To keep or not to keep THAT is the question...

[youthere]

Bacon Grease.

I posted this in the lounge, and someone suggested I post it here for additional input. I got chewed out ROYALLY from my grandmother-in-law
for throwing away bacon grease. So, should I change my ways? If so, HOW do I keep it, and WHAT should I do with it? I appreciate any and all input.
Thanks!

[DemExpat]

1. Lol....well.....my southern Grandma and mom both used bacon grease

to fry eggs in or to add to cooked green beans, all kinds of cooked greens, etc.

I still find this seasoning very delicious on some veggies, but only use it for traditional meals like Thanksgiving since we don't eat much pork or bacon anymore.

My Mom would just pour it hot in a little glass bowl and cover it with plastic wrap - would keep it for quite a while - even adding hot grease to it after frying any bacon.

I can just hear your gandmother-in-law fussing at you for tossing it....:D

DemEx

[youthere]

4. She was beside herself...

she said "you're better off throwing away the bacon!" LOL

[grasswire]

2. I don't have bacon very often....

.....but this is what I do with the grease when I have it. I keep an empty frozen juice container in the freezer door -- they just seem to be about the right size. I spoon the drippings into the juice container and cover with the lid or a plastic bag. Keeps forever. Then, when I think a spoonful of bacon grease would really flavor something well (green beans, perhaps) it's very handy.

Putting it down the drainpipe is just about the worst thing you can do. Grease in the sewers is costly and disgusting for cities.

[youthere]

3. I've always waited for it to harden and then feed it to our chickens.

they love it. I never thought to keep it for eating again.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Long, long ago, in a faraway land, where cholesterol was unheard of .....

:)

In the past everyone saved bacon grease and used it for seasoning or for frying things like eggs. Stored in a small can in the refrigerator, it kept seemingly forever. And what a nice taste treat. That wonderful smokey taste imbued into, say, green beans, or spinach (top with some chapped hard cooked eggs ... mmmmm-M!).

I can't imagine anyone cooking enough bacon to always have the grease .... or anyone having enough use for bacon grease is this day and age. We just don't cook that much ... and surely we're all aware of the issues around high cholesterol.

[politicat]

6. We keep ours in a glass jar in the fridge.

Mom and gran both keep it on the counter, in little crocks. (EEK!!!)

I don't know if we hit the genetic jackpot or what, but we cut bacon out of our diets for a year, and both my cholesterol and DH's went UP. (We also cut beef to once a week, and pork to twice a week, and lean pork at that.) So a year ago, after spending two years on meds to lower DH's cholesterol and having no luck at all, I let him eat what he feels best eating, which means bacon twice or three times a week, more red meat and some other changes.

It worked. His cholesterol is bordering on low, now. (HDL is excellent; LDL is very low) However, simultaneously, his stress level went way down (he wasn't obsessing about food and his job got easier because Obnoxious Boss went away) and we finally got his allergy related apnea under control (by getting his allergies under control), so we don't know which factor it was that did what it was supposed to do with him. It might have been all of them. It's well known that a lower-stress lifestyle is a better predictor of cardiac health than cholesterol numbers. (Thus, the French and Italians can have all that lovely saturated fat and not have the heart disease rates, because they set up their culture to allow for time to walk, eat in peace, and have real vacations!!)

Mine seems to flux with hormones, so who knows what affects mine. (Ah, yes... I am the only woman on the planet who complains of the PMS symptom of astronomical LDL... for 3 days a cycle.)

[BamaGirl]

7. I use it to cook eggs

or use it to flavor beans. I don't save, though, I just use it the same day. My grandmother would have a hissy fit if I tossed it out lol. ;)

[Dora]

8. Sweetheart? Is that you?

My poor husband was chewed out this spring by my mother AND my grandmother for throwing out the "fresh batch" of bacon grease they were going to use to make a stockpile of spanish rice for us to freeze.

I grew up with a can of bacon grease in the fridge. My stepdad used it for anything that was cooked on our iron griddle - eggs, pancakes, etc.

I now try to keep a supply of BG in the fridge, and I use it for sauteeing onion and celery for soup, wilting greens, and sauteeing green beans. It doesn't take much to add a lot of flavor, and I like using it a lot more than crisco (that stuff is poison).

But I'm out of BG right now. I should probably buy some bacon and remedy that.