# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  saving  bacon fat??????

## shaner

ok i got this basicly  from my grandma,  who always  kept a bowl full on the stove top  i even seen her eat bacon grease  sandwiches, hard to believe  she lived to 92 hahahah,,, anyhow,  lot of people seem to think iam a bit off saving  mine in a butter  tub, and in the freezer. i use it  for many things  while cooking, as in frying and  for  flavoring of   different  dishes  such as  beans   ,liver and  onions,  and many more, 
iam not sure  how long it  stays  good as  granny keepin it out on the stove top,  iam guessin a while,   so ,i guess iam  askin  who else  is in this  group of grease saver?  and how  do yu do it??   :dissolve:

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## 2dumb2kwit

I save it in a coffee cup, on the stove. The thing is, with me, it gets used up pretty fast. I like to use it like you do, for frying other things, flavoring other things, etc., and believe it or not (The regulars here are getting ready to be shocked.) I don't really cook that much bacon.

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## gryffynklm

I do the same. I also use bacon grease with a little bees wax in my grease lamps. The bees wax stiffens the grease a bit so in the heat of the car it doesn't melt as easily. Only one drawback is that folks are always asking about the bacon at camp.

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## kyratshooter

We are not the only people that still do this!

http://www.amazon.com/RSVP-Stoneware...5100315&sr=8-4

My Mom had a grease strainer on her stove top untill she no longer cooked.  I grew up thinking everyone had one.  If you messed up and poured sausage grease into the container she would throw the whole batch out!  Bacon grease only.  Southern traditioin and all that.  Sometimes I cook bacon just to get the grease for another dish.

Cornbread can not be properly cooked without bacon grease.  You MUST put a spoonful of grease in the batter and then drizzle a coating over the top of the mix before it goes into the oven to create the proper crust as it bakes.  Fried "hoe cakes" never tase right unless fried in the bacon grease.  

Reinds me of a scene from the show Big Bang Theory.  Sheldon's Mom says: "The key to a man's heart is BACON GREASE.  He'll die at 50 but he'll never stray."

It is one of the reasons that in the deep south 50% of the women over 65 are widows while only 17% of the men over 65 are widowers.

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## jake abraham

bacon grease in alot of stuff,keep in a bowl on stove, cook eggsingrease

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## 0331exmc

Keep ours in plastic oil container (wesson oil), strained twice thru stainless mesh colander lined with folded cheese cloth, and cooled first of course. kyratshooter nailed it with his cornbread theory. Ain't had cornbread done right till ya had it with bacon grease on top. :Smile:

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## Rick

Probably everyone on here, Shaner. I have two pint jars of bacon fat that have been sitting on my counter for close to year. I have them for making bacon candles. Only recently has the bacon fat begun to dry out. It still has no odor and has not gone rancid. I certainly wouldn't eat it but it remains viable a very long time. 

I also keep bacon fat in the fridge for use in cooking. We don't use it that often so we store it in the fridge. It's a federal law or something that green beans have to be cooked with bacon fat. And I don't challenge federal law. Well, there was that moonshine charge but I digress. 

Here's the key to storing bacon fat long term. You need to strain it to remove the bits of meat and gristle that are in it. I pour mine through a coffee filter and let it drain into a jar or can. The bits of meat are what will go bad. Remove that and bacon grease will last a long time.

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## Old Professor

I save bacon grease, although I do not eat much bacon. I occasionally use it for cooking as others have mentioned but the main reason I save grease (pork fat as well as bacon fat) is  as bear bait. Heated up and splashed on a tree and poured over dry dog food it really attracts bears.  If I was in need of pure bacon grease for cooking, I would buy a box of bacon ends and pieces, try it down, save the grease for cooking and chop and package the cooked bacon for adding to various dishes. I do that about once a year.

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## Rick

> I save grease (pork fat as well as bacon fat) is  as bear bait.


It's a good thing you don't put that out anywhere near 2D's house. It wouldn't work out too well. I know how he likes bacon anything. 

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## shaner

well least iam not the only nut here hahahahah thats why i freeze mine  and chip it off when needed is the lil bacon bits in it , 
yes corn bread and green beans has a unwriten law  that they contain bacon grease !!!

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## jcullen24

I think everyone that grew up in the country or rural, had different greases on the stove to recycle!  
My Mom had Bacon grease and chicken fat! 
It's the city raised folk that are appalled by saving grease.
I used to pour bacon grease into my grits to the horror of my wife.

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## shaner

> We are not the only people that still do this!
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/RSVP-Stoneware...5100315&sr=8-4
> 
> My Mom had a grease strainer on her stove top untill she no longer cooked.  I grew up thinking everyone had one.  If you messed up and poured sausage grease into the container she would throw the whole batch out!  Bacon grease only.  Southern traditioin and all that.  Sometimes I cook bacon just to get the grease for another dish.
> 
> Cornbread can not be properly cooked without bacon grease.  You MUST put a spoonful of grease in the batter and then drizzle a coating over the top of the mix before it goes into the oven to create the proper crust as it bakes.  Fried "hoe cakes" never tase right unless fried in the bacon grease.  
> 
> Reinds me of a scene from the show Big Bang Theory.  Sheldon's Mom says: "The key to a man's heart is BACON GREASE.  He'll die at 50 but he'll never stray."
> ...



thats  first id seen the grease saver!!!! thanks ,

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## 1stimestar

Yep in a coffee cup on the stove.

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## 2dumb2kwit

Not trying to tie two threads together, or anything, but few things work as well together in this world as a cast iron skillet and some bacon grease! LOL :Innocent:

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## Thaddius Bickerton

My DD bought me one of those grease pots for my bacon grease (use a coffee can with a lid on the stove top) and it was so nice I turned it into a billy can / mucket for my woods loafing.  Still using my coffee can on the stove top.  I use bacon fat to cook most everything i fry.  

I make a BLT sammich that I fry the bread in bacon fat to "toast" it up first.  

I am trying to cut back on my pork in general cause the Dr. says it aggravates my arthritis pains.  Haven't noticed much improvement since I cut back, and stopping, well if I can't enjoy life, why live?

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## shaner

i hear ya  on bacon grease and skillets 2dumb2kwit!!

hey  thaddius?  may i ask u what  a DD is ?  i have  uncle art rituis  living with me daily  never heard of  pork irrstating  the  joints?  no pork ? how  do yu survive?? hahahah

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## Rick

Dear Daughter
DW = Dear Wife
DS = Dear Son
DIL = Daughter In Law
DA = Dear Administrator




> I am trying to cut back on my pork in general cause the Dr. says it aggravates my arthritis pains.


Ooh. Sounds like it's time to cut back on doctors in general.

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## shaner

thanks rick,  for the definations, i get lost in these  sometimes, hahah

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## Old GI

My Mother and her Mom used to have a can of grease on or near the stove constantly.  I remember my Mother getting a set of kitchen canisters; you know, aluminum and labeled for coffee, tea, sugar, etc..  The largest one was marked "GREASE"!  It was a good life.

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## Wildthang

I cook bacon in bacon grease, it makes it taste better :Smartass:

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## 1stimestar

Makes it cook better for sure.

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## Chris

omega 6 fatty acids fuel the body's inflammatory response which probably explains the doctor's comment that it can aggravate your arthritis. Believe it or not omega 6 acids are not twice as good as omega 3s, they're pretty bad for you. I used to cook with used fat often, bacon, chicken, turkey, especially turkey. I always save drippings, but I usually skim off the fat. Lately I've taken to using olive oil for everything though to try to be healthier. 

I do hate throwing things away though, I did just throw away about half a cup of ham fat from tonight's dinner, after separating it from the other drippings (collagen, etc). I had to sit and think about it though, what could I do with this? I've made bird feed suet out of it before, but have been too busy lately, and it was recycling day so I didn't have any jars or cans handy, so I tossed it.

Fully saturated fats are very stable though, they really don't go bad. Saturated means that every bonding location on the molecule is used up, so it cannot bond to something else and is such very stable. Unsaturated fats have open spots where hydrogen atoms would otherwise be and can bond to whatever and get funky, which is why their shelf life is so much lower. This is also why processed foods (your twinkies, etc) use saturated fats, so they can sit on the shelf forever at room temperate and be fine. Hydrogenated oils are when they take an otherwise unsaturated oil, and add hydrogen to it to make it effectively saturated (shelf stable), so you might think hydrogenated soybean oil is healthier than say, lard, but not especially, possibly even worse.

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## 1stimestar

Thanks for the little lesson!

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## Rick

So...you have dead birds all over the yard where they keeled over with heart attacks from clogged arteries? Now that's funny. 

Someone help me out here. Did he just bash my beloved twinkies?!

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## crashdive123

Noooooooo - he called them stable.

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## shaner

well all i know is i enjoy readin  here !

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## Winnie

Ya'll must eat an awful lot Bacon to have enough grease to save. I've never had so much as enough to sop a slice of bread in!

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## Jimmyq

Used to as a kid, mamma kept the grease in a jar in the fridge, used it for toast etc. These days the european deli we go to sometimes gives out 'schmalz' with a purchase of $10 or more, its a 1/2 cup of the stuff, not from bacon (smoked pork) but rather just rendered pork fat. My inlaws use it for baking, frying and more, we use it for frying sometimes to add flavour etc. Works great on perogies and if there's no bacon for the eggs ;-)

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## Woodmaster750

I like to take bacon grease and rup the inside of my dutchoven and the top's of the biscuits when I'm at hunting camp or just out for a weekend. And to go on the biscuits good home made prickly pear jelly and butter. Yepper.

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## shaner

> I like to take bacon grease and rup the inside of my dutchoven and the top's of the biscuits when I'm at hunting camp or just out for a weekend. And to go on the biscuits good home made prickly pear jelly and butter. Yepper.


i sure miss that jelly got  to really like it while i was living in tucson,  not to much of it  for sale here in ohio hahahaha,,,  there was a gal  down around  serra vista  id buy  pure  honey from also,   that sure  topped of some  biscuts!!!!

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## Rick

Shaner - Prickly pear cactus grows just fine in the Midwest and overwinters well. I grew it in my yard for close to 20 years here in Indiana and probably 10 years in Illinois before I moved (we brought some of it with us). I got tired and picking those itty bitty spines out of my fingers and finally got rid of it. But if you like the jelly you can make your own.

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## Delta 5168

I like clarified butter.  I separate with heat as usual and then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it.  For you frozen bacon grease lovers (as am I) that little storage trick might be interesting to you.

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## shaner

> Shaner - Prickly pear cactus grows just fine in the Midwest and overwinters well. I grew it in my yard for close to 20 years here in Indiana and probably 10 years in Illinois before I moved (we brought some of it with us). I got tired and picking those itty bitty spines out of my fingers and finally got rid of it. But if you like the jelly you can make your own.


yep i got a few i brought back from tucson  growing here  they  just dont  seem to get  very big and  never  flower,  oh those  spines  are a nasty  nasty   thing, and last  forever, ive still got several friends there i need  to get them to mail me some, or just move back hahahaha

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## That guy in the woods

AMEN amen and Amen again..hail bacon and it's byproduct now I gotta go....time to make bacon hah !

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## Lamewolf

My great grandmother lived to be 97 and always told me it was a sin to throw away bacon grease.  She saved it, cooked with it and lard all her life and it was a part of her everyday diet !  Yes, I save bacon grease too but don't use it as often as she did, but when I want me some homemade gravy for breakfast, all I got to do is grab my bacon grease and get to cooking.

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## Pennsylvania Mike

I save my bacon grease in a canning jar nest to my Coleman stove where I do the cooking.

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## pgvoutdoors

My grand parents on my mom's side were from West Virginia, beacon fat was a mainstay in their cooking.  I keep a jar of it for cooking as well for all the reason mentioned earlier in this thread.  I give any extra to a friend for bear bait.  I like my beacon cooked until almost black, drop a piece on the floor and it shatters, so filtering the fat of the little burnt pieces is required.

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## M118LR

It's hard to make "Scrapple"  AKA "Pan Rabbit" without a little extra bacon/pig fat. Still carry a little slab of salted fat-back for seasoning the mess kit when hitting the wilderness.

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## hunter63

I love bacon.....and DW does use some bacon grease for cooking/seasoning.........
BUT
MIL made the most disgusting "blacked eggs" you ever tried to choke down.
Fry the bacon,...then burn the grease, ........then kill some perfectly good eggs.

They were just plain NASTY.......I don't think anyone else BURNs the grease BLACK first.......LOL
Even DW agrees....

Hunting camp at the cottage...she would call out 'What do you want for breakfast...."
We would holler back......"Not Eggs!"

(Guess my "B's" are not showing up????)

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## Rick

Bacon has some type of DNA repair ability. I consider it quite medicinal for repair all my DNA. Especially DNA in the taste buds and TV remote finger. It must work equally well on the sleep centers in the brain because after a couple or five bacon sandwiches I need a nap.

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## Wise Old Owl

> So...you have dead birds all over the yard where they keeled over with heart attacks from clogged arteries? Now that's funny. 
> 
> Someone help me out here. Did he just bash my beloved twinkies?!


No his Turkey's & Chicken's are stable.... Otherwise they would weeble wabble and not fall down.....  :Oops: 


Ok shuffles feet .... looks down ..."the birds are old, drunk and feeble... "


I apologise...for my feeble attempt at some chicken feed humor.

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## Wise Old Owl

Ok we save bacon fat or home made fatback in small quantities in Pyrex glass dishes. Never would I use plastic - it melts into the fat. 

I use very small amounts to food cooked on the stove. Except eggs - I prefer butter.

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## druid

I save mine in a Mason jar but I triple filter it using common paper coffee filters. It's basically tallow and the trick to keeping it from going rancid before you hit the bottom is to filter out all the meats and impurities from what you are saving. Having a lid that seals well keeps everything out you don't want in [like air, flies, gnats, boogers, whatever].

Aside from cooking, I've used it for everything from lip balm in the winter, to seasoning cast iron, to dampening [black powder] round-ball patches.

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## Rick

It will still go rancid even filtering it. It just takes a long time. I made some bacon candles that went rancid at about the 5 year mark.

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## druid

> I save mine in a Mason jar but I triple filter it using common paper coffee filters. It's basically tallow *and the trick to keeping it from going rancid before you hit the bottom* is to filter out all the meats and impurities from what you are saving. Having a lid that seals well keeps everything out you don't want in [like air, flies, gnats, boogers, whatever].
> 
> Aside from cooking, I've used it for everything from lip balm in the winter, to seasoning cast iron, to dampening [black powder] round-ball patches.


Yes....I know.....the implication being that it will still go rancid but not as quickly.....

 :tabletalk:

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