Kitchen

[shoptilyadropagain]

I actually don't fry/bake bacon to eat and the rare times I do, I use turkey bacon.  I do buy bacon but I cut it up in small half-inch pieces and freeze.  I'll take a chunk out to use for flavoring when I'm cooking up a pot of green beans.  

My mom put bacon grease in an old coffee cup and kept it in the fridge to cook with.  I believe FB cook, Brenda Gantt keeps her in a container on her counter.  

[AuntMame]

Don't fry bacon much but when I do I store the grease in a jar with a lid in the freezer. I use it in a few favorite recipes like hot german potato salad and for the roux in seafood gumbo. 

That said it seems like there's less fat in bacon than there was years ago. When I look at old cookbooks, like Betty Crocker from the 1960s, and it says to fry five strips of bacon to get a half-cup of grease, I'm like wow. I can't get that much from frying a half-pound of bacon. 

My grandma used bacon grease for cooking everything. Green beans, peas, collard greens, cornbread. Tasted wonderful, but wasn't very healthy. I think she stored it in a can next to the stove. 

[Nightowlz]

DH made a pot of green beans today. He made bacon to put in them along with some bacon grease. 

My grandmother always used Fat Back in green beans. I ate it when I was a kid with grits. 

[Flatbush]

I save the bacon fat in a clean empty soup can that I keep in the back corner of the bottom shelf, of the refrigerator.

I have never had it go bad, even though I use it infrequently.

[Flatbush]

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@Mz iMac wrote:

Being raised by southern parents, I guess I'm the only person "up north" who keeps bacon grease in a tin can on top corner of stove top.  I don't know anyone who keeps it in the fridge. 

Yes, I do keep it in the refrigerator. I do not use it that often and so I keep it outta sight til I need it.

[gtx]

@JeanLouiseFinch  What kind of bacon do you  cook? I tried some uncured without nitrates and it had no taste.

[Zhills]

@JeanLouiseFinch   Have you tried the HORMEL brand?  I like it!

[JeanLouiseFinch]

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@gtx wrote:

@JeanLouiseFinch  What kind of bacon do you  cook? I tried some uncured without nitrates and it had no taste.

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Same here, @gtx.  I realize it's a compromise but I get Kirkland bacon from Costco.  

[JeanLouiseFinch]

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@Zhills wrote:

@JeanLouiseFinch   Have you tried the HORMEL brand?  I like it!

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Yes, @Zhills Funny story. Last fall, DH and I had to go to Menards for something.  I usually end up roaming while he picks out whatever hardware he's looking for. I ended up in the back where they had a freezer case full of Hormel thick bacon - original, cherrywood, and pecan wood.  It was super inexpensive so I stocked up.  It just felt weird getting bacon from a home improvement store.  🤷‍♀️

[Zhills]

I get the HORMEl pre-cooked these days.  Lots less prep time.  I'm getting too old to cook complicated food!