A Little Bacon Grease

I overheard a young woman ask another lady, "How do I get rid of bacon drippings, what should I do with them?"

"Oh my!" I thought to myself, as I imagined for a moment that I surely could hear my Mother gasping all the way from heaven.

Momma would have said, "Oh, you mean bacon GREASE! Now, sit down here, and let me tell you why you don't ever need to get rid of bacon grease."

The young woman would have gone away with a new respect for bacon grease. When I was growing up, bacon grease was a staple in our home. I didn't even know what Crisco was until I was a teenager.

"Put a little bacon grease in it," Momma would say as I stirred a pot full of homegrown green beans, and I would reach for the small Maxwell House coffee can that sat on the back of the stove.

Whenever bacon was fried at our house, the excess bacon grease was poured into that Maxwell House coffee can. The can stayed there all of the time for that very purpose and the bacon grease was later poured into a jar and kept in the refrigerator until it was needed.

A little bacon grease was used to season almost all vegetables, but it was especially good in beans. It gave the beans a hearty bacon flavor.

We didn't own a deep fryer, we just had a big iron skillet and anything that got fried at our house was fried in that big iron skillet with, you guessed it, a little bacon grease. In fact, the skillet was usually left inside the oven with the grease already in it, so it was ready to fry up some taters at a moments notice.

Momma used bacon grease in her cornbread and would heat the pan she poured the cornbread into by putting it in the oven ahead of time with a little bacon grease in the bottom of the pan. It made the cornbread crispy on the bottom and sides and also gave it a touch of bacon flavor. There was nothing better than a big hunk of Momma's hot cornbread sliced open with a dollop of butter on top.

Bacon grease was used in many ways. Momma used it to make piecrusts, fry chicken, to make gravy, wilted lettuce, and she even made the dog happy by pouring a little bacon grease over the dry dog food.

My husband, Mike, has his own uses for bacon grease. He likes eggs for breakfast, and he has always preferred his eggs basted in a little bacon grease, that is, he did until recently. The last time he asked for basted eggs in a restaurant it went something like this:

"I would like my eggs basted, please."

"Pasted? What are pasted eggs?" the waitress looked confused.

"No, not pasted... it's basted," he said once again.

"Oh, basted, (long pause), I'll have to ask the cook if she can do that," the waitress replied.

"All you do is flip a little bacon grease over the egg as it fries in the skillet so it forms a white film over the egg yolk," my husband instructed.

"Okay, I'll tell the cook," the waitress said, as she walked off toward the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later, my husband was still waiting for his basted eggs while I was feasting on my scrambled eggs and toast that he encouraged me to go ahead and eat so my breakfast wouldn't get cold.

"The cook is probably just back there in the kitchen practicing her grease flipping," I said to my husband reassuringly.

About that time, the waitress came out with a big smile on her face. "Here are your basted eggs," she said proudly as she sat the plate in front of my husband.

I looked at the eggs, and they appeared to be something between sunny side up and scrambled. I thought "pasted" might be a good word for them after all. I wondered if my husband was going to eat them or send them back.

"Are they okay?" The waitress asked when Mike didn't say anything.

"Would you like me to take them back?" the waitress asked, nervously.

I could tell that Mike's appetite was outweighing his fancy for basted eggs, as he looked up and said, "This is fine, it's just the way I like them!"

~ Pamela Perry Blaine ~
© August 2006
pamyblaine@blaines.us

About Pamela:  She enjoys writing, music, and country living.  She writes"Pam's Corner" for the local newspaper and many of her writings have been published on the internet as well as in several books.

Pam says, "I have loved music and writing ever since I can remember. I play piano at church and I'm an avid reader. One of my goals is to be able to write for my children and grandchildren so special memories will not be forgotten."  She has a CD entitled "I'll Walk You Home".  If you would like one, they are available by freewill donation.  More information as well as a clip from the CD is on her website at http://blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm

[ By: Pamela Perry Blaine Copyright © 2006 (pamyblaine@blaines.us) -- from Pamela Perry Blaine ]