Boomers: "these cast iron sewer pipes will last forever!!"
gotta grease the pipes so the water flows better!
If it's their lifetime, it's forever.
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
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.
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.
Agreed. When I'm cooking with bacon I'll save the grease and use it if that singular meal requires any additional pan frying, otherwise I toss it cause I don't need to be ingesting all that grease on the regular
If you have the bacon grease already it's very nice. I use a small strainer and pour the grease into a little mason jar and then use the grease for all sorts of cooking. There's no advantage to it, but it's giving the grease a second use, which is useful.
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.
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.
Aluminium foil needs a lot of energy to produce. I'd recommend an old newspaper or (non laminated) cardboard to soak it up. If you plan a barbecue anytime soon, you can use the greasy paper as a perfect firestarter. Otherwise just put it in the trash when cold.
I still feel a can is the easiest and least wasteful solution. You pour the grease in and put the can in the cupboard until next time. Unless you're cooking bacon all the time, it takes a long time to fill up. You don't need more than one or have to wait.
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.
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.
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.
Pour the grease in a hole outside. Just dig a hole in the dirt where you don't walk a lot and pour it in there. It'll be fine.
Until you go outside and find every woodland creature in a 10 kilometer radius has dug up your front lawn looking for more bacon flavored dirt.
Reminds me of this:
Same, and doing this is devastating for whatever biosystem is in that soil.
Small amounts, it'll cope with. But for industrial amounts, or if you deep fry, please no.
there was a time when I saw a food show on tv about steamed burger place. I thought it seemed easy enough so I tried making it myself. The burger runoff water/grease left over got dumped next to a tree in my yard. For the next several weeks everyone walking their dog would have to wrangle it awag from the spot because they would zoom in as soon as they smelled it. I also tried dumping it on the road thinking the rain would wash it away but the rain just chilled and hardened it and dogs would lick it up, further distressing their humans.
edit: also recommend trying the food. steamed cheese is spoogy and really neat on burger
Ah, Superintendent Chalmers, welcome! I hope you're prepared for an unforgettable luncheon!
As long as I rent, it goes down the drain.
You're not just being inconsiderate to your landlord, though --- 'Monster' fatberg found blocking east London sewer
Perhaps the endorphin hit from sticking it to your landlord makes it all worthwhile.
This year, on some random holiday, I had to take 20ft of piping out of the walls and remove one solid block of hardened grease that had accumulated there, blocking the pipes, causing dirt water to flow back into the kitchen and into appliances. What a joy that was... the stench alone.
Don't flush grease down the drain.
And so does the money.
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
Yeah, I think the greese has seen enough generations by now .
I agree, it should have ended after Ancient Greese.
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!
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!
After cooking the rice?
Frying some uncooked rice in oil gives it a nice flavor (you then cook the rice like you normally would, unless you want some flavorful uncooked crunchy rice) - it might be worth testing out this process using pan drippings
Nah, put the rice in the pot first then pour the drippings in and stir it all around with a fork.
Then add the water and cook as you normally would
My sister once asked if I could help with the kitchen sink in her house as it was blocked. I started taking waste pipes off and quickly realised there's a bunch of sardines stuck in one pipe. Her 15 year old daughter had shoved fish down the waste pipe of the sink rather than putting them in the bin. I still can't understand the logic in her head. Surely it's more difficult to push fish through the small holes at the bottom of the sink than it is to take 2 steps towards the bin.
If you put them in the bin, you're going to have to take the trash out or else it's going to stink up the house in a matter of hours. Having been a teenager myself, I can confirm that I would have done just about anything to avoid the laborious task of taking out the trash.
You're not wrong but I realised my niece doesn't have that level of responsibility. If there's a smelly bin she'll just expect her mum to sort it out or disappear so she doesn't have to deal with it.
Some of us only learn the hard way.
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
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.
I use a fuckload of soap and hope it keeps the grease from re-forming. Is that still bad?
Yeah, still not great. Even with a bunch of soap you're still going to have some grease that doesn't get emulsified with the soap and water.
The way soap works is by attaching molecules of oil to water, but it requires a lot of agitation/energy for a complete emulsion that won't quickly break down to its constituent parts again.
If you're in a situation where you have to pour grease down your pipe, continue your soap method, but let the hot water run for a min or two before, during, and after you pour the grease. The hotter the better.
Depends how much soap you use.
The soap doesn't work by attaching oil to water, the soap attaches to the water and then the soap is carried away by the water. Oil doesn't dissolve in water, but oil dissolves in soap and soap dissolves in water. So long as you use enough of an excess of soap and mix it together enough, you'll be fine.
Definitely agree with rinsing the drain before, during, and after, though. Especially as most mammal oils become less viscous (slightly runny) at higher temperatures.
Less likely to cause issues, but it might still leave residue on your pipes over time. That said, I also do that. Wipe up what I can with a paper towel, then dilute the rest with hot water and soap
No
Can't talk about grease disposal without posting this.
In Japan there's a powder you can buy at shops that solidifies any pools of grease you drop it into, so you can then scrape it into the garbage.
I was going to share a link but all I could find was Amazon product pages and greasy blogs funneling you towards Amazon product pages, but you can find it by searching "Japan grease powder".Oh yeah I really believe you "Japan grease powder"
Sounds so much like "if you don't believe me search Japan grease rule 34"
That's fair
greasy blogs
tbf you searched for something grease related so that's exactly the kind of blog that should appear
I'm like 98% sure if I search for that I won't like what I see.
Unused kitty litter works great.
Used kitty litter probably also works. Hey, I don’t judge others’ fetishes.
The trick is to save many jars of the stuff, so you can really go out in style.
I have an ex who was a self-described jar goblin and fancied herself a witch. Somehow, she couldn't conjure up a fucking job the entire time we were together. I keep as few jars in my home as possible now, and I use the two little heart-handled spoons she left behind when she moved as solely to scoop wet cat food from the tin because fuck her.
...fancied herself a witch. Somehow, she couldn't conjure up a fucking job
I'm sorry for your pain, but I laughed out loud at this. Guffawed, even.
havent cooked bacon in like 10 years. Forgot this was a problem.
