bacon grease?

[odatlynn]

I've never used it before today. Can somebody help me here. What's the deal everyone is talking about?
I used it to fry some eggs and there was no taste. What do people do with it or put it in?
TIA

[Passadumkeg]

Made refried beans w/ pintos, onion & garlic, all fried & mashed in......bacon grease. Yum.

[Goldendog]

Take some nice Idaho Potatoes, scrub them well, let dry, message in a good layer of bacon grease, & nuke for 10 minutes. Dress with your favorite toppings..... Heaven!

[PattiCakes]

Oh. Oh my. drooling.

[Jimbosox04]

My mom used to always add a few tablespoons to her potato salad, Yum !!

[Passadumkeg]

Bacon grease in corn bread and pie dough.

[AreBe]

Two digests in this link with multiple uses
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/514137

[PattiCakes]

I remember that my mother used to keep a cleaned up can on the kitchen counter. She'd pour her bacon fat into it (through a stretched chunk of cheese cloth) after frying the bacon & accumulate it for use later. My dad was PA Dutch, so it went into all kinds of things: salad dressing for wilted salad; home fries (using leftover potatoes from the night before); green beans with sauted onions & tomatoes. I think it fell out of favor when we went through the nitrate scare years ago & just never came back. People of Jewish heritage used to use schmaltz, or chicken fat, the way "my people" use bacon fat. It's probably very bad for you, but what a difference in the taste!

I use it to saute my onions, peppers & garlic before I make chilli or as my ranch beans (kinda like baked beans, but from scratch). Can't beat it for sauteing green beans. Last night we took advantage of the yummy late summer tomatoes & had BLT sandwiches for dinner with tomato bisque. You better believe I saved that bacon fat. I put it in a clean can on my kitchen counter.

[foxy fairy]

Coincidentally, I had BLT for dinner tonight too (with tomatoes from a friend's garden, lucky me), also with soup, although my soup was roasted butternut squash :) YUM. I did save the bacon fat and it's in a can in the freezer.

[lynnlato]

I just made an amazing grilled cheese sandwich: Fresh paisano bread from a local bakery w/ swiss & provolone cheese, genoa salami, sliced roma tomatoes, fresh basil and I slathered the bread w/ bacon fat and fried it up. It's crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside and oh so smoky. Mmmmmmmm.

[FoodFuser]

For utter simplicity:

Cabbage and onions fried in bacon grease. Best with caraway seed and cracked pepper given an initial oil release in the grease. Fry sliced veggies on high heat, browning them to a degree. When limp, add water 1 TBS, cover, steam, uncover, cook till dry. If not yet done to your taste, repeat the steaming.

Sometimes I'll add noodles.

[foxy fairy]

Fried green tomatoes

Beans and refried beans, as mentioned above

To grill up veggies, mmmm

[Will Owen]

My Grandma Owen added a glob to the Crisco whenever she fried chicken. Of course she wasn't thinking of nutrition - such concerns were just another damn annoyance in her world - but it's funny to realize that the bacon fat was actually better for us, contrary to what everyone believed at the time!

I keep it off and on in a tiny, heavy pot (Dutch enamelled-iron butter melter, really) next to the cooktop, and add some to the olive or canola oil when I'm frying eggs. It really resists going rancid, but every month or so I'll scrape it out, wash the pot and start over. Don't fry that much bacon, actually; mostly use it as seasoning for cabbage and stuff.

[alanbarnes]

~~every month or so I'll scrape it out, wash the pot and start over~~

Scrape it out into a pot of greens? A batch of cornbread? Or just spread it on toast?

;-)

[lynnlato]

I am the newbie bacon fat convert. The last thread on the stuff inspired me to make hot bacon dressing, new potatoes par-boiled and then pan fried in bacon fat, grilled cheese fried in bacon fat... is that it? I was on a serious roll there for a bit.

[Passadumkeg]

Say now, hot bacon dressing; very Pennsylvania Dutch. Fry your scrapple in bacon fat too.

[Will Owen]

I scrape it out when it begins to look tired and goopy. If I kept it in the fridge that would never happen - refrigerated fat is almost as immortal as honey - but then it'd get lost in the far reaches and I wouldn't find it until we bought a new refrigerator...

[givemecarbs]

Oh yeah I forgot about adding it to the fried chicken crisco. I don't make fried chicken that often so I try to make it as yummy as possible and damn the health concerns!

[Scargod]

Growing up, we used to keep it in a Folger's coffee can. I used to do that as well, into my forties. Now I have a small, wide-mouth jar...... which gets lost too.

[beth1]

My mom uses it in everything. Stewed tomatoes, green beans, anything. The bacon itself affects the flavor (use a good quality, smokey bacon). It does make good fried eggs if you add salt and pepper.

[givemecarbs]

I love to use bacon fat when I am too busy to make refried beans from scratch. I open a can of refried beans and heat it with some bacon fat. Yum yum! Oh and I made a big pan of homefries today, fried up with potatoes, corn. onions and bacon fat.

[lynnlato]

Yum, those home fries sound oh so good. We've always added onions and peppers, but I've never tried corn. I've been craving home fries ever since I mentioned them on a thread about what to cook in a cast iron skillet. I also ordered a Lodge CI skillet last night and should have it this weekend. Looks like I need to whip up a batch of chili and some cornbread made w/ bacon fat in my skillet. Yum!

[givemecarbs]

Thanks! Corn in homefries is my special handed down family tech! I gotta use bacon fat to brown beef for stew or pot roast. Oh yes! Forgot about using it to fry meat for chili! I'm going to make a big pot of homemade vegetable beef soup this weekend and you can bet I'll fry up the tough beef in bacon fat to get things started!

[lynnlato]

Ooooh, thanks for the browning tips. I put bacon in my chili... only makes sense that I brown the ground beef in the bacon fat. Duh! Thanks again GMC!

[grampart]

Try using some better bacon.

[Passadumkeg]

and more bacon fat

[Scargod]

DITTO.
You do want a high quality, flavorful bacon. If your bacon tastes great then so should the fat. Perhaps use a little more grease, the bacon itself, or mix it with other, healthier oils. I (almost), never use more than a tablespoon in anything.

I add it to all kinds of beans, greens, hominy, gravies and to the cast-iron skillet before I dump in the cornbread batter. It's great as a component in a salad dressing!

[alanbarnes]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/543717
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442117

[cstr]

Take a bunch of green beans (whole fresh), some diced proscuitto, chopped garlic and saute in a pan using bacon fat, you'll see. Better still try duck fat, wow!

[odatlynn]

Thank you. The links are great! Found lots of things I want to try.

[Kelli2006]

I learned a similar recipe from my German mother. Sauté the bacon and then add chopped onion and mushrooms, and cook the green beans in the rendered fat. Serve with the reserved bacon and garnish with either chopped parsley and/or fresh thyme.