The Many Uses of Bacon Fat

I use a glass jar. I occasionally buy sauerkraut in a barrel shaped jar, wash it and use it for grease and oil storage. My history with that particular jar indicates that it can take the heat of hot bacon grease without cracking. I would be careful using a thin or cheap-looking jar because these could break from thermal shock. In any case, put the jar in the sink before pouring off the grease to contain any mess that may result.

My grandmother used coffee cans for storing bacon grease, and I learned that this storage method leached the metal taste into the fat after just a couple of days. Modern cans are lined with plastic that contains even worse things that hot grease is likely to leach, such as BPA.

There are two approaches to bacon grease saving: to pour the entire remnants of the skillet into the can unfiltered, or to pour through a fine-mesh wire screen strainer. If bacon is the only thing that has been cooked in the skillet, I tend to pour in everything, including flakes of pepper and bits of bacon. The bits settle to the bottom and are particularly nice to reuse when making something that needs a texture boost...just spoon it up from the bottom. If anything else has been cooked with the bacon, such as sausage, I save the grease separately or discard it because it will taste different. Sausage grease is good to coat a skillet before panfrying a ham slice, but not too much else, so I tend not to save it unless I know I'm going to be using it almost immediately. Don't save grease after eggs or non-pork meats have been cooked in it, or if the grease has turned darker than honey color, because it will spoil or taste bad.

Bacon grease in a jar with a well-fitting lid will keep for a few days on the countertop, or almost indefinitely in the refrigerator. Always smell your grease before using...discard at the first whiff of rancidity or off-smell. You can just put the lid back on the jar and toss in the trash.

To discard smaller quantities of liquid grease without making a mess, pick a can out of the recycling and stuff some paper towels in it. Pour the grease in and let the towels soak up the grease. After it cools, you can pick the towels out of the can and put in the regular trash and return the can to the recycling.

banba1, I pour bacon fat into a flat-bottomed container, then freeze it. Once solid, I break it into pieces and dump it into a LABELED ziploc bag. It stores a good long time, and it's simple to pull out just the amount I want to use.

Actually, I do this with other meat fats as well, to use in cooking instead of spending money on cooking fats. It's nice to have pork, chicken and beef fat on hand so I can use the most appropriate one, flavor wise, for whatever I'm making.

I heard or read about a way to do it, and it has worked well for me. I wait until the fat has cooled a little bit, then put a paper towel over the top of a container such as a small bowl, or the two-cup Rubbermaid container I store it in. I pour the liquid through the paper towel, letting it strain out the bits of stuff. Then I keep it in the refrigerator. I just scoop out a tablespoon here and there to add flavor. I admit, I'm not a heavy user, but I do like it to add flavor to vegetables, rice, or whatever. I usually cut it with other things because I don't have tons and tons of it since we don't eat bacon often. This way of straining and storing produces a very nice, smooth, clean fat that lasts a long time. I've been doing it a couple of years and it has never gone rancid on me.

Wow -- thanks so much for all the advice Keter, Bobbie and Stacy! Darn, guess I need to go cook a bunch of bacon now to start off my collection. Life is hard... ;)

was my approach too scientific? they really were kind of fun :)

The approach was great. Meat waffles just don't look that interesting to me.

I'm with you Stacy....not feeling the meatwaffle thing either, but it actually has given me some ideas that I may experiment with later....if anything interesting comes out of it, I'm sure I'll find some way to work it into the comments later on. ;o)

It was kind of a local phenomenon. Eugene wrote up a post on them: http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2009/01/meatwaffl...

my literal interpretation of meatwaffles http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2009/01/meatwaffl...

Heather stole my comment! My dad taught me how to use it with refried beans. I use Serrano Chillies with mine, though.