Bacon Drippings

What a palaver people make these days if you even mention Bacon Drippings. If they've even clicked on a link titled "Bacon Drippings", chances are they did it with a grimace and experienced a little frisson of titillating horror running up their spine as the link opened.

There is such a "no no" about using Bacon Drippings because too many people have been parroting all the hype and myths without doing any fact checking. Remember margarine: we were told to give butter a miss, and to use margarine instead, but it turned out, with all those trans-fats in margarine, it was deadlier for you than butter. Oops.

If you ever use butter to fry in, then you shouldn't worry about Bacon Fat: Bacon Fat is lower in saturated fat (by about 42%), and higher in the good monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Like all fats (including oils), it can be used in moderation.

Foodies will look down their noses at using Bacon Drippings, yet buy goose fat at ten bucks US for a 11 oz (320g) jar (2004 prices.) The Health Police will purse their lips like Presbyterians of old, and self-righteously proclaim that we should avoid all animal fats and only use vegetable-based fats and oils.

Despite this, an underground rebellion is starting to spring up, based out of sleeper cells that had been in Britain and the American south. It's still all quite hush-hush, because you're still not allowed to talk about Bacon Drippings, so fans have developed secret handshakes to know each other by.

But if you are a Bacon Drippings fan, maybe it's time to break out of the closet: invite a member of the Health Police for dinner tonight and fry their tofu in Bacon Fat. The flavour from a little bit of Bacon Drippings goes a long way, much further than an equivalent amount of butter does. Think of Bacon Drippings as a "flavouring agent". When you're frying something you want its taste in, use mostly canola or light olive oil, and just a tablespoon or so of Bacon Drippings for the taste, so that the bacon taste doesn't overwhelm things. It is very good for frying onions, cabbage, or potatoes in, and to add to any kind of bean dish. You can make gorgeous Brussel Sprouts by steaming or boiling them till they are just about ready, then finishing them off with a quick sauté in Bacon Drippings.

Type of Fat	Saturated	Monounsaturated	Polyunsaturated
Butterfat from butter	66 %	30 %	4 %
Drippings from pork	38 %	46 %	7 %

Source: Sue Snider, Ph.D., Food and Nutrition Specialist, Food and Nutrition Facts, FNF-18 .University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, March 1997.
Choose a jar with a mouth wide enough that you can easily get a spoon into, to take out a bit at a time. The jar should have a tight-fitting lid. Pour the liquified Bacon Drippings into the jar through a strainer (or skip the strainer, if you don't care about the crispy bits getting in). Keep the glass jar refrigerated. Or, you can freeze it if you like in a plastic container, if you don't use it all that often. Make the effort to add to your jar of Bacon Drippings even if you just have a tablespoon or so to add to it.

Bacon Drippings Container

You used to be able to buy Bacon Drippings containers. They were 3 piece containers. The bottom part was the container, the middle part was a strainer, and the top was a lid. You would take the lid off, and pour your Bacon Drippings through the strainer.

Also called:

Bacon Drippings, Dripping

Oil