13 Ways to Use Bacon Grease
There’s just something about bacon that makes it simply irresistible, but I still haven’t been able to narrow it down. Whether it’s waking up to the smell of sizzling meat while it’s being fried in a skillet, or the mouth-watering juices and the intoxicating flavor that stimulates our brains that seals the deal? Or maybe it’s the perfect crunch when you bite into it? I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Check out these ways to use bacon grease. In case you missed this post, How To Cook Bacon In The Oven
Ways to Use Bacon Grease
Whatever it is that triggers you, bacon tastes good with just about anything and can be enjoyed anywhere and anytime. But it’s what you do afterward with the leftover bacon grease that’s still in the pan that concerns me the most.
Unfortunately, most people toss their bacon grease out with their trash, not realizing that they just threw out something that’s almost nearly as precious as liquid gold, from my perspective. As it turns out, bacon grease is an excellent natural resource that has many uses, not only in the kitchen but in other areas around your home. These are 13 clever ways to use up your leftover bacon grease.
Season Your Cast Iron Skillet
Did you know that your cast iron skillet actually gets better each time you use it, especially when you season it with bacon grease? Not only are you adding delicious flavors to it, but you’re also protecting it from rust. A hint of bacon in your meals would also be a win.
Roasting Vegetables
I absolutely love roasted vegetables that have been drizzled in olive oil, but recently I’ve discovered that bacon grease will also do the trick. Just be sure that you pull the pan out of the oven and stir it once the grease has melted.
Make a Salad Dressing
Listen up all you meat-eaters! If a salad sounds rather lame to you, but your doctor has been telling you to eat more of them, how about using your bacon grease to create a salad dressing that adds more of a meat flavor? That’s one way that you can insist that you’ve been eating healthier.
Make Baconnaise
Sometimes mayonnaise can simply be boring and you’re needing something a bit more flavorful. How about making “baconnaise” that will add excitement to your sandwiches, as well as the perfect dip for your veggies. It’s also an easy recipe to follow and one that won’t disappoint.
Frying Burgers
Are you in the mood for a juicy burger, but you also have a foot of snow sitting outside? When it’s too cold to grill your burgers outdoors, you can always use the approach to fry them. You’ll be adding excellent bacon-y flavor when you use bacon grease when cooking your burgers.
Grilled Cheese
While butter is what most people use when they’re making grilled cheese, you can take it up a notch or two by using bacon grease to fry your grilled cheese sandwiches. You can even throw in a few bacon pieces for texture as well. On a cold wintery day, it’s also nice to dunk your grilled cheese sandwich in a cup of hot cocoa. This may sound a bit odd, but have I ever steered you wrong?
French Toast
Are you the type of person that loves a good sweet and salty snack? Now you can have the best of both worlds for breakfast, even when you don’t have any bacon available. By frying your sourdough bread in bacon grease, your french toast is sure to taste even more amazing than before.
Popping Popcorn
Instead of using popcorn oil the next time you’re making popcorn, use bacon grease instead. You’ll be rewarded with a salty and buttery treat that also tastes a bit like bacon. Yum yum!
Bake with It
Instead of using shortening, you can substitute bacon grease to make all sorts of your favorite delicious baked goods. You can use it to make cornbread, biscuits, cookies, and even tortillas. But what if you aren’t in the mood to make them just yet? Here’s how to save your bacon grease for the next time that you need it.
Bacon Grease Candles
For those of you who can’t get enough of the intoxicating aroma that comes with bacon, why not use your leftover grease to make candles? Just keep in mind that it may cause you to salivate at strange times of the day. Here’s how to make your very own bacon-scented candles.
Use it to Start a Fire
A grease fire in the kitchen can become a really scary situation in just a matter of seconds, but when it comes to starting a bonfire in your backyard, bacon grease is the perfect fire starter. Watch this video to learn how effective bacon grease is for starting a backyard fire.
Bacon Fat Bird Feeder
It’s not just people that love the smell and the taste of bacon. Birds do too! So why not create a birdfeeder that brings them in by the droves? This is a fun project to do and you’ll be able to provide birds with the perfect treat that will keep them coming back all year long.
Dog Treats
Over the years you’ve probably seen the Beggin-strips commercials and just how bonkers canines go when bacon is present? Instead of paying over 10 dollars for a big bag of them, why not make your own bacon and peanut butter dog treats? These sweet treats will also have your pups begging for more.
Final Word
Did you ever hear in the news about the 86 year old woman who fought off a thief by repeatedly hitting her mugger in the head with a package of bacon? You just can’t make up stories like this.
Apparently, bacon is not only delicious, and has been proven that it can be used in self-defense if your situation becomes desperate enough, but the leftover grease itself has its uses too! What are some ways to use bacon grease that you have implemented in your home? May God Bless this world, Linda.
Copyright Images: Bacon Slab Deposit photos_6476229_s-2019
While my small stash of bacon grease is among our most favorite & precious food stock items… if you have an extremely picky finicky cat or dog who refuses to eat…. a few drops of melted bacon grease dribbled over their food can change their minds.
PS. You can never have enough bacon grease! Or bacon! LOL!
Hi BDN, oh my gosh, my dogs would love it! You are so right, we can never have too much bacon grease! LOL! Linda
I rub a little bacon grease on the outside of my scrubbed potatoes and sprinkle with salt before I bake them. It keeps the potato skin moist and tastes delicious. Works in the oven or microwave.
Hi Annie, WHAT??? I love this idea, oh my gosh, it’s one of those, why didn’t I think of that???? I’m doing this for sure! Great tip! Linda
A little bacon grease makes store bought canned veggies taste better, to me. I also use it in cooking cabbage in the microwave, for unfried fried cabbage. (My mother’s recipe). It is so good and so easy. I do agree that you can never have too much bacon grease. Did you know they now sell bacon grease? LOL I can’t remember where I saw it, but Walmart carries it.
Hi Deborah, they. sell bacon grease, oh my gosh!! I have never heard this! What is unfried fried cabbage? Linda
You cut the cabbage like you would for slaw. Add a layer of sliced cabbage, a little salt and pepper, and some bacon grease. Repeat until all the cabbage is used up. Or the bowl is full. Cover with a paper towel or waxed paper. Microwave at 5 minute intervals, stirring between each, until the cabbage is as done as you like it. (I have a plastic lid that I use instead of paper.)
To fry it, you put it in an iron skillet and keep it stirred. It’s easier in the microwave.
Hi Deborah, oh, I have to make this! I have all the ingredients in the house! Yummy! Linda
You can add onion if you like it. We do, but not everyone does. It is really good. And you don’t lose any nutrients like you when you cook it in water. In fact, I don’t add any water to it at all.
Linda did you make the unfried fried cabbage? And if so, how did you like it?
Hi Deborah, not yet! I want to, but life has been busy. I will let you know. Linda
I not only live in the deep south but I was born and bred here as well. My grandmother taught me how to cook and the importance of bacon grease as well as its necessity. The first thing she taught me is to NEVER throw out your bacon grease and NEVER buy cooking oil when you have bacon grease. Fry homemade french fries in bacon grease, fry chicken legs in bacon grease, anything that can be fried should be fried in bacon grease. Oh and by the way she lived to be 95 years old and everyone else on her side of the family ate the same way and they all lived to be between 90 – 106. Seriously, I have memories of family members who lived to be over 100 yrs old, and NOT one of them had dementia or Alzheimer’s and those who did die early died from lung cancer from smoking which was only two her brother died at 67 yrs old and her sister died at 87 both were smokers with cancer.
Hi Dee, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this comment! I will never EVER feel guilty eating all the bacon I eat! You made my day! What a great comment! Linda
Hi Linda, Thanks! Also, if that isn’t enough not one person on that side of the family ever had heart problems, high blood pressure, or even a lower than average IQ. Now my grandmothers’ aunt (who lived to be 102 yrs old) showed me at 8 yrs old to make soap with wood ash and cleaned bacon grease as well as how to churn butter.
I am a firm believer that if people spent more time with their elderly relatives as children they would have a better understanding of life as well as have a more rounded view of what is truly important and what is just trivial.
Hi Dee, I totally agree with you. Years and years ago families lived closer to each other. My great-grandmother was a blessing to me. My grandmother not at all. I learned a lot from my great-grandmother and my mother. I also taught all four daughters to can, dehydrate, pressure canning, how to sew clothes, and how to garden. All four make bread, all four daughters love working in gardens. None of them have the love of preserving food like me. But they know how if they decide to. I was lucky to be a stay at home mom. My daughters do not have that luxury. I love hearing you were 8 years old when your grandmothers taught you how to make soap and churn butter. What a treasure of memories. What a blessing, Linda
Linda, you have no idea how much I truly treasure all those memories. Looking back it was those memories that I treasure and enjoyed ever more than playing with other kids my own age. Yeah, I was a very weird kid.
Hi Dee, I don’t think you were a weird kid!! Or maybe I was and didn’t know it! LOL! I can still remember making Norweigian lefse with my mom and the flour was everywhere. We didn’t care because we were having so much fun making it! I loved giving chinks of bread dough to my daughters to make their own Masterpieces that we would bake. Then I did the same thing with my grandkids. You can’t put a price on that! Linda
There is nothing better in this world than waking up in a tent, in the mountains while deer hunting, to the smell of bacon frying over a campfire! The absolutely BEST EVER!
Hi Robbie, oh my gosh, I remember those days! My parents use to take us up in the mountains and fixing breakfast every Sunday morning! We loved the smell of bacon, it is the best ever!!!!! Linda
My Mother use to fry everything in bacon grease. She use to put it in a coffee can near the stove. Great memories.
Hi Nancy, wow, that’s a lot of bacon grease in a coffee can, I love it. I was just telling my daughter this morning how my dad fried cheese, it wasn’t in bacon grease, but it was about the memories with my dad. Great memories, Linda
This is a dumb question. Does bacon grease have to be kept refrigerated once it is poured into a can or container?
Hi Kate, we never have dumb questions in our group. I remember my mom put her bacon grease in the refrigerator, so I always have. I did look it up, it’s safe in the refrigerator for 3-6 months. I hope this helps, you can’t be the only one that wonders. Good question, Linda
Nothing better than green beans cooked with beacon grease. Also cut beacon into small pieces, fry then add bits and grease in pot of pink beans, Mom, Aunt and Grandmother did the same.
Hi Sharon, oh my gosh, green beans with bacon grease! YUMMY! Life is so good with bacon and bacon grease! Linda
Fried potatoes with onions & green peppers fried in bacon grease! Chicken fried in bacon grease! My Grandma always sent me a big jar of bacon grease home when I visited! Our favorite meal of hers? Butterfly pork chops dipped in evaporated milk, rolled in crushed corn flakes, then fried low & slow in bacon grease! Along with potatoes she quartered, boiled til fork tender, then fried low & slow in bacon grease til they were golden on the outside & oh, so tender on the inside! The pork chop gravy was THE best. She always had store bought sandwich bread on the table & I would eat that with lots of gravy on a slice or three! ‘Patience is a virtue’ was the key phrase there & boy, did it pay off big time! I miss my Grandma & her amazing food!
Hi Nini, OH the fried potatoes with onions, and green peppers fried in bacon grease! Memories are flowing now!! I wonder now if that’s why my mom’s fried chicken was so good. I wish I could ask her if she fried it in bacon grease. I’m going to now! Oh, and the butterfly pork chops!! Of course, now my mouth is watering! I grew up on bread or biscuits with gravy!! Yummy! I love your comment! Linda
Hi Linda, I still keep bacon grease in the fridge. As an aside, most of your readers are probably too young to remember WW2. I was a child then and remember my mom and probably everybody else in town, saved every drop of bacon grease and donated it to the war effort. I think it was used as a lubricant when “regular” oil and lubricants were scarce. I’m not positive about the use of it.
I love bacon and everything that it and its grease is added to.
My dad was a butcher who worked for Krogers durig the war. He was able to get bacon and other pieces of meat (small) because meat was rationed due to the war.
It amazes me what memories arise when reading about ‘bacon grease’. LOL
Hope you and yours are well and stay safe.
Suzane
Hi Suzanne, oh I love hearing you love bacon. I freeze several packages because I never want to run out of it! Everything is better with bacon on it!! LOL! Stay well, and stay safe, Linda