Bacon fat is a delicious and valuable substance that can be used almost anyplace butter is used, including baking and sautéing.
Bacon’s composition of layers of fat running in lengthy, alternate directions along the meaty muscle is one of the things that makes it so wonderful. The fat melts into drippings as the skillet heats up, aiding in the cooking and flavoring of the bacon.
Before proceeding with the ways to use Bacon Fat, let’s begin with how you should store bacon fat?
Personally, we think it’s better to pour the liquid fat—bacon pieces and all—into a little glass jar, let it cool and then store it in the refrigerator. This method will allow it to last. If you’d prefer, you can also freeze it, which will certainly extend its shelf life.
One of the most important things to keep in mind while storing bacon fat is to avoid pouring hot fat into plastic containers. During the process, the plastic can be melted as plastic may potentially leak out when exposed to heated objects. Yuck!
Now, let’s dive in with the 10 ways you should use bacon fat.
1. Baking
In your savory baked products, you may use bacon grease in place of butter or shortening. Make some tortillas, bread, or pancakes. Better still, bake some cookies with bacon grease and indulge in the sweet and salty sensations! Should you be sensitive to salt, we’d advise cutting the salt in half or by a quarter.
2. Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
I am aware. It seems repulsive. Hey, eating live oysters does that too. These bacon-and-chocolate cookies are undoubtedly an aphrodisiac since they are so delicious, much like oysters. For a typical recipe, a tablespoon of bacon fat on your dough should work fine. After that, simply sit back and watch the confectionery magic unfold. It’s tasty. Furthermore, it is far superior to simply salting the cookies.
3. Bacon Greens
Try this dish if your children won’t eat their greens: If your brood can handle the heat, add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes along with the finely minced garlic to melted bacon grease in a heated pan and sauté until barely fragrant (letting the garlic brown will make taste bitter).
Add a bunch of greens that have been prepped (spinach or collard leaves) right away, and sauté until the desired level of wilting and softening.
4. Adding Bacon on Ice Cream
Yeah, you’ve read it right. You’ll like bacon ice cream if you enjoy sweet and savory tastes. A couple of teaspoons of rendered, chilled bacon fat stirred into your ice cream base will do. The taste pairs particularly nicely with corn syrup or cherries.
5. Meats
Even while cooking your meats in bacon fat may be common knowledge, it is still worth mentioning for anyone who hasn’t given it a try. Before anything else, steaks! Simply sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides, and then grill the meat in a cast-iron skillet with a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat and sliced garlic. It will undoubtedly have a juicy, salty flavor with a buttery finish—exactly the way we like it! Top contenders include pan-frying burger patties and pork chops as well.
Therefore, keep the fat next time you fry some bacon so you may add a fresh flavor to your subsequent recipes.
6. Salad Dressing
We do this a lot. One of the unique salad dressings is created when you combine bacon fat and apple cider vinegar. The concept works great on a spinach salad. However, if you use a warm vinaigrette, the bacon fat will be oily and unpleasant to eat.
7. Cast Iron Skillet Seasoning
Why not simply have your skillet spew bacon taste forever, rather than keeping bacon fat around to add a little meat panache to your dishes? You may do this by coating your cast iron skillet with bacon fat, baking it for a few hours, and repeating the procedure as often as you desire (after draining any extra oil that remains on the base). This way you can make your skillet the skillet that keeps giving the bacon flavoring.
Related: 10 Surprising Ways Cast Iron Cookware Will Help You When SHTF
8. Bird Feeders
Having made a lot of bird feeders ourselves, you can also make a really good DIY bird feeder out of bacon grease if you really want to use nature’s greatest gift to us—bacon—to further complete the circle of life. Your grease vanishes. Birds can consume seeds scented with bacon. Everyone benefits.
9. Fire Starters
A piece of advice for bacon enthusiasts. Next time you want to start a blazing fire in your fireplace, try it with bacon fat. One paper towel should be rolled up and put in a paper cup. Add a little bacon fat. When starting the fire, take out one or two of the grease-filled paper cups from the refrigerator to prevent it from going rancid (you can really create a lot of these fire starters at once). Please, be careful and only light fires in designated areas.
10. Fried Potatoes That Gain Flavor From Bacon Fat
We officially go down the path of “adding bacon fat to already wonderful things to make them even better” at this point. Almost any food may be used for this, and potatoes are (obviously) a must. Essentially, all you should do is add the sliced potatoes to the bacon fat after it has simmered on the heat for approximately a minute.
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