Bacon Fat: A Must-Have

It really is a must-have for every home cook.  Bacon fat is an incredible way to add a TON of flavor to a dish with just a teaspoon or two of something that would normally be discarded anyway!

I keep a small half-pint mason jar of bacon fat in my fridge.  Any time I cook up bacon, I cook it in the oven on my sheet pans, and then when the bacon comes out, I pour the fat into the jar.  It takes about two pounds of bacon to fill one half-pint for me.  We don’t have bacon often, but that one half-pint jar will last me several months in the fridge.  I’ll keep adding to that one jar until it’s full, and then that is the “use” jar of bacon fat.  If we have bacon in the next while, I’ll start a second jar so that I will always have one being filled over time, and one that we are actually using.  I’ve never had the rendered fat go bad on me, and honestly, even the cheaper bacons work for saving the grease.  However, if you ever have a chance at some bacon from Nueske’s, go for it, and then save every single drop of that bacon grease.

Last night I made some refried beans to tuck into burritos for a quick dinner.  I started by taking about 90 minutes and cooked up some pinto beans from dry.  Pintos make the best refrieds because they get really smooth and creamy.  This is important when you’re trying to hide beans in a product so that your kids will eat them.  (In this case, I mixed the refried beans with some taco meat, and the kids never knew they were eating beans as well.)  Once my beans were cooked and soft, I added a tablespoon of bacon fat to a saute pan and started a bit of onion and bell pepper sweating.  Oh, did that smell amazing!

Once those were soft, a clove of garlic went in, along with salt, pepper, and a bit of Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming seasoning.  I dumped in the beans and a small bit of their cooking liquid.  With a potato masher I mashed up the beans and called it good.  So, so simple, but easily the best refried beans on the planet.  I attribute most of that to the fact that I started with bacon fat.  It adds a wonderful layer of flavor to pretty much anything you use it in.  I begin a lot of pots of stew, soup and chowder with a scoop of bacon fat.  And of course, bacon fat pretty much always works amazingly with beans in any shape or form.  If you want to make a delicious pot of beans, bacon fat is an absolute necessity.

So get yourself some bacon, fry it up, and save the grease in the fridge.  Your beans will thank you for it a hundred times over.