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Saving bacon fat?

_pi3_
_pi3_ Posts: 2,311 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I keep reading you should save your bacon fat? Is there any point other than expenses or should I just stick to my olive oil and avoiding bacon fat?

Does anyone save bacon fat? What do you use it for?
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Replies

  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    There's a mason jar full of bacon fat in my freezer. I use it for bacon flavoring when pan frying certain meat/egg dishes instead of using canola, olive oil and/or butter.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    You don't need to save bacon fat unless you're going to use it for something else. It adds great flavor to dishes but it can be somewhat of an indulgent substitute for a more neutral or healthier oil.

    In my pre-weight loss days, I would use saved bacon fat to saute potatoes and to cook my eggs. So delicious.
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    I do, I use it to make eggs. Dietary fat is dietary fat.

    Or I give it to my dog, he loves it. He needs to at least maintain his weight, and not keep losing. Opposite of me lol
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    I have separate jars of beef meat drippings and pork rendered fat in the refrigerator I use for cooking.

    I learned how to prepare and store them from my mother and my grandmother. After cooking ground beef or bacon, strain the drippings into a clean pan and heat on low heat until all the water is evaporated, let cool a bit, then strain again into the appropriate glass jar with tight-fitting lid and store in the fridge.

    When I need to use some for cooking eggs or sauteing vegetables, I just heat a pastry brush in the pan and then swirl the brush in the jar and then coat the pan with a few grams of drippings.

    I log them as "Meat drippings (lard, beef tallow, mutton tallow)" or "Pork, bacon, rendered fat, cooked".

    ls8mzfod97h4.jpg
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    1. You keep your sewers running smoothly.
    2. Use it on your skillet. One of the better fats for seasoning a cast iron frying pan.

    Like with all fats, use judiciously as the calories add quickly.
  • Old_Cat_Lady
    Old_Cat_Lady Posts: 1,193 Member
    Giving bacon fat to a dog seems wrong. Purina Dog Chow is formulated to exactly meet dog nutritional needs based on years of science. I would talk to a vet about weight gain before giving a dog bacon fat.
    Luna3386 wrote: »
    I do, I use it to make eggs. Dietary fat is dietary fat.

    Or I give it to my dog, he loves it. He needs to at least maintain his weight, and not keep losing. Opposite of me lol

  • H_Ock12
    H_Ock12 Posts: 1,152 Member
    I save the bacon fat as a treat for my cat or cooking oil for my eggs. Cabbage is AMAZING sauteed in bacon fat!
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
    You can, lots of older recipes call for bacon fat. I read a 'new brides cook book' put out by GE in the 50's and lots of the recipes there call for a tablespoon of bacon fat. It's fine to use in moderation.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    My vintage Fannie Farmer cookbook recommends wrapping a chicken in bacon fat before roasting. Before fat reduction diets, it was everywhere.
  • Heather4448
    Heather4448 Posts: 908 Member
    I use it to pan fry whatever suits my fancy at the moment. It is also the best camouflage for giving your dog pills.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »
    Giving bacon fat to a dog seems wrong. Purina Dog Chow is formulated to exactly meet dog nutritional needs based on years of science. I would talk to a vet about weight gain before giving a dog bacon fat.
    No. If you love your pet, spend more money to feed them than that! Purina is constantly in class action lawsuits for using ingredients that make animals sick, and/or kill them, including under their off shoot brand Beneful, which is anything but.

    Op - YES SAVE YOUR BACON FAT. I cook bacon on a sheet pan just so I can pour it off in my "master fat" jar. Best pancakes everrrrr.
  • susanp57
    susanp57 Posts: 409 Member
    When I was a child, back in the dark ages, everybody's mom had a metal container with a strainer and a lid on the stove. This was for bacon fat. It never went in the frig and never seemed to go bad. Almost everything was cooked in this stuff. Nobody ever got sick. It all tasted yummy.

    Now I strain mine into a mason jar and I do keep it in the frig. Good stuff.
  • _pi3_
    _pi3_ Posts: 2,311 Member
    TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »
    Giving bacon fat to a dog seems wrong. Purina Dog Chow is formulated to exactly meet dog nutritional needs based on years of science. I would talk to a vet about weight gain before giving a dog bacon fat.
    Luna3386 wrote: »
    I do, I use it to make eggs. Dietary fat is dietary fat.

    Or I give it to my dog, he loves it. He needs to at least maintain his weight, and not keep losing. Opposite of me lol

    I was thinking that lol
  • _pi3_
    _pi3_ Posts: 2,311 Member
    But doesn't the saturated fat in bacon fat give you plaques in your arteries?
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    forward0backward wrote: »
    But doesn't the saturated fat in bacon fat give you plaques in your arteries?

    No.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    forward0backward wrote: »
    But doesn't the saturated fat in bacon fat give you plaques in your arteries?

    http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-fats-bad-and-good

    The answer is kind of muddy and basically the jury is kind of still out. Personally, I stick with the current recommendations for the most part considering my past health issues. I do use bacon fat occasionally, but I don't keep it. I mostly use it when I'm camping...I make my bacon and then use the fat to cook my potatoes and eggs.
    Is saturated fat bad for you? A diet rich in saturated fats can drive up total cholesterol, and tip the balance toward more harmful LDL cholesterol, which prompts blockages to form in arteries in the heart and elsewhere in the body. For that reason, most nutrition experts recommend limiting saturated fat to under 10% of calories a day.

    A handful of recent reports have muddied the link between saturated fat and heart disease. One meta-analysis of 21 studies said that there was not enough evidence to conclude that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease, but that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may indeed reduce risk of heart disease.

    Two other major studies narrowed the prescription slightly, concluding that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils or high-fiber carbohydrates is the best bet for reducing the risk of heart disease, but replacing saturated fat with highly processed carbohydrates could do the opposite.
  • ciclamino1
    ciclamino1 Posts: 59 Member
    Chef_Barbell wrote: »
    I use that ish on almost everything. Yummy fat.

    What the chef said!!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I have a quart jar almost full of fat and tallow, mostly in case my daughter wants to use it to make soap. I don't expect to be using it for cooking.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    forward0backward wrote: »
    But doesn't the saturated fat in bacon fat give you plaques in your arteries?

    The link between satfats and arterial plaque is old, poor science from Dr. Ansel Keys. The much better science of recent years indicates that arterial plaques arise from inflammation and the body's response to that. High blood pressure tends to cause tears in the walls of the arteries. The body repairs these tears by depositing Low Density Lipoprotein, aka Bad Cholesterol, at the site of the wound. While the wound heals, the LDL is sticky and tends to stick around and collect more sticky LDL until it's a plaque reducing blood flow.

    Anything you can do to reduce inflammation is going to fight the development of arterial plaques. You can, with a doctor's permission, use a daily dose of 81 mg aspirin. You can, if you want to, add turmeric to your diet either in your food or a supplement. You can lose weight and exercise. You can drink copious amounts of alcohol. All these things are associated with lower levels of arterial plaque.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,288 Member
    susanp57 wrote: »
    When I was a child, back in the dark ages, everybody's mom had a metal container with a strainer and a lid on the stove. This was for bacon fat. It never went in the frig and never seemed to go bad. Almost everything was cooked in this stuff. Nobody ever got sick. It all tasted yummy.

    Now I strain mine into a mason jar and I do keep it in the frig. Good stuff.

    Same here - my mom kept a coffee can of the stuff for various uses. Now, I don't cook enough bacon to bother. But certain foods - maybe *ALL*, tasted better with bacon flavor, LOL!

    I'm rediscovering foil-packet grilling this summer. Made a red skin potato/onion/peppers/seasonings side to turkey burgers this way the other night. While it was very good, with a dollop of bacon fat tossed in, I would probably have had something better, LOL.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Only thing better than some good bacon fat is some duck fat!! That stuff is da bomb!!
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    Oh God! My grandparents did this, but never refrigerated it! It was always on the counter, and always just topped off. DECADES worth of used bacon fat in a jar on the counter. I would not eat eggs and bacon at their house. My Mom is the caregiver now, so she'll still save bacon grease for them, but fresh, in the fridge.
  • KelBgess
    KelBgess Posts: 27 Member
    I don't save it but I use it when I make bacon. Over the weekend I made sauteed beet greens with bacon, onion and garlic. Everything was sauteed in the bacon grease. Sofaking good!
  • _pi3_
    _pi3_ Posts: 2,311 Member
    amyrebeccah wrote: »
    Cubed potatoes tossed in bacon fat or rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) and then roasted are amazing. I've also tossed brussels sprouts and mushrooms in bacon fat with good results, and when I make a burger, I pick really lean beef but cook it in the fat rendered from the bacon that I've made to top it with. Now this isn't everyday eating, we consider it a treat (plus carefully measured portions).

    Both me and my husband have heart disease in the family and watch our numbers like hawks. We are good to go (really, keeping our weight stable has been the best thing for our cholesterol numbers and his blood pressure).

    Very interesting thanks

    And to another poster .. never thought about the plumbing when pouring bacon grease down the sink haha. I'm a dummy
  • susanp57
    susanp57 Posts: 409 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    forward0backward wrote: »
    But doesn't the saturated fat in bacon fat give you plaques in your arteries?

    The link between satfats and arterial plaque is old, poor science from Dr. Ansel Keys. The much better science of recent years indicates that arterial plaques arise from inflammation and the body's response to that. High blood pressure tends to cause tears in the walls of the arteries. The body repairs these tears by depositing Low Density Lipoprotein, aka Bad Cholesterol, at the site of the wound. While the wound heals, the LDL is sticky and tends to stick around and collect more sticky LDL until it's a plaque reducing blood flow.

    Anything you can do to reduce inflammation is going to fight the development of arterial plaques. You can, with a doctor's permission, use a daily dose of 81 mg aspirin. You can, if you want to, add turmeric to your diet either in your food or a supplement. You can lose weight and exercise. You can drink copious amounts of alcohol. All these things are associated with lower levels of arterial plaque.

    Thank you for posting this. I was aware that the earlier reports on saturated fats was based on little to no science or research, but was not aware of the rest.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    What! I can eat bacon fat? Since I have a history of heart disease in my family I never really questioned the 'badness' of bacon in all of it's forms.

    Oh man...where to begin (rubs hands together and starts thinking how it's almost tomato season here in NJ...)
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    edited July 2017
    Yes I save mine.

    I have a mason jar in the fridge with the ring around it and cheesecloth wrapped over the lid. So I just pour the fat through the cheese cloth top and it's nice and filtered.

    I have too much to use, I think I may make a bacon fat soap out of it. I already make lard soap so I assume it's similar to soap with.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    edited July 2017
    HELLS YEAH I save and use bacon fat! It is a necessity of life for sauteing greens (it even makes kale tasty), frying eggs, making cast-iron corn bread, and making an old-school roux for all things Cajun and Creole (except for a crawfish etouffee or shrimp gumbo, wherein I use butter). We have several Ball jars roaming through the fridge.

    ETA: It is also fabulous in a wilted spinach salad with ACV: http://www.food.com/recipe/wilted-spinach-salad-73051#activity-feed
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