Do you love bacon? You might be wondering what you should do with all the leftover bacon grease. Why not save it and use it to season your cast iron pan?
Before cooking bacon, turn on your hood vent. After cooking bacon, let the grease cool and store it in a jar or plastic container. Don’t throw hot bacon grease in the trash or it’ll eat through the bag! Also, don’t toss it into the sink. The sink will clog and that’s never pleasant.
Seasoning cast iron with bacon grease is pretty quick and easy. Here’s how to do it.
Before we get started, did you know that you can season your cast iron pan with lard too? The process is almost identical! Here’s our complete guide if you’re interested.
Note: If your cast iron pan has a wooden handle, season it on the stovetop and not in the oven.
Smoke point: About 325°F. Bacon fat.
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Add a layer of foil or a baking sheet under the pan to catch drips.
Before you season your cast iron pan, you should remove the factory coating. It’s OK to use a scrubby sponge or scrub brush here, as you’re not trying to preserve the seasoning.
Use some dish soap to make scrubbing off the seasoning easier.
How do you remove bacon grease from a cast iron griddle?
Hot soap and water or kosher salt and water work wonders. Don’t soak the pan for more than 10-15 minutes to keep the seasoning intact. Salt and soap themselves won’t remove the seasoning on a cast iron pan. You’d have to take some steel wool or a heavy abrasive cleaner to the pan to break down the seasoning.
Hopefully this article helped you season your cast iron pan. A well-seasoned cast iron pan can last a lifetime. So it’s definitely worth it to perfect the seasoning process!
If you’d like to learn more about cast iron, check out the articles below.
Cooking Fat and Oil Types & Smoke Points (Home Cooking 101) DiTuro Productions
FAQ
Does bacon fat have a high smoke point?
Is bacon fat good for high-heat cooking?
Which fat has the highest smoke point?
Can I use bacon fat to season cast iron?
Why do cooking fats have a smoke point?
That’s because every cooking fat, be it butter, lard, or oil, has a smoke point: a temperature at which it stops shimmering and starts sending out some serious smoke signals. Learning how to interpret those signals is a crucial element of any good cook’s vocabulary.
What is a high smoke point oil?
The primary benefit of oils with a high smoke point is that they can withstand high heat, and are therefore ideal oils for frying, sautéing, and searing. You can use these oils for high heat cooking methods without worrying about them smoking and developing rancid flavors.
What is a smoking point in cooking oil?
A cooking oil’s smoke point refers to the temperature when the oil starts to smoke—which it will reach before its boiling point. Heating oils past their smoking point has been linked to the formation of carcinogens and can also create an off, burnt flavor.
Which oil has a higher smoke point?
These oils tend to have higher smoke points. Polyunsaturated oils include wheat germ oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, walnut oil, flaxseed oil, and corn oil—all of which have a lower smoke point. Sesame oil has almost equal proportions of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (around 40% each).