Bacon Grease

We've lived in Huntsville for 3.5 years now. I've grown accustomed to the soft southern twangs, the "y'all"s, the shops that are closed on Sunday. I cherish the summer thunderstorms, the year round green grass and the glorious abundance of trees. I say Hardees now instead of Carl Juniors and refer to Waffle House as the default fast food place. I order iced tea more often than not when I dine out, and we keep iced tea on hand at home. I'm acclimating, settling in, embracing the quirks of my new home town (and state). But this week? I did something that the me of 3.5 years ago would have never done. Would have thought absolutely crazy and disgusting.

I put a jar of bacon grease in the fridge. With the full intent of cooking with it.

I grew up with the notion that bacon grease was meant to be discarded. My mom broiled bacon in the oven on a rack in a pan lined with tinfoil. Once cooked, the tinfoil was removed and tossed. Stories of southern cooks keeping jars of bacon grease above their stoves sounded unhygienic at best.

And yet, with our CSA this summer, I spent a lot of time looking up recipes for dishes to make. And I began noticing how many of those dishes began with frying 2-3 pieces of bacon and then cooking something else in the same pan. The whole point of which was to cook the something else--onions, vegetables, etc--in the grease. Given that we keep our bacon in the freezer until we use it, attempting to cook 2-3 pieces involves defrosting the whole block--a huge pain in the rear.

So when we made bacon for BLTs this week and the hubby asked me for something to pour the excess grease into, I handed him a canning jar. And popped the resulting jar of bacon-y goodness into the fridge. So next time a recipe calls for cooking a couple of pieces of bacon just for the grease? The next time we have onions to saute or veggies to cook? I am totally on it. (Just don't tell my mom.)