What do you do with bacon fat? (substitute, healthy, peanut butter)

[hey teach]

I also use it for my skillet when making cornbread. I get it really hot and pour a little in my batter, then pour the batter in the skillet. Makes the crust very crisp. I also use it in turnip greens and green beans. Pinto and red beans if I don't have any ham meat or hock to go in them.

[Sunnydee]

I made the best spinach salad today and used the bacon drippings to make the dressing. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 pound bacon
2 bunches fresh spinach, rinsed and dried


2 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or red wine

Directions:
1. Place 6 eggs in a medium saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring water to a boil, and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel, and chop.
2. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside, reserving approximately 1/2 cup of drippings in the skillet.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and green onions.
4. Heat the reserved drippings over low heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 remaining eggs, sugar, white vinegar, and red wine vinegar. Add to warm grease, and whisk for about a minute, until thickened. Pour at once over spinach, add crumbled bacon, and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped egg.

[MJ7]

Originally Posted by Sunnydee

I made the best spinach salad today and used the bacon drippings to make the dressing. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 pound bacon
2 bunches fresh spinach, rinsed and dried


2 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or red wine

Directions:
1. Place 6 eggs in a medium saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring water to a boil, and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel, and chop.
2. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside, reserving approximately 1/2 cup of drippings in the skillet.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and green onions.
4. Heat the reserved drippings over low heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 remaining eggs, sugar, white vinegar, and red wine vinegar. Add to warm grease, and whisk for about a minute, until thickened. Pour at once over spinach, add crumbled bacon, and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped egg.

i use to never like salads, but damn...if i keep seeing recipes like this ill turn green

[charolastra00]

I don't cook with bacon much (4x a year tops) so I absolutely save it and use it SPARINGLY to sautee veggies. I really only use bacon to flavor my huge batches of split pea soup, so I can collect a bunch of grease to save at a time. I have sauteed kale or spinach almost every night and bacon fat is a nice alternative to my usual olive oil, balsamic, or lemon!

I do the same thing with chicken schmatz. I'll buy a family pack of chicken thighs when they go on sale to use for a few months in soup and such. Before I freeze them, I trim them off all fat and skin and then render the fat down to schmaltz. Delicious to saute veggies or roast potatoes in!

[XRiteMA98]

Get a Hungarian cookbook. Every recipe there starts with frying onions in animal fat.
My relatives back in Eastern Europe cut the pig they raise all year at Christmas. They make fresh sausages they preserve in bacon fat. The same with the meat. My ancestors lived in the countryside for hundred of years without fridges ans used the animal fat as a mean to preserve meats and for cooking. And nobody was ever fat!

On the same token French save goose fat to cook with, especially french fries. Oh my...

I edit to add that my mother's recipes scrap book contains quite a lot of cakes and cookies made with animal fat. And boy, were they good!

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by chiroptera

The smell, first of all.
The squeaky weird texture.
The chemically-laden aftertaste.
Also, did I mention the smell?

I did not grow up in the US so popcorn was never a part of my social fabric or relevance growing up. That is probably a part of it too.

ive never met anyone that didnt like popcorn.... although i can see why someone wouldnt like it if it was overcooked,,

growing up we had this electric popcorn maker (before the hot air poppers) and you'd put half a stick of butter in a compartment and we would make popcorn from this 4-5 times a night-loved it,,
we'd watch night gallery, cirle of fear, benny hill, creature feature, (the monster movies) all in the mid 70's
when i smell popcorn today my mind wanders back to those simple times.....

[chiroptera]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

ive never met anyone that didnt like popcorn.... although i can see why someone wouldnt like it if it was overcooked,,

growing up we had this electric popcorn maker (before the hot air poppers) and you'd put half a stick of butter in a compartment and we would make popcorn from this 4-5 times a night-loved it,,
we'd watch night gallery, cirle of fear, benny hill, creature feature, (the monster movies) all in the mid 70's
when i smell popcorn today my mind wanders back to those simple times.....

See...I think that in part the popcorn thing is cultural because, as you say, it has many great memories associated with it. I have no such memories; all I know is the smell and taste is very unpleasant to me. And I have tried to like popcorn many times.

I can tolerate it (if I have to LOL) with white cheddar flavoring.

Goose fat. YUM! Growing up in Europe we had ducks and geese and ate the eggs and meat both. Goose fat is incredibly rich.

[mbradleyc]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Pop popcorn in it once in a while.

Use it to saute kale or other greens

Use it to grease the pan or skillet when making southern-style, savory, unsweetened cornbread (can't stand the sweetened, cakelike stuff).

Amen! My parents taught me how to make corn bread on the griddle and sugar is not in it. AJ enriched white corn meal, oil, eggs and buttermilk. Sort of like sourdough.

I use bacon fat to make cream gravy to go on the corncakes. :drool:

[lovemaine]

I put it in an old coffee mug, refrigerate it for a while until it gets hard, then throw it away.

[DontH8Me]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

Get a Hungarian cookbook. Every recipe there starts with frying onions in animal fat.
My relatives back in Eastern Europe cut the pig they raise all year at Christmas. They make fresh sausages they preserve in bacon fat. The same with the meat. My ancestors lived in the countryside for hundred of years without fridges ans used the animal fat as a mean to preserve meats and for cooking. And nobody was ever fat!

On the same token French save goose fat to cook with, especially french fries. Oh my...

I edit to add that my mother's recipes scrap book contains quite a lot of cakes and cookies made with animal fat. And boy, were they good!

The fat Hungarians use for pastries is "leaf lard" or pork suet, taken from around the animals kidneys, as opposed to the belly fat that renders from bacon. They are both "fat" but they are very different in culinary terms. Just search for "hájas sütemény" and you'll see what I mean.