Tip no.001 - Saving Bacon Grease

Here is a quick and simple method to save your bacon grease to use again in the future for other dishes.

I recently made a super fun recipe & video on ‘The Elvis’ Sandwich and, in the process, filmed a little side video and a simple method to keep the leftover bacon grease after you’ve cooked your bacon.

Why would you want to save your bacon grease you ask? The leftover grease from a high quality ‘dry cured’ bacon can essentially become a super smokey flavored 'cooking fat’ that can be used in a ton of cooking applications like roasting, pan frying, baking, etc. You can also add little dap to your emulsions like this homemade sweet paprika mayonnaise for a bit of extra Oomph 😋.

The big tip? Just strain it out through a fine mesh strainer lined with a few layers of cheese cloth 1-2 times (you can use the back of a spoon to help). You really just want to remove all of the solids in the fat. It’s ok if some specs of grit remains in the mixture, it will mostly sink to the bottom as it cools and can be easily avoided.

You can let it cool on a counter top or in the refrigerator and you can store it in a ramekin or small mason jar. I like to store it in the refrigerator so it solidifies and can be scooped out with a spoon.

With all of this said, there are a couple of other factors I think you should consider as well when doing this. The bigger of the two (in my opinion) being that, if you are planning on saving your bacon fat, you will want to be careful not to burn the bacon being cooked in it. This will generally negatively affect the flavor so keeping a moderate heat is best (which is how I would recommend cooking bacon anyways 🙌). Also consider straining out the fat between batches if you’re cooking a lot of bacon to avoid loose bits burning in it over time as well.

The second thing to consider is the quality of the bacon. A higher quality ‘dry cured’ bacon will generally have more flavor and will most likely yield a better quality result than a lower quality ‘brine pumped’ bacon (which uses either ascorbate or sodium erythorbate to assist in a much faster and cheaper wet curing process).

Either way, I highly recommend giving this a shot if you haven’t before! This will keep in the refrigerator for about 3-6 months. Keep an eye on the bottom layer, where the sediment collects as that is where it can potentially go bad.

Cheers,

Joey