8.10.2011

gettin' greasy



I've been meaning to blog about grease jars for ages, specifically, when I realized how much I love cooking with bacon grease. Gross, I know, but my god, it can make things so delicious! I also love the idea that something so nasty can be stored in an adorable little jar created specifically for that purpose. They were a big deal between the 30's-50's, when people really needed to save every last bit of what they had.


 The ones that boldly say "GREASE" on them are my favorites; these are jars with nothing to hide. However, this "fat can" may be taking it too far.

federal glass grease jar from gasman201 (nice name!) on etsy
We don't eat a lot of meat at my house, but do a lot of flavoring with a bit of bacon, anchovy, or prosciutto here and there. Using meat as a spice, so to speak, has been awesome and cheap. I'll use the leftover bacon grease to saute greens, which is obscenely good. I was also advised by the genius Crystal to pop popcorn with it; oh, sweet lord. Here's a recipe from the NYT using prosciutto as the magical salty flavor friend it was born to be.

I don't have a grease jar yet, but Etsy is dripping (ha! see what I did there?) with them, so it's only a matter of time. Obviously, they can be used for non-grease purposes as well. Is there a grease jar in your past or future? Do you ever cook with grease like Ma Joad would have?

3 comments:

julia @ simple truths said...

That 'fat can' is AWESOME!

There's only one thing that we use a significant amount of oil to cook in our house and that's platanos (plantains) ummmmm
We probably only cook bacon a few times a year - not enough to warrant a specialized jar (especially with out limited counter space).

random thought - I wonder how long grease keeps?

polly conway said...

I know, it ain't so healthy but it sure is good! :) I read that it'll keep around 2 weeks unrefrigerated, but for a lot longer if you put it in the fridge or freezer.

eleen said...

These would be way cuter than the spaghetti jars we put all our nasty bacon (and other) grease in for all to see!