If you eat bacon and sausage regularly, you will probably start accumulating leftover bacon grease. Bacon fat is a handy and versatile provision, and once you know the many ways in which you can use it, you will want to save every drop.
There are two ways in which you can collect bacon grease. The easiest way is to save the fat from your frying pan after cooking the meat. Simply pour it into a mason jar or metal bucket and let it cool down. The other method is rendering. When you slaughter a pig, there will be off-cuts of hard fat which turn rancid very soon if you don’t cook it. Chop the fat into small pieces or grate it, then heat it in a pan over low heat until it liquefies. Once you pour off the fluid grease, it will cool down and harden completely, leaving you with a source of clean fat which you can store for a long period.
Bacon Grease for Nutrition
Bacon fat is a highly beneficial food source which you can store for prolonged periods, and it’s easy to take along to eat when you’re away from home or your camp. Not only that, but bacon fat also has a strong flavor which makes it the perfect ingredient to enhance the taste of other food, both sweet and savory. If your diet has limited variety, there are many ways in which bacon grease can liven up your meals.
#1. Use Bacon Fat as a Preservative
Fat seals the air out, which prevents food from spoiling. Cover hot food in a crock or mason jar with a layer of melted bacon grease and let it stand until the fat has hardened. The seal will help to keep your food fresh longer.
#2. Stop a Pot from Boiling Over
Add a small dab of bacon fat to the water when you cook starchy foods such as pasta, and it will prevent the pot from boiling over.
#3. Make Chocolate
Combine bacon grease, raw cacao, and honey for a surprisingly good chocolate bar. It won’t only satisfy your sweet tooth but is also a nutritious energy snack when you are out in the wild.
#4. Crisp Your Baking
When butter is scarce, bacon fat is the ideal substitute. Bread and pie crusts baked with bacon grease have more flavor and turn out extra crispy.
#5. Make Pemmican
Animal fat is the basis of this survival food that’s been around for centuries. Combine bacon fat, lean dried meat, berries, and nuts and pound it into a paste. Flatten the mixture into patties and let it sit until it hardens. Pemmican is easy to carry when you are traveling, and it will last almost indefinitely. In terms of nutrition, it’s a superfood that will offer nourishment and energy to keep you going for long periods without the need to make a cooking fire.
Clean, Polish, and Lubricate with Bacon Grease
Bacon grease isn’t only good for eating, but you can also use it in several ways to clean and keep up clothing and equipment.
#6. Use Bacon Fat for Lubrication
Is the noise of a screeching hinge or wheel driving you insane? Drip a drop of bacon fat on it to silence the squeak.
#7. Make Soap
Combine bacon grease, lye, and water to make soap.
You can use any animal fat to make soap, and while it requires some effort, the result is amazingly good.
#8. Season Cast-iron Ustensils
If you use a skillet or other iron cookware, you will know that it rusts when cleaned and left to stand. To prevent corrosion and extend the lifetime of your cast-iron cookware, rub it with a generous amount of bacon grease and heat the utensils over a fire or in a very hot oven until all the grease has baked in. The bacon fat binds with the metal and covers it with a protective black patina.
Related: 10 Advantages Of Using Cast Iron Cookware When SHTF
#9. Leather Polish
Shoes and belts made of leather lose their suppleness when exposed to the elements.
Dab a bit of bacon grease on a rag and rub it into your shoes, belts, and equipment straps to condition and nourish the leather.
#10. Waterproofing
You can use bacon fat as a water-repellent on boots, tents, waders, rain gear and most other types of leather and canvass equipment.
Medicinal Uses of Bacon Grease
Most people don’t recommend applying bacon fat to your body or your clothing. The obvious reason is that the reek of bacon is off-putting to other humans, but when you are out in the open, your smell might also attract predators such as bears, coyotes, and fire ants. While you should use caution when applying bacon grease to your person, there are times when the cure justifies the means.
#11. Get Rid of Burrowing Larvae
Some insects lay their eggs on human and animal skin, and when larvae hatch, they burrow into the host. This condition’s name is myiasis, and it causes painful boils. When you rub bacon grease over the affected area, it acts in two ways; the strong scent attracts the larva and at the same time cuts off its air supply, causing it to come to the surface of the skin where you can pluck it out with tweezers.
#12. Stop a Nose Bleed
Persistent nose bleeds, and bleeding from small wounds stop when you apply bacon fat. For nose bleeds, make a plug of cotton wool or tissue dabbed with bacon grease. The salt and fat works to stop bleeding by causing small arteries to swell and close.
#13. Cure Scabies
Scabies is microscopic mites in the outer layer of your skin. Symptoms include incessant itching and a rash. A liniment made of sulfur and bacon grease is a remarkably successful way to get rid of the parasites.
#14. Smooth and Soothe Your Skin
When you spend extended periods outdoors, you expose your skin to the elements, and you’re bound to suffer everything from bug bites to grazes and wind burn. At night, rub bacon grease on the affected areas and cover it with clothing. Wash it off in the morning, and your skin will feel amazingly good. Bacon fat is also an excellent remedy for cracked heels.
#15. Remove a Splinter
If you picked up a splinter that’s hard to remove, spread some bacon grease over it and cover the area with a band-aid or cloth for a few hours. The fat will soften up your skin and make it easy to remove the splinter.
Bacon Grease for Fuel and Light
#16. Homemade Firelighters
Drip used bacon grease on old rags or corn cobs and use it to light a fire.
#17. Make Your Own Candle
Tie a strip of cotton rag or a string to a stick and suspend it in a mason jar. Add bacon fat and let it cool. When the fat has hardened, snip off the twig and use the fat as a candle. If you regularly have small quantities of bacon grease left over from cooking, you can keep replenishing the candle with it.
#18. Power a Generator
You can add filtered bacon grease to diesel to extend the running time of your generator.
#19. Fuel Your Vehicle
You can turn bacon grease into biofuel by filtering it and adding methanol. Most car engines can run on biofuel as an alternative to diesel.
Use Bacon Grease to Lure Fish, Animals, and Bugs
The strong smell of bacon grease makes it an ideal addition to bait when fishing and hunting, and a good insect trap too.
#20. Fishing Lures
Anglers make bait with a mixture of bacon fat and decaying fish and call it ‘putrid pudding’. The strong smell is especially attractive to catfish, but you can also use it for other freshwater fishing.
#21. Bait for a Trap
You can use bacon grease in traps if you are hunting bobcats, coyotes and raccoons. Burning bacon fat will also lure bears closer to your hide when you are hunting.
#22. Bug Trap
Mix solid grease with a bit of vegetable oil to liquefy it and pour it into a shallow dish.
Let it stand out in the open in your camp or close to a window in your home.
Insects will land in the grease, and the sticky weight will prevent them from flying or crawling off again.
Bacon Grease as Animal Feed
#23. Dog Treats
Feeding neat bacon grease to your dog is not a good idea. The high sodium content can lead to vomiting and diarrhea. However, dogs love the flavor of bacon and mixed with other food; it makes a healthy snack. Use dog treats impregnated with bacon fat as a reward for good behavior when training your dog.
#24. Bird Food
You can add small quantities of bacon fat to chicken and turkey feed, especially in winter and if you have extra, you can use it in a bird feeder to attract wild birds.
Use Rancid Bacon Grease as Fertilizer
#25. If You Have Bacon Fat That’s Gone Rancid, You Can Still Use It As Fertilizer
Don’t add too much to the compost or one area of your garden at once since it takes a long time to degrade and might start growing unwanted bacteria. However, earthworms love a small quantity of grease and will soon turn it into fertilizer for your garden.
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Dogs may want to eat your shoes after rubbing grease on them. Lol
I don’t know the answer, but I pose this question: Bacon has a lot of salt in it. That’s one of the ingredients that we like so much. Salt is corrosive to most metals. If you use bacon fat as a lubricant, doesn’t the salt corrode the metal and cause the reverse of the effect you are trying to achieve?
The same with leather. Part of what stiffens and breaks down leather is the salt in our sweat. If you rub bacon fat on your shoes, doesn’t that hasten the eventual drying out and breakdown of the leather? The leather will be soft, but it will also be so soft that it disintegrates under any sort of force.
It seems to me if one substituted the words “pure lard” for where bacon fat is used in the above article, the effect talked about would indeed be achieved with the exception of perhaps the animal attractant effect.
Earlier we had an article about rendering pork fat into lard so instructions exist on this site about how to render lard. Although I must admit that my attempt to follow those instruction using a slow cooker were not successful. I think that was due to the fact that I didn’t cut the fat into fine enough pieces to successfully render it into lard.
What type of metal are you referring to ferrous or non ferrous? raw or finished metal? if using bacon fat, the meat is cured with salt. Do not use bacon on any leather that is exposed to animal or insect predation.
Works great as a fire starter when used in paper egg cartons. (also bio degradable)
Also can be mixed with bird seed to feed out feathered friends.
I’ll agree in that I’ve always been told specifically not to use bacon fat to season cast iron because of the salt in it. Lard, olive oil, vegetable oils all work, but not the salty bacon fat.
I wouldnt use bacon grease either, at least not from store bought bacon, maybe a pig that was fresh killed, that way you know whats in the fat. Bear grease works great too and you dont have to worry about predators messing with you either if you smell like a bear.
Based on the replies I got and my own feeling, I guess I won’t be using bacon fat to lube my blued S&W Model 29.
I also won’t be using it to lube hinges on the door as the hinge pin is just plain mild steel not coated with anything.
Plain lard might be something else.
I will say that it must be the Irish blood in me, but I really like sourdough bread soaked in hot bacon grease. I understand from Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and other books about Ireland, that bread soaked in bacon grease with hot tea comprised many of his childhood meals. He asserts that this vitamin deficient diet is responsible for his poor eyesight and poor teeth as an adult.
Hello, what is the best way to store bacon grease for long-term? Probably pressure can it and keep it in the refrigerator?
left coast chuck,
You took the ideas right from my brain.
For any kind of lubrication, or used on leather or skin, the sodium in bacon would be detrimental.
Rendered animal fat from hogs, cattle or even deer or raccoons would work for this; but, without the addition of sodium compounds.
We have rendered lard; but, it requires raw meat, since bacon and hams are generally cured with smoke, sugar, &/or salt as a dehydrating agent, and those ingredients while tasty, would I suspect not be healthy for lubrication.
Latest issue of Fortune Magazine reveals that there is a compound in bacon that combats Alzheimer’s. Indie researcher has come up with it.
When I was about eight years old we had a dog that had mange so badly he only had a tiny tuft of hair on the end of his tail. The doctor (MD, not DVM) recommended mixing flowers of sulfur with lard and applying a coat of it al over his body. He also recommended a dose of cod liver oil mixed in with the dog food. My two year old brother, feeling sorry for the dog painted it with white paint. All paint then was oil based. The dog was in quite a bit of pain from the paint. My mother washed it off with paint thinner and reapplied the coat of sulfur and lard. I don’t know which of the three applications cured the dog, but it wasn’t long before his coat started growing back in very lustrous and thick. Seeing the recommendation of bacon fat and sulfur jogged that childhood memory.
It used to be that the drug store compounded many of the remedies they sold right there in the drug store, so one could purchase chemicals there too. I think in England they actually call a pharmacist a “chemist.”
when it comes to skin or abrasions consider using witch hazel. It cleans out the pores. Cools the skin, reducing swelling, and reduces the size of the pores. It is also antimicrobial, anti bacterial. great for bug bites, ultra dry skin, as it draws good oil to come to the surface/ outer skin.
On #5 I wouldnt use bacon grease to make pemmican, it wont stay solid and will turn into a gooey mess by the end of the day. You need to use kidney fat which is way different than muscle fat, some folks call it suet, it stays solid and has a high melting point.
Where do you get that.
I receive this article by e-mail. I get a LOT of e-mails and periodically go through them and unsubscribe. . Most of them are camouflaged sales-pitch videos that go on forever about (allegedly) life-saving products before telling you – finally- what they cost (too much for an 85-year-old pensioner with too many health issue needing payment) But I will never move away from .Prepper. Your articles are always useful and . informative. So this is to thank you
Ron Price
I know!!!
Great article, Full of tips. One question, if I may, When making pemmican rather than pounding it, which is a bit too hard for me, could I blend the recipe into the right consistency?
I don’t see why not? It would do the same thing as pounding. I wouldn’t blend it too much otherwise it might turn to soup with the heat of the blender. I feel confident that the reason the Indians pounded the pemmican with a rock or pounding stick was because they didn’t have food processors and blenders. I think I would run the blender at low speed to try to equal pounding rather than at very high speed. You only want to blend it, not pulverize it.
Check out James Townsend & Son video on pemmican, they have other great stuff too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_vLuMobHCI
Put a coffee filter in a sieve and run the hot grease through that into your grease jar. It will last, look & taste better without the “bits” in it.
Put a coffee filter into a sieve and run your bacon grease through that on the way to your grease jar.
It will look,taste & store better that way.
The bits and stuff is what makes it good
While I would not recommend bacon grease for lubing firearms ….. I do know it makes an excellent lube for patching muzzle loaders round ball projectiles/bullets using black powder propellant.
Yes, but there black powder is already corrosive, so you are going to clean out your bore right after you get done shooting, so that negates the corrosive effect of the salt. You wouldn’t coat the outside of your very expensive Pennsylvania rifle with bacon grease just before you stuck it in your gun safe. You might coat it with bear grease. I am confident on the frontier, many fine Pennsylvania rifles were put away with a coating of bear grease.
In Homage to Catalonia George Orwell describes oiling his rifle – a 40 year old Mauser – with bacon fat, as well as also olive oil when it was available.
How do you store bacon grease and how long does it last? My Mother just had it in a coffee can by the stove. How do you tell if it’s gone off?
If you take the lid off the container and go, “Whoa!” that is a strong clue that it has gotten rancid. If you notice a large patch of grayish-green stuff growing on the top of the bacon fat, you know it has gone bad.
I also suspect that you might get a funny taste in the food you have prepared and that would be an indication that it is rancid, but then you have spoiled whatever food you used the rancid bacon fat in.
As you noted, your Mother kept the bacon fat on the stove in a tin can. It takes it a while to get bad. I suspect just a little rancid may not be too bad health wise and taste wise. It is when it reaches the stages that I described above that you want to toss it or use it to start fires. It always retains that capability and rancid bacon grease will start a fire just as well as a freshly rendered batch. No need to throw it out, just mark it plainly “RANCID!” and store it some place cool and dark where animals can’t get in it. Make sure it has an insect proof lid on it. Instead of buying charcoal lighter fluid for your barbecue, just smear some of the rancid bacon fat on your kindling and step back.
Would you please let us know the recipe for the bacon chocolate? Proportions, etc? Sounds great!
Actually, not every drop, since over time you can accumulate a lot more than you can use or need.
A mason jar can be tricky, since the high heat of hot grease can fracture the glass. We’ve always just used an empty soup or other can, well cleaned.
For many of the listed uses, this is probably the better method, since raw fat makes a good lubricant, leather or skin softener; but, the curing process can introduce caustic impurities, like sodium, that can attack metal, leather, or skin.
Bacon Grease for Nutrition
For calories perhaps; but, certainly not for nutrition, unless you’re living on rabbit and need the extra fat.
#1. Use Bacon Fat as a Preservative
It depends on the food and how long you’re going to keep it. While sealing out the air, can help preservation, that same anaerobic environment under the right conditions can encourage the growth of Clostridium Botulinum that released its toxin and can then cause botulism.
As a kid we used to can jams & jellies by pouring the hot goo into a clean glass jar, and then topping it with molten paraffin, essentially doing the same thing as this suggestion; but, that is no longer considered a safe way to can, even a high acid food like jelly.
2. Stop a Pot from Boiling Over
We have always added a bit of oil (olive, canola, peanut) to pasta water; but, this would probably work and even add some additional flavor.
#3. Make Chocolate
I’m afraid my pantry generally doesn’t store raw cacao; but, this could be interesting.
#4. Crisp Your Baking
Once again I would and have done this with lard; but, the smoke and salt flavoring the bacon grease would impart to a fruit pie doesn’t appeal to me.
We’ve done this with both pork & beef. I prefer jerky; but, it would sustain you I a pinch.
Clean, Polish, and Lubricate with Bacon Grease
This has been mentioned several times, that the grease from processed age meats like bacon or ham are not the best choice for this, while lard may be, since it contains no salt.
#6. Use Bacon Fat for Lubrication
See comments on aged & salty fats.
#7. Make Soap
While this takes a while it’s a good skill to know, as is making your own lye from hard wood ashes.
#8. Season Cast-iron Ustensils
We love and use cast iron for many things; but,once again, the salt in the bacon grease can encourage rust. It would be best to do a final rinse with boiling water and let the cast iron air dry. A thin layer of melted shortening or vegetable oil) with no added salt) can be used for seasoning.
#9. Leather Polish
10. Waterproofing
With salt?
11. Get Rid of Burrowing Larvae
I suspect this one would work, as would gasoline.
#12. Stop a Nose Bleed
While this might work I think the capillaries in the nose actually constrict, not dilate (swell); but, I would worry about infections. As someone who used to get horrible nose bleeds, you might be better off with Neosynephrine (and cotton) or Calcium Alginate in your FAK.
#14. Smooth and Soothe Your Skin
One more time. With salt?
#15. Remove a Splinter
This one works.
Bacon Grease for Fuel and Light
#16. Homemade Firelighters
Since any grease would work for this, including gasoline, why would I waste a tasty thing ,like bacon grease? LOL
17. Make Your Own Candle
How To Make a Bacon Grease Survival Candle
A better homemade wick is cotton butchers cord soaked in brine and then dried. The salt inhibits the string from burning, allowing it to draw up the fat for longer life,
#18. Power a Generator
Or you could skip a step and just add salt to your diesel fuel.
#19. Fuel Your Vehicle
Refer to #18.
Use Bacon Grease to Lure Fish, Animals, and Bugs
These all makes sense.
We never put meat products into the compost.
Forget any type of glass Walmart still sells a grease trap for under $10 Sits on my stove top just like what my mom used when I was a boy
Would boiling the bacon grease in water and allowing it to harden, then melting it down and straining it again remove the salt? Pouring off the water, of course… maybe doing it a couple of times?