Toss Bacon Grease? Think Twice—It's Culinary Gold! (2024)

Bacon

Wondering how to get bacon grease for cooking? Here's how (and lucky you, a byproduct is crispy cooked bacon).

Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

Learn about Simply Recipes'Editorial Process

Updated January 24, 2024

How to Render Bacon Fat

At risk of stating the obvious, you render bacon fat by first cooking bacon. The trick is to cook the bacon slowly, on medium-low heat.

I do this on the stovetop in a cast-iron pan, because cast iron retains heat and helps you cook bacon more evenly. Also, the bacon fat will help season the cast-iron pan. But any pan will do.

When you're done cooking the bacon, remove it from the pan and pour the bacon fat into a jar. If you plan on storing the bacon fat for more than a few months, strain out the solids first before pouring it into a jar.

How to Store Bacon Fat

If you use bacon fat regularly in your cooking, you can store it right on your kitchen counter for a week or two. Otherwise, you'll want to keep it stored in the refrigerator.

The enemies of all cooking fats are light and air. Exposure to sunlight and oxygen will accelerate a fat going rancid, which is why it's best to store bacon fat in the refrigerator.

If you don't filter out the solid bits, the fat can last a couple of months in the refrigerator before it starts to go rancid. If you do filter out the solid bits, the fat can last up to a year in the refrigerator.

You can also freeze bacon fat if you want to store it even longer.

What to Do With Bacon Grease

Bacon fat is such a flavorful fat to cook with. We use a generous amount when making Mexican refried pinto beans or black beans.

Bacon fat is fabulous for sauteing brussels sprouts.

You can also use bacon fat to brown rice for a rice pilaf or for making scrambled eggs.

Basically, you can use bacon fat for frying anything that would benefit from having bacon flavor!

When cooking with bacon fat, spoon it out from the jar. Usually half a teaspoon is all that is needed to give a flavor boost to what you are cooking.

How Long Does Bacon Fat Last in the Fridge?

Eventually, all fats go bad. But if you filter out the solid bacon bits, your bacon fat will last much longer—up to a year in the refrigerator, in fact.

For even longer storage, freeze your bacon grease.

Tips for Cooking With Bacon Grease

Bacon grease can replace butter, oil or other fats in recipes. It has a low smoke point, though, so it's not good for high-heat cooking. But it's great for roasting, moderate sauteing, and baking.

Bacon grease livens up savory dishes, but don't limit yourself. Try using bacon grease in place of butter in sweet or savory baking recipes. Replace half to all of the butter with the bacon grease for extra flavor in chocolate chip cookies, molasses cookies, or gingerbread cakes. Topping the finished dish with chopped bacon bits takes the place of added sea salt, too.

Note that the flavor of the bacon grease will depend on the bacon itself. Some are saltier, some are smokier.

How to Get Rid of Bacon Grease

Maybe you've had bacon grease sitting around too long, or it smells off. Don't ever pour melted bacon grease down the drain, unless you're looking for an excuse to call your plumber. Likewise, don't pour hot grease into a trash can; it can melt the trash bag. If you're not saving it for recipes, just cool the grease until it solidifies, then throw in in the trash.

Recipes You Can Make Better With Bacon Grease

Shrimp Fried Rice
Roasted Butternut Squash, Radicchio, and Onion
Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken With Carrots and Cauliflower
Molasses Spice Cookies
Cheesy Skillet Cornbread

From the Editors Of Simply Recipes

How to Make Bacon Fat

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time10 mins

Servings6to 24 serving

Yield1to 8 tablespoons

If you made more bacon fat than you end up using, just throw out the whole jar and start a new one.

Never pour bacon fat down the drain! It will solidify as it cools and clog your drain. Either soak it up with paper towels and discard or pourthe rendered bacon fat into a jar to save.

A (16-ounce) package of bacon will yield about a cup of rendered fat.

Ingredients

Strips of raw bacon

Method

Cook the bacon on medium-low heat:
Heat a large skillet on medium-low heat. Lay out several strips of raw bacon. Let the strips cook for 10 or 15 minutes, turning them occasionally.
When the bacon strips are nicely browned and crispy, use tongs or a fork to lift them out of the pan and place them on paper towels (to absorb the excess fat) on a plate.
Pour the remaining pan fat into a jar:
Pour the remaining fat in the pan into a jar, and put the jar in your refrigerator. The bacon grease will solidify to a slightly off-color white.
When you cook bacon again, pull out the jar and add more of the excess fat to it.
If you want, you can strain out the solid bacon bits before pouring the fat into a jar. I find that these bits have plenty of flavor, so I don't bother to strain them.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
39	Calories
4g	Fat
0g	Carbs
0g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6to 24
Amount per serving
Calories	39
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4g	5%
Saturated Fat 2g	8%
Cholesterol 4mg	1%
Sodium 6mg	0%
Total Carbohydrate 0g	0%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 0mg	0%
Iron 0mg	0%
Potassium 0mg	0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.