Putting grease down the drain can clog your pipes. Don’t do that. Use one of the many alternatives (see meme and comments).
Yes, but not just your own pipes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg
Ok pro tip for getting rid of your grease that doesn’t assume you have infinite containers lying around or make you wait forever for it to solidify.
Put a sheet of aluminum foil down over your drain so it creates a cup. Then pour your grease in that cup. Then drop an ice cube in if you feel like it.
Then just lift the edges and twist the top of your foil and put it in the trash.
…Why not just wipe the pan out with a paper towel and throw it in the trash? If you bunch up a few of them and move quickly, you can do this while the pan is still kinda warm, even.
This is what I do, not sure why it’s so hard to throw stuff in the trash lol
or just put flour on it. Corn Flour works best
What does that do I haven’t heard this trick
Sounds like the start to a yummy gravy lol
I can just see people trying this for the first time, knocking the foil out of alignment and pouring a whole pan of hot grease down the drain
If I’m in between jars i put the tin foil in a bowl and do the same but after pouring put the bowl on the counter so family doesn’t accidentally toss a dish in there.
Hell nah, jar. Next time you pan fry something, use the bacon grease to take it to a whole nother level.
It’s also tasty as an ingredient in pasta sauces, stews, and soups. I use a bit when I make gumbo.
Man… I tried using all bacon grease as my fat when I made the roux…. That was a tough gumbo to get through. But canola with a bit of bacon grease is right. If you can find it, 1-2-3 oil in place of the canola is the tits.
My brain interpreted that as 3-in-1 oil for a brief second, in which I thought you were really out here trying to murder some folks.
Not positive, but I think it’s a blend of canola, vegetable, and safflower oil. Whatever it is, it’s mild enough and mostly neutral to give the right flavor.
3-in-1 oil would be… unpleasant…
I pan fry stuff all the time, but usually use Canola oil. What am I gonna do to my arteries if I start using bacon grease instead?
I use bacon grease and beef tallow for almost all of my frying. The only side effect I’ve had is that I no longer bleed when getting shot because my arteries have become bulletproof. It’s like a superpower.
I respect the concern, but if you already ate the bacon that left you with the fat, hasn’t a fair amount of the damage already been done?
Seriously, that stuff is delicious! Don’t throw it out.
Add it to cornbread, use it to fry vegetables, put it on popcorn, use it to season your cast iron… The list goes on and on. And it keeps almost indefinitely in the fridge thanks to all the salt. There is almost no reason I can think of to throw out bacon grease unless you eat so much bacon that you can’t possibly keep up with the grease or you don’t have a refrigerator.
Reduce FOG. Fats, Oils, Greases.
Especially if you’re on septic. You can have clean pipes and a bricked tank or even worse clogged drainfield.
Sewage backing up into the home, or surfacing in the yard, and now the house is posted for non-occupancy and a 20-80k repair or replacement.
Gotem.
Yeah, I wish I knew this when I was growing up. My parents had so many problems with septic, and I’m sure some of them were what we put down the drain. We cost my parents so much money
Ah don’t be ashamed of not having known though. I used to work for a health department and did a lot of outreach in rural communities. It’s amazing how little knowledge of wastewater systems there is out there. Education on private infrastructure is lacking. People might learn about public treatment plants (seriously Ms Frizzle’s Magic School Bus is the primary common point of reference) and assume their house is served by the same: even when miles out side a city off a forestry road.
This all probably sounds nuts, but here are my oil systems:
I wash out and recycle glass jars, but peanut butter jars are difficult to clean and will end up getting fat into the water system. So I keep the peanut butter jars for oil.
I also keep a bendy, steel decorating pallet in the kitchen for scraping out fat from the grill tray and rack. You’re left with some fat that you can wipe off with kitchen paper, which you can also use to wipe the pallet knife. Then washing up liquid and a splash of boiling water from the kettle.
There can be quite a lot of oil in leftover food, like sauces, too. I use a silicone spatula to scoop it off before washing.
I can usually find something in recycling: it doesn’t need to be glass or a can even when the grease is hot. Milk cartons work well, plastic cups like for single serving applesauce (yeah I know, single-serving). It doesn’t even need a lid since it will solidify as long as you can let it sit a few hours
why the hell would someone throw out perfectly good bacon grease? or is that the joke, that the third fellow is deranged?
You don’t pour grease down the drain, it fucks up the plumbing.
well yeah, but also, you don’t pour grease down the drain so you can use it later. any time i’m pan frying anything, the pan gets a bit of bacon grease. if i accumulate enough of it, i’ll use it for deep frying too. throwing it out, down the drain or in the trash just does not make sense to me.
I let it cool and then scrape it into our food waste bin. (I don’t know if grease composts but for us it’s moot; the city doesn’t compost food waste but instead makes it into pig feed or something.)
You’re making them into cannibals!!
I mean… aren’t they already? My understanding of pigs is that they literally eat just about anything.
Macon loves bacon!
I usually have so little oil left I just put enough dish soap in that it all mixes with water… Does that still clog my pipes?
Yes, but not because of the oil. Pipes often clog due to a buildup of soap. Don’t use more soap than you need, which for most people is about 10 times less than what they use now.
You’re better off wiping it with a paper towel and throwing that out
Some of us only learn the hard way.
Smdh if you dont add pan drippings to your beans.
E: or rice! Next time you cook yourself up a little pot of rice go on and put those drippings in there!
You can actually pour it into a can or container, put a wick (or make one out of paper towel) and burn it like a candle. The aroma actually isn’t that strong since it’s mostly fat and it doesn’t sputter or anything. The solids sink to the bottom while solidifying.
Can’t talk about grease disposal without posting this.
Cook bacon in the oven in aluminum foil (it’s better that way anyway) put paper towels in to soak the grease crumple it all into a wad and throw it away in the trash… ?
Bonus points for using a microwave oven
havent cooked bacon in like 10 years. Forgot this was a problem.
