Bacon is the best, but sometimes you end up with way more bacon grease than you need. Once you’ve taken your time and effort to cook your bacon, don’t throw that fat away. You can easily strain it and use it over and over again. Here’s the scoop on how to strain bacon grease.
The best way to strain bacon grease is by placing a colander or strainer over a bowl or large measuring cup. Do place a paper towel on top of the strainer and pour the bacon grease through the paper towel and into the bowl. It is advisable to Strain bacon grease to get rid of fat that clogs your arteries, making your bacon delicious and guaranteeing a healthy meal.
After collecting the bacon grease:
- Cool the bacon grease to room temperature.
- Take a spoon and skim off any bits of cooked food that are still in the pan.
- Line a sieve with any available paper towels or cheesecloth.
- Place the sieve over a glass bowl or other container to catch any dripping grease.
- Slowly pour the cooled bacon grease through the sieve to collect the liquid grees in the container underneath.
How to strain bacon grease – Quick and easy way to do it
Method 1
To strain bacon grease, first cook bacon until it is crisp. Allow the bacon to cool slightly, then pour the bacon grease into a pan or bowl. Using a slotted spoon, you can remove most of the bacon bits from the fat. To extract all of the bacon bits from the fat, use a coffee filter, cheesecloth, or a piece of muslin cloth. Pour cooled grease back into its appropriate container for future use.
Method 2
To properly strain bacon grease, first place a small bowl near the frying pan to collect the grease as it is rendered. The next step is to remove all hardened pieces of bacon from the grease. Then, line a strainer with paper towels and set it over a bowl to catch excess grease and fat as it drains. At this point, you should dispose of all excess grease and fat. Lastly, you should dispose of the paper towel and enjoy your fresh bacon grease.
If you do not use the bacon grease immediately, be sure to strain it and keep it in a jar/container in the refrigerator. Bacon grease will last for quite a while and can be used to cook many foods, such as scrambled eggs or baked potatoes, or stirred into beans or soups.
How to use bacon grease
Bacon grease is a delicious ingredient used in a variety of cooking dishes. However, not everyone knows how to use bacon grease. Below are tips on how to utilize this highly versatile fat from your bacon.
1. It is a great substitute for shortening in recipes for baked goods
2. It can be used in place of butter in bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches and in place of lard when making cornbread.
3. The smoking flavor bacon grease lends to foods makes it natural for barbecuing or grilling chicken or fish.
4. You can use leftover bacon grease to season cast iron skillets.
5. Bacon drippings add a delicious flavor when added to recipes that call for olive oil vinegar.
6. It is used for making soap as the fatty acid content makes it excellent for creating a hard bar of soap.
7. It can be used in place of shortening to prepare cookies or crackers.
8. It is used for polishing silver.
9. It is used to roast whole chickens or roast beef or pork.
10. It is good for sauteing vegetables.
11. It makes mashed potatoes taste extra good when mixed with milk, salt, pepper, and butter.
How to Store Bacon Grease
You can save and treasure bacon grease long after the bacon; this is a good tip for any cook:
To store bacon grease:
- Get some empty, clean glass jars and fill them up with bacon grease after it’s had a chance to cool after cooking.
- Use plastic wrap wide enough to cover the top of the jar.
- Seal the lid around the plastic wrap and store it in your refrigerator, where it should keep safely for several weeks or longer.
You can also store bacon grease for future use by putting saute-hard veggies or greens in it. This will eliminate the need to buy liquid grease for frying at a later date. After the grease has cooled, pour into an airtight container. When it solidifies, scrape off any hardened bits with your fingers, then store them in the refrigerator till you are ready to make use of it.
Cooking with rendered bacon fat is a great way to add flavor without adding extra calories and fat to your food. If stored properly, leftover bacon grease will last for one week in the refrigerator and six months at room temperature.
Recommended Post: How Long Does Uncured Bacon Last
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to strain bacon grease?
It would help if you filtered all the fat out of the bacon drippings before we use them for frying potatoes. It’s a Southern thing, and we can’t help it! Save your bacon grease and use a fat separator.
How do you clarify bacon grease?
To clarify bacon grease:
- Dispose of any solid particles from the grease leftover from cooking bacon.
- Put the grease in a pot and add 1 cup of water for every pound of bacon.
- Cover the pot/simmer for 2-3 hours at max on a low setting until there is a layer of white residue on top.
The transparency of the layer indicates how clear the grease will become after straining.
How do you filter bacon grease?
Try filtering it with coffee filters to save money and reduce the amount of waste that may go to the landfill with used bacon grease. This is an easy way to remove solidified fat when making any kind of dressing or gravy.
Is bacon grease worse than butter?
Bacon grease is worse than butter, BUT it also advertises your food as containing lean bacon. There are trans fats present in the fat of pork, but according to Harvard Health, these are touted to be less harmful than those contained in some other sources of dietary fat.
What happens if you don’t strain bacon grease?
If you don’t strain bacon grease before cooking with it, the bacon burns faster splatter more, and it’s harder to clean up afterward.
Conclusion
You know that bacon grease is incredibly useful. And weirdly difficult to get rid of. Now, thanks to this page with a genius trick aim at answering your question of how to strain bacon grease. You can turn all that grease into something functional and delicious.
Equipment
- 1 Skillet
Ingredients
- 10 Strips of raw bacon
Instructions
- A big skillet should be heated over low heat. Lay down a number of raw bacon strips. Allow the strips to cook for 10 to 15 minutes, occasionally flipping them. Use tongs or a fork to remove the bacon strips from the pan after they are beautifully browned and crispy. Set them aside on a plate with paper towels underneath to absorb any remaining fat.
- Put the jar with the pan’s residual grease in the refrigerator. The bacon grease will condense into an oddly coloured white solid.
Video
Nutrition
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