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Many people no longer use bacon grease for seasoning food and are missing out. Not only can it be used as a seasoning, but there are many other uses. Learning how to render and use bacon grease has its benefits.
Growing up, I remember a glass Mason jar of bacon grease always sitting on the counter beside the stove. I even remember it being on the counter at my granny’s house.
It’s no longer common to find a jar of it sitting on the counter, but if you come to my house, you will find one beside the stove.
Why would someone want to save bacon grease? The answers are many…
How to Render and Use Bacon Grease
Before we start talking about how to use bacon grease, I think it is important to talk about how to make it by a process called rendering and how to save it safely.
RELATED: Discover timeless food preservation techniques with this Ultimate Guide to Food Preservation Methods, including freezing, canning, and dehydrating, along with troubleshooting and creative ways to store food safely.
How to Render Bacon Grease
To render bacon grease means to “cook the fat” out and make it into a liquid form.
There is a trick, though, to rendering good bacon grease. The bacon has to be cooked “real slow.” Place bacon in a single layer in a heavy-iron skillet or stainless steel frying pan. Heat it on low, cooking very slowly for 10-12 minutes or more. This will enhance the flavor of your bacon grease and not give that “scorched or burned” flavor.
If you are rendering bacon for cooking purposes, don’t use the flavored bacon offered on the store shelf. Just buy and use the plain old simple cured bacon. Even better, if you can get your hands on some bacon ends from the butcher, perfect! You are in for some awesome-tasting bacon grease.
How do you SAVE bacon grease?
Strain out the chunks & solid pieces
When bacon is finished cooking, you’ll need to store it in a glass or stainless steel container. Don’t pour hot bacon grease into a plastic container. It will melt, and you’ll be cleaning up a mess.
Before just pouring it into your safe container, you will need to strain out the “chunks or solid pieces.” Doing this is not complicated and can be done quickly and easily.
You can purchase strainers such as this one or use a piece of Osnaburg fabric or cheesecloth.
If using cloth, securely place it over the top of your storage container with a rubber band and slowly pour the bacon grease through it. The cloth or strainer will catch all the chunks, and the liquid grease will flow into the glass jar resulting in a wonderful flavor of bacon grease.
3 Ways of Storing Bacon Grease
Can Bacon GREASE Go Bad? The jury is out on how to exactly store bacon grease. So can bacon grease be stored at room temperature?
On the counter-
As I’ve already said, mine is sitting out on the counter by my stove as both mom and granny used to do. But I use mine often, and it doesn’t last long once put into the glass jar. This is the important part, and it isn’t out very long. The shelf life of non-refrigerated bacon grease is much shorter than keeping it refrigerated.
I use mine quickly, so I am comfortable with leaving it out on the counter. I am forever using bacon grease. Since I don’t use vegetable shortening or oil, bacon grease is my go-to oil besides coconut oil and olive oil.
So how long will Bacon Grease Last? If left out on the counter too long, bacon grease will become rancid or spoil. You’ll immediately know if it has gone bad when you open the jar. It will have a foul odor that, of course, is not pleasant. If so, get rid of it! Don’t use it!
Store it in the refrigerator-
If you’re concerned about not using it quickly enough, no problem. It may be safer to store it in the refrigerator, where it will keep for months.
Just sit it inside on a shelf with the lid on it, and you will have it when you need to use bacon grease.
Another bonus to storing it in the refrigerator is that when bacon grease is left out on the counter. It remains a liquid. But when stored in the refrigerator, it becomes a solid just like vegetable shortening making it super easy to measure.
And another added bonus is that bacon grease is much better for your health than vegetable shortening.
Keep it in the Freezer-
So can you freeze bacon grease? To go a bit further, if you have a lot of bacon grease, you can freeze it to keep it longer. If so, store it in a freezer-safe canning jar or glass container designed to be stored at zero temperatures. It will keep for 2 years in the freezer.
Uses for Bacon Grease
Now the best part. Using bacon grease! As I said, I use it often and not only for cooking. But, of course, it is found in many of my recipes.
If you enjoy cooking and eating a high-fat keto diet, then you will enjoy my Chicken Parmesan Pizza Recipe Bacon grease also makes a wonderful seasoning for Parmesan Fried Green Beans and a whole gamut of other dishes.
If you surf the internet, you will find all kinds of recipes that use bacon grease as a flavoring. Like this one from Wide Open Eats that give you 7 Recipes using Bacon Grease. And there is CheeseSlave which offers up 75 Ways to Use Leftover Bacon Grease
But in addition to cooking with bacon grease, did you know there are all kinds of other ways to use it as well?
6 Other Non-Cooking Uses for Bacon Grease:
1. Repair a Squeaky Hinge
Bacon grease is excellent for this. Dip a Q-tip or toothpick into the bacon grease and work it into the hinge. It will lubricate, and the squeak will be no more.
2. Polish Leather
Did you know you can use bacon grease as a leather polish? Just dip a soft cloth into the grease and gently rub it into your leather. It will moisten and help your leather to last longer.
3. Remove Sticky Labels
Yep, remove labels. Peel the “color” part of the label off down the white sticky portion that is always left. With your finger, rub bacon grease into the white residue glue. Let it sit for a few minutes, take a scraper and easily remove the sticky label. Clean with soap and water.
4. Use as a Fire Starter
My granny always did this. Dip a piece of cotton cloth or paper towel into the bacon grease, roll it up, and tie it with a cotton string. Stick it under kindling and strike a match. You’ll have an instant fire starter. My granny also used to “dip” her kindling into a bucket of old bacon grease.
5. Make Candles
Did you know you could make candles with bacon grease? MyRecipes.com has this great step-by-step tutorial, DIY Bacon Candles, Make Your Entire Life Smell Like Bacon. Can you imagine burning a candle that smells like bacon? Yum!
6. Feed the Birds – Make Suet Balls
The Farmers Almanac has this easy recipe: Bird Food Recipe: Suet. I’ll be doing this one.
Another easy way to feed the birds is by using pine cones. Tie a string at the top of a pine cone. Dip the pine cone into the bacon grease and then roll in birdseed. Hang it outside on a tree limb. The birds will love you!
So there you have it. As you can see, there are many other uses for bacon grease other than cooking. Of course, cooking with bacon grease is obviously my favorite.
Do you have ways of using bacon grease? Please comment and share.
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Dianne Hadorn is the owner of Hidden Springs Homestead nestled in the hills of East Tennessee. She is a Master Gardener and enjoys helping others learn how to grow and preserve their own food and sharing tips for living a more sustainable life.
I always stored mine in a mason jar until I saw the cute little jar from PW at Walmart. It comes with a mesh strainer that makes it super easy! And it looks pretty on the counter. Although if I have a lot of grease I still use the good ol’ mason jar, and just borrow the strainer from the other. The grease works the best on cast iron!!
I use bacon grease to season my cast iron skillets
I use bacon grease to grease everything!! It works just as good as Pam cooking spray without the chemicals! When we were on vacation staying at Air B&B we had no oil to make brownies, but we had bacon grease I just substituted that for the oil. Worked great and left no bacon flavor though I was hoping it might!
Great post, Dianne! I had never thought of just using it for everyday cooking, and especially not for lighting a fire. I’m definitely going to have to try that!
I am looking to use it for canning cooked pork roast, as I have been told that was an old way of saving meats and such!
Mmmm, I love using bacon grease! I have to admit though that I never thought to strain out the stray pieces of bacon that were left in it. Great tip!
I love it too! It’s tastes so good in so many different dishes. Yep, those little pieces are actual bits of bacon and they will spoil. The rendered grease will keep. I have 2 quarts in my freezer now that I will use to make the suet blocks for the birds this winter. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to share it.