Pulled the bacon grease trigger page

[Chairdr]

I read a lot of posts about saving bacon grease & cooking with it later, it sounded kind of off the wall to me. So the other day i had no where to put the grease. so I strained it & put it in the fridge. Last night I threw it in a pan with garlic & basil & onions, added mushrooms & zucchini. That was the best veg side ever. It is kind of fun doing stuff like that just for shock value. My wife & kids just sat & shook their heads in disgust while i chowed. I called & told my mother about it just for the sport of it.

[triwolf]

I remember reading that fat helps your body absorb and use the nutrients from vegetables, so hey, you were actually making the dish healthier! I absolutely love bacon fat and come from a long line of bacon fat savers. I knew I'd met the woman I would marry when I introduced her to cooking eggs in bacon fat and she loved it so much she started keeping her own bacon fat jar.

[Barb]

It amazes me that in the span of one generation we have gone from saving bacon fat is a GIVEN (i grew up with a bacon fat can always in the fridge) to people being SHOCKED by saving and cooking with bacon fat. Even one generation back from that, they saved ALL their fat from cooking, rendered and strained it and made household soap out of it.

We eat so much bacon now there is no way to use up the fat we save, so my next project is to make some BACON SOAP with it. (Just add the right amount of lye to the fat and voila, you have soap). That will give a new twist to the threat of washing one's mouth out with soap!

[gfprof]

I know it: I've been trying to train my SO not to throw away the bacon grease for weeks now (I cook, he does dishes). Every time I remind him he shakes his head and says, "I keep trying...but I just can't wrap my mind around it!"

[mayness]

It's still puzzling to me that people ever DON'T save their bacon grease. It was just something my grandmother always did, so my mom always did it too, and in turn I did as well. Even back when I was afraid to use the grease (ewww, fat!) I had it sitting in my refrigerator because it just was a habit to keep it.

I remember years ago, I had just cooked bacon and had left the pan sitting on the stove for a few minutes, and my (now) husband asked "Hey, don't you save the bacon grease? In a can in the fridge?" It's just a given to us, and neither of us have any southern ancestry so you can't blame it on that. We're just from the Western NY suburbs, which tend to be rather... "rural." Yeah, that's a nice word for it. =]

[Barb]

I am from Connecticut - no southern blood at all. I think it was universal.

[rozska]

My mom saved bacon fat. Always in a left-over tin can. I've always saved it as well. I tend to cook my eggs and veggies in it -- will sub it for butter or ghee in most recipes. I'm actually thrilled that I "get" to have bacon, and more bacon fat!

[Griff]

The place where I can buy my ground beef never has it high enough fat to suit me - so I always add a few spoons of bacon fat to it when I cook it. Om, nom, nom.

[Unamused Mouse]

My mom has done this but I never tried it myself. Yet! We cooked bacon and eggs on the weekend (as we usually do) and I had DH pour the bacon fat into a spare coffee mug to put into the fridge once it cooled. Some fat was left in the pan, of course, so that's what the eggs were fried in. Next time I need fat I'll try the bacon fat.

Cooked up some sausages this evening but didn't think of the bacon fat and used coconut oil instead. Dammit! It turned out yummy anyway.

[lil_earthmomma]

Tonight I was making grilled chipotle shrimp and usually I brush (pour) chipotle garlic butter all over the shrimp, but I *gasp* had run out of butter. I glanced over at my bacon fat jar and just got an evil grin on my face. Mixed up the spices, added to bacon grease, threw in minced garlic and put it on the shrimp. OMG best shrimp EVAH!