Bacon grease is a great commodity to have, especially when you realize you have ran out of cooking oil. Just like tallow or lard, you can render bacon grease and use it to cook with. Read ahead to learn how you can easily save bacon grease.
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Saving Bacon Grease
Growing up my mom always saved our leftover bacon grease, so this was a normal thing for me. After sharing about saving bacon grease and using it in recipes on social media, I got a mix of emotions coming from commentors.
If you aren’t used to saving bacon grease, it may sound odd, but it is actually quite beneficial to save and use bacon grease.
I love to add bacon grease to recipes when cooking, like green beans, potatoes, and chicken. It gives such delicious flavor just like using bacon, just without the crunch.
Similarly, frying up eggs or potatoes in bacon grease is absolutely the way to go!
How to Save Bacon Grease
There’s a couple ways you can save bacon grease and it will be your preference on how you decide to save it.
Personally, I pour leftover grease into a mason jar, cover it once it’s cooled, and store in the fridge. As I acquire more bacon grease, I simply pour it over the top of the previously saved grease and repeat the process. I have done this for years and have never had any type of spoilage.
Alternatively, you can store this right on the shelf or cupboard in your kitchen. Many people I have spoke with store it just as you could butter, tallow, or lard in the cupboard.
There may be small bits of bacon in with the grease, if you prefer you can strain it through cheesecloth or a fine strainer to remove the bits.
Why to Save Bacon Grease
You may be wondering why you would want to save bacon grease.
Personally, I enjoy saving bacon grease to use as added flavor in meals as I mentioned previously.
I love sauteing garlic in a little butter and bacon grease and then cooking up green beans in it. It’s so flavorful and everybody loves them.
Another reason I save bacon grease is because it’s a free oil that can be used multiple ways and can be used in a pinch.
For example, I recently ran out of tallow and lard and didn’t want to use up the butter I had, so I opted for bacon grease. It came in super handy and worked just the same as butter, tallow, or lard would.
Even though you can use bacon grease as an alternative cooking oil, I would not recommend baking with it.
Now that you know how to save and use bacon grease, how do you think you will use it?
