I do like bacon, but this might get ridiculous...
December 14, 2015 10:59 PM Subscribe
Is there any way to procure rendered bacon fat that isn't, you know, cook a bunch of bacon? I need about 2.25 cups of it to make a triple batch of these bacon fat gingersnaps and I don't particularly want to have to cook about 6 pounds of bacon to get it (1.5-2 lb for a single recipe).
I'm in Phoenix, AZ if you know of somewhere that I could just buy it (you can't buy rendered bacon fat online, can you? That seems like a poor choice...). Or is there something else I could render to get the fat? I thought maybe pork belly, but I think the curing of the bacon is what gives it the smokey flavor that should complement the cookies. (Alternatively, what can I do with 6 pounds of cooked bacon? And what's the easiest, most efficient way to get it all cooked?) Thanks!
I'm in Phoenix, AZ if you know of somewhere that I could just buy it (you can't buy rendered bacon fat online, can you? That seems like a poor choice...). Or is there something else I could render to get the fat? I thought maybe pork belly, but I think the curing of the bacon is what gives it the smokey flavor that should complement the cookies. (Alternatively, what can I do with 6 pounds of cooked bacon? And what's the easiest, most efficient way to get it all cooked?) Thanks!
If you do cook it all, cook it on sheet pans covered in aluminum foil. I bake it at 400 for about 10-15 minutes but there might be an ideal temp for rendering more fat.
I usually let the fat solidify so I can crumble up the foil & toss in the trash without draining, but it will help with cleaning up the (yummy zesty) bacon debris left behind in any case.
You'll definitely want to think about ventilation.
posted by rubster at 11:11 PM on December 14, 2015 [2 favorites]
I usually let the fat solidify so I can crumble up the foil & toss in the trash without draining, but it will help with cleaning up the (yummy zesty) bacon debris left behind in any case.
You'll definitely want to think about ventilation.
posted by rubster at 11:11 PM on December 14, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Well I can't source bacon fat for you but I can answer your last two sub-queries.
You can freeze fully cooked bacon and crisp it back up a few slices at a time in a pan, or even zap it in the microwave pretty successfully. It lasts a long time if you store it carefully to ward off freezer burn. You can also crumble/chop the frozen slices and reheat them for real bacon bits.
You can also freeze bacon fat from many bacon cooking sessions over time, so if you don't need these cookies asap you could keep the right sized container in the freezer and add to it until full, but I'm sensing this is a seasonal thing.
The easiest and most efficient way to cook one whole package of bacon at once is to actually bake it in the oven. Get a jelly roll pan or just a large dish with shallow sides, lay out your bacon in one layer, as many as will fit, don't worry about spacing them out, just not overlapped, put it in a cold oven, set it to 400 degrees. Let it cook, including the time it takes to go from cold to 400, for 15 minutes and then check it. Thinner bacon needs less time, obviously. Medium cut bacon usually is perfect slightly crispy but chewy at 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and put the bacon on a cooling rack - put another pan underneath to catch fat dripping off (normally you would do paper towels or whatever) and you are left with a whole pan of bacon fat. You could carefully try to cram as many pans of bacon on as many racks as your oven has and cook them this way. Maybe use disposable aluminum baking dishes.
posted by Mizu at 11:14 PM on December 14, 2015 [5 favorites]
You can freeze fully cooked bacon and crisp it back up a few slices at a time in a pan, or even zap it in the microwave pretty successfully. It lasts a long time if you store it carefully to ward off freezer burn. You can also crumble/chop the frozen slices and reheat them for real bacon bits.
You can also freeze bacon fat from many bacon cooking sessions over time, so if you don't need these cookies asap you could keep the right sized container in the freezer and add to it until full, but I'm sensing this is a seasonal thing.
The easiest and most efficient way to cook one whole package of bacon at once is to actually bake it in the oven. Get a jelly roll pan or just a large dish with shallow sides, lay out your bacon in one layer, as many as will fit, don't worry about spacing them out, just not overlapped, put it in a cold oven, set it to 400 degrees. Let it cook, including the time it takes to go from cold to 400, for 15 minutes and then check it. Thinner bacon needs less time, obviously. Medium cut bacon usually is perfect slightly crispy but chewy at 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and put the bacon on a cooling rack - put another pan underneath to catch fat dripping off (normally you would do paper towels or whatever) and you are left with a whole pan of bacon fat. You could carefully try to cram as many pans of bacon on as many racks as your oven has and cook them this way. Maybe use disposable aluminum baking dishes.
posted by Mizu at 11:14 PM on December 14, 2015 [5 favorites]
Best answer: I would get a can of lard and cook a pound or two of chopped bacon in as much total fat as you need. I figure you'd chop the raw bacon into 1/4-1/2" slices, melt the amount of lard you need total minus the amount of bacon fat you expect the bacon to surrender, and then basically stew the bacon in there. You might get it hotter so the bacon surrenders its own fat, but if not, read on.
You're looking to infuse the flavor into the lard (anyone's mouth watering yet?), so you'll want it hot, maybe 200F/100C, thereabouts, but you're not about deep-frying. Smoky flavors in bacon are fat-soluble and lard will soak it up. Get it hot, then take it off the heat and let it go. When it starts to get cool and solidify, take a quick taste (watch that hot stuff!) and try again if necessary.
When you've got good flavored lard, strain out the bacon bits. They will be cooked, but maybe the bacon hasn't given up its fat. Cook the bacon bits to crispiness and recover the fat, straining out burnt bits. Still need more lard? At this point, you may just need a tablespoon or two, I'd expect. Melt that in your pan, stir into the infused lard to make up the volume without too much dilution.
Also, you have bacon, which you can munch on while your liquid gold is cooling.
tl;dr: Bacon-infused lard. Man, I should go into business with this.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:29 PM on December 14, 2015 [9 favorites]
You're looking to infuse the flavor into the lard (anyone's mouth watering yet?), so you'll want it hot, maybe 200F/100C, thereabouts, but you're not about deep-frying. Smoky flavors in bacon are fat-soluble and lard will soak it up. Get it hot, then take it off the heat and let it go. When it starts to get cool and solidify, take a quick taste (watch that hot stuff!) and try again if necessary.
When you've got good flavored lard, strain out the bacon bits. They will be cooked, but maybe the bacon hasn't given up its fat. Cook the bacon bits to crispiness and recover the fat, straining out burnt bits. Still need more lard? At this point, you may just need a tablespoon or two, I'd expect. Melt that in your pan, stir into the infused lard to make up the volume without too much dilution.
Also, you have bacon, which you can munch on while your liquid gold is cooling.
tl;dr: Bacon-infused lard. Man, I should go into business with this.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:29 PM on December 14, 2015 [9 favorites]
I wonder if a local IHOP would give you that. They certainly would generate that amount of fat on a good day and it would be easy for them to collect it if they are baking them in the oven, which there is a good chance that they are. Where I worked, we par-baked in the oven for a quick finish on the griddle.
posted by Foam Pants at 11:30 PM on December 14, 2015
posted by Foam Pants at 11:30 PM on December 14, 2015
Best answer: Can you ask at a local cafe that serves breakfast? That's where we get ours. Okay, the bloke works there, which avoids any pesky health-and-safety issues, but it's plentiful and free, and saves the cafe finding a way to dispose of it...
(And if you do go down the route of cooking bacon to get the bacon fat, 6lb of cooked bacon would make a load of bacon jam, which would be an awesome holiday gift for the bacon-lovers in your life)
posted by finding.perdita at 11:55 PM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]
(And if you do go down the route of cooking bacon to get the bacon fat, 6lb of cooked bacon would make a load of bacon jam, which would be an awesome holiday gift for the bacon-lovers in your life)
posted by finding.perdita at 11:55 PM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you cook the bacon at a lower temperature for longer, it'll render out more of the fat. We do ours at 375 for about 20 minutes. As for what to do with the bacon, I'd lay it out on a sheet in my freezer and then once it's frozen, put it in a freezer bag so I could use one or two slices at a time for breakfast. Or you could make a bunch of breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, or breakfast muffins to keep in the freezer for quick breakfasts
posted by katyggls at 2:05 AM on December 15, 2015
posted by katyggls at 2:05 AM on December 15, 2015
Best answer: I cook my bacon this way: line a sheet pan with foil, put the strips of bacon on the sheet, and put it in (and this is the KEY part!) a COLD oven. Set the oven to heat to 400 and leave bacon in for 18-20 mins. This method renders lots of fat, which I always save. Going from cold slowly up to temp draws a lot more fat out than just putting the bacon into a hot oven.
To get the amount of fat you need using my method, I bet you would only need to cook two or three pounds of bacon, and you could use the freezing methods suggested above so you wouldn't have to eat it all in one go.
posted by katie at 2:21 AM on December 15, 2015
To get the amount of fat you need using my method, I bet you would only need to cook two or three pounds of bacon, and you could use the freezing methods suggested above so you wouldn't have to eat it all in one go.
posted by katie at 2:21 AM on December 15, 2015
I too thought bacon infused lard would be the answer. Lard in cookies is divine.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:41 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:41 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you do end up having to cook the bacon you could definitely make some bacon salt with the bacon itself. A family sized pack of bacon will get you two small jars that you can give to others. This recipe uses less salt than some of the others I've seen.
posted by eisforcool at 5:45 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by eisforcool at 5:45 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Use lard instead and only a little bacon fat for the flavor.
posted by myselfasme at 6:24 AM on December 15, 2015
posted by myselfasme at 6:24 AM on December 15, 2015
Came to suggest cooking bacon in lard, but see I was beaten to the punch.
While nothing can replace the flavor of real bacon, & I suspect it's for presents so you want to go the more natural route, but you can buy artificial bacon flavoring if you wanted to just use lard to get the texture the same. I have used others of their flavorings but not the bacon.
posted by wwax at 7:10 AM on December 15, 2015
While nothing can replace the flavor of real bacon, & I suspect it's for presents so you want to go the more natural route, but you can buy artificial bacon flavoring if you wanted to just use lard to get the texture the same. I have used others of their flavorings but not the bacon.
posted by wwax at 7:10 AM on December 15, 2015
Best answer: So, I've actually had to render large amounts of bacon fat before, and everyone here has almost got it.
Yes, baking is the most efficient method. But what you want is a wire rack on the sheet pan to let all the fat drain from the bacon. Do it at about 300F, which lets the fat slowly melt out instead of cooking. Then freeze leftover bacon and YOU HAVE INSTANT BACON in your freezer, which is always a good thing.
Bacon (streaky bacon) is made from belly, yes. It's cured in a salt/sugar brine for X days depending on thickness, then air dried and finally smoked. So using straight up belly or lard isn't going to get you the flavour you want at all. And curing and smoking pure fat is likely to be too fiddly a process to really work.
Do you have a good butcher available to you? It's possible that you could ask them to do a special order for you. One avenue--if they make their own bacon--could be to ask them for fatty pork trim, get them to treat it like their bacon, and selling it to you. This is likely to be spendy.
Really, just buy an assload of bacon, cook it in the oven, strain and save the fat, and then have instabacon for a month or two.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:56 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes, baking is the most efficient method. But what you want is a wire rack on the sheet pan to let all the fat drain from the bacon. Do it at about 300F, which lets the fat slowly melt out instead of cooking. Then freeze leftover bacon and YOU HAVE INSTANT BACON in your freezer, which is always a good thing.
Bacon (streaky bacon) is made from belly, yes. It's cured in a salt/sugar brine for X days depending on thickness, then air dried and finally smoked. So using straight up belly or lard isn't going to get you the flavour you want at all. And curing and smoking pure fat is likely to be too fiddly a process to really work.
Do you have a good butcher available to you? It's possible that you could ask them to do a special order for you. One avenue--if they make their own bacon--could be to ask them for fatty pork trim, get them to treat it like their bacon, and selling it to you. This is likely to be spendy.
Really, just buy an assload of bacon, cook it in the oven, strain and save the fat, and then have instabacon for a month or two.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:56 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My roommate just made these cookies, and he cooked down less than a pound of bacon and got 3/4 of a cup of fat, so I think the estimate in the recipe is off for how much bacon it takes.
Also, the cookies were REALLY salty. Like almost unpleasantly so, and I really like salty sweets. You might think about cutting down a quarter or so of the bacon fat and replacing it with butter.
posted by ananci at 1:28 PM on December 15, 2015
Also, the cookies were REALLY salty. Like almost unpleasantly so, and I really like salty sweets. You might think about cutting down a quarter or so of the bacon fat and replacing it with butter.
posted by ananci at 1:28 PM on December 15, 2015
Response by poster: You guys are great! I marked the ones that seemed the most feasible or had the best ideas of what to do with the bacon (bacon jam!) as best answer, but I didn't have to do any of them! A local mefite memailed me and GAVE ME ALL OF HIS BACON FAT!!! There's at least two and a half cups of it, so I'm set! Thank you, local mefite! Look for some cookies in your mail next week!
posted by Weeping_angel at 3:16 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Weeping_angel at 3:16 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
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IIRC it involves smoking pork fat to get that bacon flavor. For your purposes it might be easier to actually cook the bacon in large quantities of pork fat... Or just order from them?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:05 PM on December 14, 2015