by Texas Homesteader ~
We don’t use bacon grease every day but it’s still a budget saver in my kitchen. Much flavor is added to typical staples too.
Here are 4 very important ways I’m able to use bacon grease in various ways to save money in my Homestead kitchen.
Valuable Bacon Byproduct: Bacon Grease!
We don’t eat lots of bacon here at the Homestead. Oh yeah don’t get me wrong, we LOVE bacon and we enjoy it from time to time. But it’s not often included in our limited budget.
Lucky for us a couple of families who DO enjoy bacon more often have agreed to save the resulting bacon grease from their breakfast delight for me. (Thank you, and YOU know who you are!)
You might wonder why in the world I would want the less-fun part of the bacon… the grease?
That bacon grease serves me very well in several ways in my kitchen. Both for adding flavor and for saving money too.
My Cast Iron Cook Ware
Cast Iron is my favorite cookware in my Homestead kitchen. And I use it often.
I have an amazing 2-burner cast-iron griddle for sautéing onions & peppers, making Homemade Pancakes, various types of Quesadillas or our favorite Mix & Pour Tortillas.
And my grandmother’s antique cast-iron skillet is used for making anything from cornbread to biscuits.
Bacon Grease Maintains Cast Iron Non-Stick Surface
Anyone who owns cast iron cookware knows it needs to be seasoned first and then treated regularly with some sort of oil. Doing so keeps that valuable cast-iron surface seasoned with its amazing non-stick quality.
Back in ‘the day’ I just used purchased shortening. But now I have a (free) readily-available supply of bacon grease to keep that cast-iron cookware wonderfully seasoned & non-stick.
Bacon Grease Provides Greased Surface For Cooking
Speaking of making Homemade Pancakes, instead of putting a pat of (purchased) butter on my griddle when I cook them, I use a light coating of bacon grease.
Oh, and I’m always cooking a bunch of chopped onions/peppers on that cast-iron griddle too.
Using bacon grease keeps my pancakes, stuffed french toast. onions & peppers and homemade tortillas from sticking. Yet it adds a little flavor too.
Oh yeah and remember, it’s FREE!
Bacon Grease A Flavorful Ingredient in Homemade Bread
I’ve attempted (and FAILED) to make delicious homemade sandwich bread for years. But EUREKA I’ve finally succeeded
The secret? My beloved KitchenAid to keep me from adding too much flour to keep it from sticking to my hands for one.
Oh, and my dad gifted me his counter-top bread maker too. Although I used to hate those things, I love this one and it helps me to make Honey Oatmeal Sandwich Bread anytime RancherMan wants. I’m making bread a few times each week now!
And the flavor of my breads has been perfected by adding… you guessed it – BACON GREASE!
The recipe needed an oil/fat ingredient anyway whether butter, shortening or lard. So I decided to use the bacon grease I already have to keep the cost low while still adding a bit of extra flavor.
FINALLY I’ve achieve breadmaking success – RancherMan loves my bread now!
Bacon Grease Makes Moist & Fluffy Homemade Biscuits
Along those lines I’ve also attempted and failed to make delicious biscuits from scratch for years. They were always too heavy, too dry and, well, flavorless!
Since bacon grease worked in my homemade bread I decided to try again with my biscuits and ya know what? SUCCESS!
Now each time I make my homemade biscuits I use that free bacon grease for flavor and moisture.
My biscuits are delicious and much requested by RancherMan now!
Bacon-Flavored Mayonnaise For The WIN!
And here’s your bonus 5th way to reuse that bacon grease. BACONNAISE, baby!!
It’s made the same as regular mayonnaise but bacon grease is substituted for a portion of the other oil used.
We use this homemade bacon-flavored mayonnaise in place of plain ole mayo in:
Egg Salad sandwich spread,
Thousand Island Salad Dressing
…and more!
It adds a delightful burst of flavor to our food.
All Things In Moderation
So there are 4 easy ways I’m able to use that bacon grease that’s been saved for me.
Now I realize that as with salt, sugar and fats – you can overdo things. We don’t necessarily use bacon grease every day. But it’s been a budget saver in my kitchen for these purposes.
And it’s added much flavor to everyday staple foods too.
I figure that if I looked at the ingredient list of commercial biscuits or bread that I’d have much more to fear than a little bacon grease in my own homemade versions. That makes it a win in my book!
~TxH~
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My grandma always had the smallest mixing bowl sitting on the stove. Up here where we have/had too many trees to count my brother and I were always coming in with pitch on our hands. Bacon grease works wonders taking pitch off hands. I don’t know what my grandma used it for, but probably along the same lines as everyone else. I just remember playing and smelling either fir pitch or bacon grease.
That’s handy, huh Nancy? Our grandmothers were all the queens of ‘Use Whatcha Got’! Love it. ~TxH~
Try a very thin spread of bacon grease on your grilled cheese sandwiches instead of butter before you put them on the griddle…..
I am so excited to read your post! I saw it on the Homestead Blog Hop and just had to pop over and read. I always have bacon grease on my stove top, you just never know when you need to grease a pan. 🙂 However, other than pan greasing my bacon goodness is not getting used much. Now I have not one but two brand new recipes to try out. Who knew you could use bacon grease in bread and biscuits? Well at least I didn’t but my men will be so thrilled when they try these!
Tracy Lynn | Simplelivingcountrygal.com
Bacon Grease made a huge difference to my recipe for biscuits & bread Tracy Lynn. And tonight I used it in the dumplings for my chicken & dumplings as well. Delicious!
Right now all of our grease is mixed together. Not too tasty. I’ll have to reserve some bacon grease, because these all look delicious. Thanks for sharing on the #WasteLessWednesday Blog Hop!
Bacon grease is amazing for so many different things. I like to use a tablespoon or two when cooking green beans, adds so much flavor. Thank you for sharing at the Creative Muster. Pinned
Robin | Fluster Buster
It’s good to cook eggs in, stir-fry veggies, and to put with green beans, too.
I never thought about using bacon grease in bread or biscuits! I’ll have to try that!
I recall my mom storing her bacon grease in a tin in a cabinet. I have never stored the grease. It doesn’t go bad? I saw some mention of it being put in a fridge and some mentioned freezing. How long would it be good for?
I recall mom & grandma storing grease in a jar on the back of the stove, but I store mine in the fridge. I’d think it would be like any other kind of fat or shortening, the smell (and flavor) seems to go ‘off’ after a while. I’ve never had my bacon grease go off though & I’ve kept it for several months in the fridge. I’d guess you could use the same method as leftovers in the fridge – judge by sight & smell (and perhaps a tiny taste) to judge for yourself. ~TxH~
My mom always saved bacon grease and now I do also. You are so right that it adds great flavor to bread and biscuits. I fit a coffee filter over a mason jar to strain it and it keeps forever.
My mom gave me an antique metal contraption that fits over a mason jar – she told me it was a bacon grease strainer. I’d never seen one before. Love it! ~TxH~
I have used bacon grease in my cornbread, veggies and for seasoning cast iron for many years. I’m just not sure why it never occurred to me to use it in bread or biscuits! Thanks for the tips Tammy!!!
How do you store your grease? When I was a kid our was stored in an old tea pot and kept in the cupboard. Not sure if that’s a proper way to store it. We hardly ever used it either.
It seems my mother (and grandmother) had a grease jar right on their stove where they stored grease. It was just the way it was done back then. Maybe it’s still the way it’s done but I can’t make myself do that. I store mine in canning jars in the fridge. ~TxH~
It’s great for making gravy too. 🙂
Good point Bill. I just now (for the very first time EVER) successfully made white gravy for RancherMan. Yea! ~TxH~
A dab of bacon grease on green beans instead of butter makes them YUM.
A little bit smeared inside my black lab’s beloved kong instead of the normal peanut makes Zeus Dog very happy – and busy for a long time.
i have saved so much bacon grease, but i dont use it for us i use it to make suet for my chickens and turkeys. I melt it down, pour it in a 10×13 pan, and add lots of organic scratch. put it the fridge to set, and on days like the last 2 here – 17 in NJ, with snow anad wind, they have a fat filled treat to ked keep them warm thru the night. just another way to save and keep the feathered kids warm and happy too……
Oh Tammy, what a great idea! I just made a bread recipe that was so bland, the last of it went stale! I like it on my nightly bowl of veggies, when I’m getting bored with them, & the only way I can flip an egg is if it’s floating on a little bacon grease. Both are only once or twice a month occurrences, & since I clarify the grease as I cook it, I’m not concerned about it either. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve made so many of those bland loaves of bread in the past, Laurinda. But not anymore! Yeah, my recipe HAS to have bacon grease in the ingredients for RancherMan. ~TxH~
Use it to make fire starter. First stuff toilet paper tubes with dryer lint, then roll in the bacon grease. Makes the most wonderful fire starter and all for free. Also we’ve used just plain paper towel, when there’s too much grease and saved in a ziploc bag for later. Especially helpful in spring and fall when you don’t keep a fire going all day. Love reading your blog, keep the great ideas coming.
New ways to use my bacon grease. I’ve been using olive oil on my cast iron-never thought of bacon grease before. Don’t know why it didn’t come to me. Thanks! I’m definitely going to try this in my biscuits, I’ve not tackled homemade bread yet, but it’s coming.
It took me years to finally figure out homemade bread Patricia since mine was always heavy, flat and somewhat bland. Thank goodness I’m now making my bread using my KitchenAid and using bacon grease. A light, fluffy, flavorful loaf is what we’re rewarded with now. ~TxH~
We buy our bacon at Sams and I eat some 2x a week with our own eggs. Delicious. I haven’t made biscuits with the bacon grease, but I need to do that. I was afraid that they didn’t sell the cans anymore, but I did find one. So I bought a can with a lid to save my bacon grease in. After a while I put the grease in a canning jar and put it in the fridge to keep it from spoiling.
That bacon grease in my biscuits has made all the difference Charlene. Give it a try. ~TxH~
We don’t buy bacon very often but I do save my bacon grease; putting in container and storing in freezer for later use. Enjoy using it when frying potatoes, fried eggs, sautéing green beans as well as other veggies, adding s small portion to my stove top soups, even great when making stove top popcorn; adding alittle to my waffle / pancake batter; and like you, in my bread / biscuits, and cornbread and of course caring for my cast iron skillets; etc., etc., etc.
I’ve never used it for our popcorn Collen, but now I’m GONNA! ~TxH~