadly, I'm referring to store-brand, family pack, frozen supermarket perogies.

[jword2001]

I use it for home made hash browns, frying onions,and mushrooms, among many other things I already see posted here, one thing I didn't see was one my Aunt's father told me, he grew up in the 20's and was very poor, he told me they used bacon grease as "slickum" as he put it ,in their hair...no kidding.

[Pete G.]

I use it in my baked beans - sauté a chopped onion in a couple tablespoons rendered bacon fat until translucent and just starting to brown, add a couple of cans of B&M's or th baked bean of your choice, a squirt of spicy brown mustard, and add back in the crumbled bacon. Cook until thick and delicious.

[MKatrinaToo]

Yep, bacon fat and cast iron are a perfect match. I save the fat and fry slices of potatoes in it--the potatoes cook up crisp and brown--and you can't get that w/ oil and stainless steel.

Bacon fat is the base for my gravies and white sauce: bacon fat, melted in a heavy pot. Add equal parts flour, stirring constantly until smooth, browned and thickening. SLOWLY add as many (i.e., 1 tblspn fat and flour, 1 cup of milk; 2 tblspns fat and flour, 2 cups of milk) cups of milk as fat and flour, stirring constantly until smooth and thickened. Adjust the amount of milk for thicker or thinner sauce, depending on whether you want to make a soup, chowder, gravy or anything else. Add shredded cheese, you have cheese sauce. Add a cup of beef broth, beef drippings, beef bouillon dissolved in water and you have brown gravy. And don't forget the can of tuna and frozen peas!

[yayadave]

And while you're doing that, you can add "other stuff" and have biscuits and "other stuff" gravy. "Other stuff" being chicken bits, shredded pork or left-over shredded beef or corned beef or dried beef and whatever you think of. Spam comes to mind, too.

[Allfrog68]

My husband and I always save bacon grease in a ramekin in the fridge. I love making soups that are mostly from vegetables. I use the grease to saute onions, celery, etc at the start of each pot of soup. Gives any soup great flavor.

Also, use it for making pancakes. Made a blueberry cake on a trip while staying in a condo (sort of like high class camping) and used bacon grease instead of butter, it was great. Think you can use it on anything w/ wonderful results.

[ailcoh]

How fortuitous that I found this thread. Today I just bought my first package of bacon (Niman Ranch Applewood smoked) in many, many years for a bean soup and wondered what to do with the bacon fat. I happened upon a blogger with a recipe for bok choy wilted in bacon grease and served over grits. I happened to have some chard so I made the recipe with that instead and it was delicious.

[dimsumgirl]

It is great for making fried rice! I also use bacon fat when making pancakes. Don't throw it out; it is a wonderful secret ingredient!

[hazardnc]

We have always saved our bacon fat in an old coffee mug. We keep it inthe fridge, but my mom had an old bacon fat can that had a strainer in the top. She kept hers under the sink.

My favorite use for the fat is to rub the outside of an Idaho potato before baking. It makes the best skin! The second favorite is to melt some bacon fat in the cast iron skillet before adding the cornbread batter. And the last is to use the fat to saute onions before adding beans (limas, black eyed peas)

[TorontoJo]

Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart. My mom used bacon fat to make her fried rice. She also used bacon fat to make her green onion pancakes -- not just to fry them, but also for the grease/salt/green onion layers. They just weren't the same when she switch to more "heart healthy" oils.

[MMRuth]

My mother did that too - gave it a wonderful smokey taste - this was her Thai fried rice.

[greglor]

Salad dressing. Don't store the oil, use it right away fresh in the pan. Fry shallots in the fat, then deglaze the pan with vinegar (careful, boiling vinegar makes an extraordinary blast of vapor that'll feel like you're being punched in the nose if you have your face too close). Immediately drizzle the mixture over salad. Yum!

[pralinepatty]

Brown about 4 pieces of bacon till crispy, or cook in microwave placing strips in glass pie plate, cover with glass lid that does not fit tightly or cover with wax paper or paper towels (to keep grease from splattering in microwave) watching carefully to not burn the bacon. If using paper towels, try to wrap them around the pie plate so that they do not sit in and soak up the bacon grease. Lift out bacon when crispy and save to add later. In a large frying pan (preferably a heavy one) brown sliced or chopped onions in the bacon fat and drippings, add fairly thinly sliced yellow squash and brown this too. When almost completely done, add the bacon which has been crushed or chopped up. Put a lid on it and remove from heat and let finish cooking.Probably will not need salt, may add pepper if desired. Delicious.

Also may be cooked in the oven as a casserole. Or may add to cooked white fluffy rice- is very good. Or you can just boil chopped squash in very little water - cover with lid, watch and do not burn- and then add bacon and onion to the boiled squash but it tastes better if the squash is stir fried in the bacon grease.

[pralinepatty]

Use bacon drippings or fat to brown chopped onions. I use a lot of onion. Add pinto beans which have been soaked overnight, drained and rinsed. Add cold water to cover the beans plus several more inches. Bring to boil, boil about 15 minutes watching to not let boil over. Reduce heat, add lid, cook slowly (add a little salt and some pepper after cooking about 1 hour) with heat as low as possible for about 3 to 4 hours. Taste and add more salt if necessary.