Saving and Using Bacon Drippings

Bacon drippings are an excellent, flavorful cooking fat.

If anyone in your family eats bacon, you may be putting a tasty after-effect down the drain: Bacon drippings (or grease).

Not long ago, most everyone had a canister holding bacon drippings sitting near the stove. And not so they could safely throw the stuff away. No, bacon drippings were golden - the secret ingredient in many recipes.

We eat bacon for breakfast on weekends, and I prize the drippings I gather on those mornings. Just a dab makes an excellent and far more tasty substitute for other fats, including olive oil, coconut oil, or butter. If you've never cooked with bacon drippings before, you'll be amazed at the flavor even a small amount adds to dishes.

Filtering bacon drippings.

But you can't just dump the bacon drippings directly from the pan into a storage container. If you do, bits of bacon will remain in the drippings, eventually going rancid. Instead, strain the drippings into the storage container. My favorite way to do this is to place a sieve over my storage container (a glass jar with a lid is a great choice; I use a canning jar) and line the sieve with a coffee filter. I let the drippings sit in the filter/strainer until they stop dripping. Then I pop a lid on the canning jar and refrigerate.

Just how long do the drippings last? Well, I refrigerate mine and I've never any go bad! So expect it to last at least a few months. You'll know it's no longer good when the drippings smell bad.

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