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Every child growing up with a Southern cook in the family probably holds dear the memory of a can of bacon grease sitting on the stove. My grandmother and mother dipped into that can to flavor eggs, fried potatoes, biscuits, cornbread, gravy, collard greens, green beans, cabbage and much more.
The Black legacy of cooking with pork bacon grease is a love story that followed us from my grandmother’s Mississippi upbringing to life in St. Louis and, later, to my parents’ home in Colorado.
“Generally, our can was the size of a coffee can. Then, it had a piece of foil over it because it was going to get used so often. It stayed, and that wasn’t just my grandmother. That was my mom’s house, my aunt’s house, the neighbors. We all knew that you kept your bacon fat,” says Deborah VanTrece, Kansas City native and Atlanta restaurateur.
Bacon Grease Legacy
VanTrece shares the same experience many African Americans have of watching our elders cook with bacon grease. Black cooks passed down the tradition as they migrated in America from the South to the North, East and West.
The Atlanta chef’s oldest memory of cooking bacon with her grandmother comes with a bit of pain. She was around five years old when she decided to remove a tray of bacon from the oven to keep it from burning.
“I got the little hand mitts and pulled the bacon out. I guess I didn’t hold it steady. The bacon grease splashed up on my arms. It hurt. Oh my God, it burned,” VanTrece recalls.
“I did not drop the tray. I did not scream. I got that bacon on the counter. I was good until I looked down at my arm, and it was blistering. That’s what made me start screaming.”
Hot bacon grease burns. That valuable lesson stayed with the CEO of VanTrece Hospitality Group as she moved into the culinary world. So did the memories of how good food seasoned with leftover bacon fat tastes.
The 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast looks back at the living conditions of our enslaved African ancestors for a theory of how the practice began.
“I think it was the ingenuity of us not having much. When we got something, generally, it was a by-product. We weren’t in a place to be wasteful, so we learned to make magic with the most menial things. I think bacon fat is one of those things,” VanTrece comments.
A New York chef, podcast contributor and food writer traces the bacon grease legacy in her family to her grandma and great-aunt. “I remember my grandma Callie and her sister, Aunt BB, cooking bacon when I was growing up. My Aunt BB was known in the family as THE cook. She always had something on the stove,” says Taffiny Elrod.
“I do remember gleaning knowledge about using bacon grease, especially to grease a cast iron pan for making cornbread.”
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Elrod, known as Chef Taffy, provided recipes for “The Juneteenth Cookbook: Recipes and Activities for Kids and Families to Celebrate.” She did the 2024 cookbook withAlliah L. Agostini, author of the popular children’s book The Juneteenth Story.
Elrod’s family did not celebrate June 19, now a national holiday in the U.S. That was the day in 1865 when Union troops freed African men, women and children still held captive in Texas after passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.
She does, however, celebrate the food served at Black family gatherings for generations, which often included dishes flavored with bacon grease.
“I was always curious about food and watched what everyone did around me and in books and stories. Even though I didn’t grow up with it, I still had the picture of a coffee can of bacon grease at the back of the stove deeply in my conscious,” Chef Taffy recalls.
Chef Taffy worked for 15 years as a chef and culinary instructor in New York City. “I dallied in bacon grease as a young cook, but I started cooking with ‘bacon’ grease regularly when I was introduced to halal beef bacon by another cook about 14 years ago,” says the Hudson Valley resident.
Other chefs and cooks who do not eat pork or have concerns about bacon’s fat and salt content have turned to alternatives. Yet, even Chef VanTrece, who went through a turkey bacon period, admits there is nothing like the rich, smoky flavor of pork bacon grease. “It is one of the best by-products known to man. Bacon fat, yes!”
Today, well-known chefs such as Martha Stewart and prominent publications like the Washington Post praise bacon grease, calling it liquid gold. In June, the newspaper published an article about the owner of a Maryland diner struggling with rising costs. He used his leftover bacon grease and grandma’s recipe for making soap to bring in extra cash.
A search of bacon grease online turns up some other surprising uses. Odele Beauty discusses how enslaved Africans in America used it as a hair conditioner because they did not have plant and nut oils from their homelands.
Smithsonian magazine mentions the Disney cartoon character Minnie Mouse making bombs with bacon grease during World War II. Still, nothing beats the value of leftover bacon fat to chefs and cooks who love that glorious flavor in a dish.
Bacon Grease Love Story
The flavor-enhancing power of bacon grease captured the hearts of Black chefs and cooks centuries ago. Southerners claim it as their secret weapon in the kitchen. However, Chef VanTrece’s overseas travels taught her that it is not just a Black or Southern thing.
“If you look at lardons (bacon sliced into matchsticks) in the different countries, that’s what it is. It’s tiny pieces of bacon with a lot of fat, so you can render this fat and do something with it,” says the author of the best-selling of “Twisted Soul: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors.”
VanTrece saw evidence of the love for bacon fat in the markets she visited in France, Italy and other European countries. “It was never viewed as the cast-off ingredient. You see lots of lard and lardons in nearly every culture. You see salt pork everywhere, and you see it displayed prominently in gourmet stores,” she points out.
Bacon grease in many homes is an affordable way to give any dish a salty, smoky flavor. Black People Recipes suggests it is much more than a substitute for butter or plant oils. It is that essential taste that makes some of our favorite foods unforgettable.
“One of my favorites with my mother would have been an okra, tomato and corn succotash. My mom is deceased, but that is the dish. Out of all of these amazing ones, that’s the one I remember going home and asking her to have this ready for me,” reflects VanTrece.
The owner of Atlanta’s award-winning Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours and Oreatha’s at the Point still opts for smoked turkey in her greens. However, bacon grease is a must for one of her Italian dishes.
“For me, it’s the Italian arrabbiata sauce. It’s like a spicy tomato sauce. I like to make that sauce and use bacon fat as my base,” VanTrece continues.
The chef combines the sauce with meatless fried fish and spaghetti, a meal popular in many Black Midwestern homes. “You can throw in a little prosciutto or even pork belly. But even without meat, it is so flavorful for the pasta,” says the restaurateur.
The applications for bacon grease are so numerous that a May 2024 Southern Living article offers 17 tasty uses, from biscuits to beans, salad dressings to sauteed vegetables, pancakes to popcorn, cornbread to cookies. Chef Taffy likes to brush sheet pans with beef bacon fat before baking a pizza to make a savory, crunchy crust.
“Bacon grease is such a powerful source of flavor. When you start your cooking with bacon grease you are starting with salt, smoke, sugar, and umami. It’s amazing how much depth it adds to anything you cook with it. Braising greens, sauteing mild proteins like chicken and shrimp, starting rice dishes, and anything with beans, of course,” says the New York chef.
How the Flavor Starts
How you cook bacon to render the fat is a matter of choice. I prefer to place bacon slices on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake it at 375 degrees until nicely browned but not overcooked. Some people always cook bacon in a skillet, preferably cast iron. I do not like bacon cooked in the microwave because it can get too dry.
If you are cooking a dish that calls for diced bacon, cut up the slices, place them in a skillet in a single layer, and fry them on medium heat until the desired crispness. The leftover bacon grease can be used to sauté onions and other ingredients.
All the bacon grease experts agree that you should never pour it down your kitchen drain or put hot liquid bacon fat into your trash. Let it cool off and solidify before adding it to your trash bag.
But why would you want to throw out liquid gold? “It’s one of those multi-purpose, multi-use ingredients. To me, especially in Black culture, it’s as important as salt. It’s a staple,” suggests VanTrece.
“Scallops seared in bacon fat are good. That’s why we wrap them in bacon. Beef tenderloin, we wrap it in bacon,” she adds.
Keeping Bacon Grease
The nutrition facts from CalorieFriend show one tablespoon of bacon grease containing 115 calories with 13 grams of fat, 25% of it saturated fat. There are 12 milligrams of cholesterol and 19 milligrams of sodium.
Anyone with health issues such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or heart disease might want to heed the advice of health specialists who warn against eating bacon or the rendered fat.
Those who choose to use bacon grease in moderation should review the tips for saving and storing it. Grandma’s way works for Chef VanTrece, who keeps it in a mason jar. “I’ll be honest. It’s still sitting on my stove. It didn’t kill my mother or grandmother, so I’ll be okay. That’s how they did it for years; on that one, I’m still with them.”
One pound of bacon will produce about one-fourth cup of melted fat. Food safety professionals recommend refrigerating or freezing any bacon grease that is not used immediately.
It should last three to six months in the fridge and up to a year in the freezer. Give it a sniff before adding it to your pan. Throw the bacon fat out if it smells rancid or has mold.
Bacon grease is less likely to go bad if you strain out any bacon bits. A fine-mesh strainer, cheesecloth or a coffee filter placed over your heat-proof container will remove the solids.
“I strain my beef bacon fat through a metal sieve and let it cool enough to decant it into a glass jar. I save wide-mouth glass jars from my favorite pickles and preserves for that kind of thing,” says Chef Taffy.
She switches to a stainless steel container to refrigerate beef bacon fat when cooking in a commercial kitchen. It stays soft enough to scoop out for recipes. “I cook beef bacon in the oven, a pound or two at a time, to render the fat. I store the cooked bacon in a storage bag in the freezer, so I have cooked bacon handy whenever I need it and a ready supply of fat to cook in,” the chef adds.
The same method can be employed to cook pork bacon. Southern Living recommends pouring the cooled bacon grease into an ice cube tray to make it easier to access the right amount. You can put it in the fridge overnight to soften the fat.
RECIPE: Creole Shrimp and Bacon Bisque
No matter how you use it, Chef VanTrece promises almost everyone will love the smoky bacon flavor. “It’s going to add a little bit of something to anything that you want it to, be it a vegetable or even another protein. If you really look at it, what doesn’t benefit from the flavor?”
Personally, one of my favorite easy dinners is spaghetti with oven-roasted grape tomatoes and bacon. I cook diced bacon in a skillet. In the bacon grease, I sauté onion and garlic. Then, I add the roasted tomatoes, Italian seasoning, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and the cooked spaghetti. I toss it with a splash or two of pasta water and olive oil to make more sauce.
For an extra flavor, serve the dish with some freshly grated parmesan. I hear some bacon grease calling!
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