Tightwad Tip: Save Grease

 

I save grease from cooking hamburger, chicken skins, chicken broth, ham bones, bacon, etc..... 

Fat rendering out of fried chicken skins.

I use it for frying eggs, sauteing onions, spreading on tortillas before warming them in a skillet. Chicken grease is soft when chilled. Beef grease is hard when chilled. Pork fat is somewhere in between the two.

The harder fats can be used in place of shortening in savory pastries. Chicken fat works fine in tortillas. Bacon grease tastes good in cornbread as a replacement for butter or oil. 

To save grease: 

I recommend that you pour grease from browned hamburger meat into a heat safe bowl and then chill in the refrigerator until firm. Oftentimes  the fat poured off hamburger meat has water at the bottom. Scoop the hard fat off the top and put in a jar to store.

Collecting fat from the top of broth
after chilling in the refrigerator.

To save fat from chicken broth or other types of broth:

Boil bones and trimmings for several hours. Allow broth to cool. Chill in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will solidify on the surface of the broth. Scoop the solid fat off the broth and store it in a jar in the refrigerator.

Spreading chicken fat on a corn tortilla
 before warming it in a skillet.

To collect fat from bacon or fried chicken skins just pour the fat into a glass jar when it is still hot and in a liquid state.

I can't say how long this fat will last in the refrigerator. I keep mine for several weeks until it is all used up. I only throw it out if it smells rancid, but normally it is gone long before this point.