Subdeacon Joe Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 The Southerner’s Guide to Bacon Grease Quote What do readers cook with bacon grease? (Short answer: everything.) Cornbread, collards, black-eyed peas, meatloaf, roux for gravy, and most of all fresh baby butter beans.—Jane Hall Harmon You just can’t season green beans without it.—Sharon Kurfman My grandma made biscuits every morning. She would stick her hand in the grease and wipe some on the top of every biscuit just before she put them in the oven.—Russ Cherry You never tasted fried chicken till you taste it fried in bacon fat.—Jim McDonough My dad used to make popcorn with bacon grease. Best. Popcorn. Ever.—Billy Joe Davis Made Chex Mix with it this year and it was AMAZING!—Donna Tanner Good cornbread requires two things: a good cast iron skillet and bacon grease.—Lee Kennamer When I get a quart saved up I make a big pot of chocolate brown roux in the oven for gravies and gumbos. Keeps forever like that, too.—Marc Wayne Jenkins Tip: Buy generic bacon when it’s on sale, then render it for the precious fat and use the bacon bits left in Caesar salad, omelettes, pancakes, pasta, or waffles.—Lyle Beaugard Kicks smoothies up a notch.—Warren H. Strange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 Gospel truth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blarney Kid Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 Pears dipped in pancake batter fried in the grease from our breakfast bacon, we used to fix that on our Boy Scout camping trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Bacon is proof, like beer, that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 My Mum always had a stone jar of lard and one for dripping in the fridge and she always saved the turkey fat for making eggs in the hole! Young people now turn their noses up at the thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Bacon grease doesn't go well with vanilla ice cream or divinity candy. Can't think of much else that don't take to it, though. Way down the list, but still mighty good is sausage grease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 I had some bacon fried with maple syrup not long ago for the first time......can't believe how good it tasted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 5 hours ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said: Bacon is proof, like beer, that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 My poor step-dad wasn't the brightest in some things - we were going to go pheasant hunting one day when I was in sixth grade... a typically drizzly, wet, sopping Washington week. Not wanting to ruin his good leather hunting boots, he came to the decision that they needed to be waterproofed. You guessed it... he brushed on melted bacon grease, and kneaded it in well. And it sorta worked, too! Water beaded right up and dashed away! 'But about a week or two later, them grease-soaked boots turned rancid and OH my Lord ~ I'm just glad I wasn't in the line o' fire when Ma sailed 'em out the back door! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 20 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: My poor step-dad wasn't the brightest in some things - we were going to go pheasant hunting one day when I was in sixth grade... a typically drizzly, wet, sopping Washington week. Not wanting to ruin his good leather hunting boots, he came to the decision that they needed to be waterproofed. You guessed it... he brushed on melted bacon grease, and kneaded it in well. And it sorta worked, too! Water beaded right up and dashed away! 'But about a week or two later, them grease-soaked boots turned rancid and OH my Lord ~ I'm just glad I wasn't in the line o' fire when Ma sailed 'em out the back door! He was lucky the dog didn't eat them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 9 minutes ago, Buckshot Bear said: He was lucky the dog didn't eat them Dog gagged when he got a whiff... after Pop's feet, they were bad b'fore the bacon fat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Jack Calder Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 I have a question. How do you store Bacon Grease to keep it good? I have some in a small can in the refrigerator. Should it be in a tight sealed container? CJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted October 11, 2021 Author Share Posted October 11, 2021 18 minutes ago, Cactus Jack Calder said: I have a question. How do you store Bacon Grease to keep it good? I have some in a small can in the refrigerator. Should it be in a tight sealed container? CJ Some sort of cover. A Baggie held on with a rubber band. I tend towards pint or half pint Mason jars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Jack Calder Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 3 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said: Some sort of cover. A Baggie held on with a rubber band. I tend towards pint or half pint Mason jars. Thank you. I will get it covered. I hesitated to pour it into a glass jar because it was hot and I didn’t want the glass to crack. CJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 10 minutes ago, Cactus Jack Calder said: Thank you. I will get it covered. I hesitated to pour it into a glass jar because it was hot and I didn’t want the glass to crack. CJ Use a jar made for heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted October 11, 2021 Author Share Posted October 11, 2021 5 minutes ago, Cactus Jack Calder said: Thank you. I will get it covered. I hesitated to pour it into a glass jar because it was hot and I didn’t want the glass to crack. CJ I usually let it cool a bit before I pour it into the jar the first few times. And set the jar on a cutting board or on a folded paper towel in a cake pan or something. Just in case. In all the years I've been doing it I can only recall one time the jar broke because if the hot grease. I had kept the burner turned way up and let it get smoking hot and poured about half a cup of grease into a cold jar sitting on a cold counter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G W Wade Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 Mine is usually sitting in a small cast iron pan on top of the stove GW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 My Mom would make bacon then fry sliced corn mush in the grease. We’d have bacon and fried corn mush covered in maple syrup. My Mom kept a can of bacon grease in the fridge with a plastic snap lid on it. She used it for a variety of things. Often she would use 1/2 Crisco and 1/2 bacon grease for frying eggs, ham, skirt steaks, etc. pretty much everything fried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okiepan Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 In a pinch use lard , The hogmeat grease tastes good because of the curing and smoking process in which it was prepared , without the flavor it is just plain ol' lard . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Joker Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 Mine sits in a Mason jar on the counter next to the stove. What did folks do before the 30's when refrigeration became a thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 Mama had a can. Three pieces. It had the can, and it had a lid, but under the lid on top of the can was a sieve. She just poured her bacon grease right out of the hot pan, and any bits and pieces got caught by the sieve. Then she would scrape them into the dog food. That can sat on the stove top as long as I can remember. She never put it in the refrigerator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G W Wade Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 2 hours ago, Alpo said: Mama had a can. Three pieces. It had the can, and it had a lid, but under the lid on top of the can was a sieve. She just poured her bacon grease right out of the hot pan, and any bits and pieces got caught by the sieve. Then she would scrape them into the dog food. That can sat on the stove top as long as I can remember. She never put it in the refrigerator. These are still available. Stainless steel and look like a small coffee pot GW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Jack Calder Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 9 hours ago, G W Wade said: These are still available. Stainless steel and look like a small coffee pot GW From this information I went to Amazon Prime and found several the least expensive is $9.99. The description is below. Bacon Grease Container with Strainer, 1.4L Oil Keeper Storage Can with Stainless Steel Fine Strainer for Kitchen Cooking Storing Fats Frying Oils CJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Don't reuse modern tin cans. They have a thin plastic coating inside that can melt and contaminate your drippings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Jack Calder Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 1 hour ago, Sedalia Dave said: Don't reuse modern tin cans. They have a thin plastic coating inside that can melt and contaminate your drippings. What about aluminum soda cans? I cut the top off and crimped the edge down so as not to get cut by the ragged edge. Not to advertise any specific product, but it’s initials are CC. I ordered the container/strainer, waiting on that to decant the bacon grease I saved so far. If it is contaminated I will trash it and start from scratch. It’s just that we don’t use that much bacon with just two people. I bake the whole package on racks in a earthen ware baking pan. Then I freeze part of the resulting slices for later use. So I have the grease of one whole package in the fridge in a aluminum can right now. CJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428 Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Growing up, there was always a tub of bacon grease in the fridge. I can't remember ever seeing a lid on it, and I lived thru it ok. Well, not everybody may agree, some still claim i'm not 100% right. In any event, for many years, it was an aluminum drinking glass that probably came full of jelly or was a give away somewhere. After that, it was a stainless steel bowl. To fridge or not to fridge... that is the question. More than likely that is a generational question. Grandma kept the bacon grease next to the stove and the butter in the cupboard. My mom kept both in the fridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 1 hour ago, Cactus Jack Calder said: What about aluminum soda cans? I cut the top off and crimped the edge down so as not to get cut by the ragged edge. Not to advertise any specific product, but it’s initials are CC. I ordered the container/strainer, waiting on that to decant the bacon grease I saved so far. If it is contaminated I will trash it and start from scratch. It’s just that we don’t use that much bacon with just two people. I bake the whole package on racks in a earthen ware baking pan. Then I freeze part of the resulting slices for later use. So I have the grease of one whole package in the fridge in a aluminum can right now. CJ Aluminum cans have the same coating. If it was just warm when you poured it in it's fine. The problem arises when you pour the grease into the can when it is really hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Sheridan Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Coffee mug dedicated just for this purpose. It won’t crack from the heat. If it fills up to the point I need to start another I set it into a pan of hot water to melt it all back down and separate off any crumbs, then pour off the clean grease into a pint jar. Grease from regular store bought bacon doesn’t seem to stay good nearly as well as the stuff I cure myself. I know the bacon itself from the store can start to mold after about 2 weeks (happened more than once when work sent me out of town on short notice. On the other hand I wanted to see how long the stuff I cured would keep, and it was still good after 2 weeks with no refrigeration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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