just a little curious

[elijahboy]

i remember my elders use to fry bacon and put the grease from it in a little dish on the stove but never remember them ever using if for anything

is this what lard is

what can it be used for

if i cook ground beef can i add that grease to it as well

what other meats could i use for their grease and add it to that little dish on the stove

 

[Blackbird]

I think the sense behind putting it in a dish on the stove was that you couldn't put it down the drain, and if you threw it away when it was still hot it would melt the plastic bag. Well, if you used a plastic bag..

I have no idea for uses, sorry. I bet Freemotion might know of some.

 

[TanksHill]

Actually my mother would use bacon fat to basically fry anything she needed to cook on the stove. Eggs, hash browns and I am sure a few other things I never knew about. I personally save the fat from my breakfast sausage. I pour it through a coffee filter into a wide mouth pint mason jar. I use it for mostly frying up breakfast potatoes. On occasion I will use it for the crust of a pot pie. But mine is kept in the fridge.

I know others save drippings and fats. I am sure you will get responses from both side of the fence though. Fat is usually a hot topic!! ha I crack myself up.

gina

 

[user251]

i put it into a little jar and keep it in the freezer. it can be used for seasoning during cooking, it also has some medicinal uses. we have used bacon drippings to give a dog that got hit by a cotton mouth on the snout to draw out the toxins, it was fine the next day. we only save bacon drippings the drippings from other meats are allowed to reharden and then put into the trash. Never down the drain as that is a plumbers best friend.

 

[patandchickens]

Nope, none of that is lard, lard is rendered pork fat. Used for baking (pie crusts), cooking, etc.

Bacon grease can be used for cooking (it makes fried eggs, hash browns, fried onions, oh a whoooole lot of things, ever so much tastier ) but it needs to be refrigerated if you are saving it to cook with.

Fatty drippings from other meats *could* be rendered (to remove the water and protein portions, which will make 'em cook poorly and store poorly) and saved in the fridge and used for cooking, but usually aren't. Mostly b/c they are not as tasty as lard, bacon drippings and chicken fat.

As Blackbird says, the main reason for a drippings can (in recent memory anyhow, as opposed to days old enough they were saving ALL fats for lighting and soap) is just so the stuff doesn't go down and clog your plumbing and septic system or sewer pipes

Have fun,

Pat, always with a little dish of bacon grease in the fridge, tho I try to use it with restraint

 

[elijahboy]

oh goodness i just cooked 5 lbs of ground beef and guess where i drained the grease at yep in the kitchen sink which i do atleast 3x a month

oh crap

i put it into a little jar and keep it in the freezer. it can be used for seasoning during cooking, it also has some medicinal uses. we have used bacon drippings to give a dog that got hit by a cotton mouth on the snout to draw out the toxins, it was fine the next day. we only save bacon drippings the drippings from other meats are allowed to reharden and then put into the trash. Never down the drain as that is a plumbers best friend.

 

[kenman]

I love my bacon grease. It makes things tasty yummy good! It's so good, it must be good for you. I wonder if it's like broken cookies, you know they have no calories.

 

[davaroo]

Old timers saved "renderings" to make soap. Fat is one of the key ingredients in soap, and pork fat is some of the best, giving a smooth result.

Other uses included lubricating wooden bearings, like in wagon wheels or turning lathes, and to make gravy and season vegetables. Unless I miss my guess, it was also used to keep leather supple in regular use.

With so many uses, you wouldn't simply toss such a valuable item. You used everything in them days and everything had a purpose.

In this way, the saving of renderings has come down to us.

 

[elijahboy]

so from here on out i can save the grease from all my meats and just keep them in seperate cans

or just keep grease from any type of pork but dont bother keeping fat from red meat

 

[Beekissed]

When we ate such things, Mom would save it to fry things in and to melt down to dribble over greens to make wilted lettuce greens. I never much cared for that.

We also used to save drippings to put on the dog's food as a treat.