Bacon Fat in the Grill pan

[Andy Hamilton]

I decided that I would start keeping the fat left over in the grill. Is this dripping? Apart from bread and dripping is there anything else I can use it for?

[ina]

You could use it for sweating off onions in and add flavour to your veggie dishes - unless you have a veggie sharing them with you, of course.

[2steps]

I have a cook book of wartime recipes that says to save all these oddments and then clean and reuse them as normal fat. I could post what it says if you like?
I have done it a few times but tend not to have much often enough. whatever you do save it up in the fridge as we were saving an a pot on top of the cooker and one day there were tons of flies and we couldn't work out where they had come from. That that day I discovered the fat pot was alive with maggots mind you, the chickens enjoyed them

[Andy Hamilton]

urgh, as we don't have chickens sounds like the fridge is the best bet. Expecially in this weather.

Ina - My girlfriend is a vegi but I am sure I can rustle up something for myself.

[Ranter]

My Mum always saved fat from cooking meat & used it to fry/ sweat other foods in. She's in her 70's now & was diagnosed with angine & high cholestral earlier this year. Cutting out the re-use of meat fats helped her to reduce her cholestral back to safe levels.

So what I'm saying is: beware the effects of frequent re-use of bacon fat...

[wulf]

I think Ranter's warning is worth considering - saving a few pence on cooking fat doesn't offset the costs of ongoing medical care!

I think there's definitely a case for saving the fat sometimes, when it can be deliberately used as a flavouring, but don't overdo it - buy leaner bacon instead so that not so much of the fat it has gets wasted by being leftover.

Wulf

[Shirley]

mix it with seeds for birds??

bleuch about the maggots - off to check my little pot of fat now Mind you... we do have chooks so they will sort the blighters out if there are any.

I guess once in a while won't do any harm... but Wulf's idea of using less fatty bacon is a good one... and you could trim off the rind and give that to the birds too.

I don't like bacon these days - looks good, smells delicious and then is disappointing. That said, around christmas time we bought some wild boar bacon from a friend and it was scrummy.

[2steps]

I make seed balls for the birds with bought fat with my children, like the idea of re-using saved dtuff to do it I save the fat from fried mince as well, we don't have bacon very often

[Millymollymandy]

I think bacon fat would be too salty for birds.

Personally I'd rather use sunflower or olive oil. Much more healthy!

[Martin]

I don't think the "animal fats are bad" thing is entirely accurate! Latest research seems to be showing that goose fat is actually good for you......if you look at the French, they eat vast quantities of animal fats, and yet have very low rates of heart disease compared to us - I suspect it's because they do so in a "balanced" way - loads of good fresh meat and veg, lashings of garlic, and olive oil too! 8)
I fondly remember "dripping" - that lovely meaty bit at the bottom, spread on fresh bread, with a sprinkle of salt...... 8)

[marcherman]

The french have a different lifestyle to us, one that is much more laid back (unless they are having a revolution), that and their Red Wine drinking and long lunches create less stress and perhasps it is the Red Wine that keeps the cholesterol down. I do know that a recent survey showed that the French only live, on average, 2 years longer than we Brits.

Best veg to fry in bacon fat is Shallots, they become wonderful.

[Millymollymandy]

That's not strictly true. In Paris and the big cities they don't get 2 hour lunch breaks and are just as stressed out as anyone else working in a city in any other country!

[hedgewizard]

My Mum always saved fat from cooking meat & used it to fry/ sweat other foods in. She's in her 70's now & was diagnosed with angine & high cholestral earlier this year. Cutting out the re-use of meat fats helped her to reduce her cholestral back to safe levels.

So what I'm saying is: beware the effects of frequent re-use of bacon fat...

I'm with Martin on this one, it's all about balance. Cutting every scrap out fat out of your diet would only result in a reduction of 10% on your cholesterol levels, since your set-point is genetic. Worth doing if you're diagnosed with hyperlipidaemia, diabetes etc, but otherwise the word is balance.

Our goal at home is to eat less meat, less often, and to eat every scrap of the animal we can when we do have meat.

As for tasteless bacon, the cheap stuff is just like hydroponically produced tomatoes. It's one food where it's worth buying the good stuff! Just buy it less often...

[Andy Hamilton]

Yep I used to buy the £1 a pack economy bacon and never realised that it could taste better. organic butchers bacon- that is heavenly.