Why Grandma NEVER Threw Away Bacon Grease!

Our grandparents knew something many modern households have forgotten: Animal fat was far too valuable to throw away!

Before grocery stores stocked inexpensive cooking oils, soaps, and household products, families found ways to use just about everything they had. Leftover animal fat was no exception.

For today's homesteaders, it's an old-fashioned lesson worth bringing back.

1. Turn Scraps Into Lard and Tallow

Two of the most useful animal fats are lard and tallow.

Lard comes from pigs.

Tallow comes from cattle, sheep, and other ruminants.

Both are made through a process called rendering. Simply put, you slowly heat clean animal fat until the oils melt and separate from the solid pieces.

Strain the liquid into clean containers, allow it to cool, and you've got a useful product for your homestead.

The leftover browned bits, called cracklings, can also be eaten!

2. Use It for Cooking

Before modern vegetable oils became popular, lard and tallow were kitchen staples.

They were used for frying potatoes, baking biscuits, making flaky pie crusts, roasting vegetables, and preparing hearty meals.

If you're raising pigs or cattle, saving the fat means getting more value from an animal you've already invested time and money into.

3. Make Your Own Soap

Animal fat is an important ingredient in traditional homemade soap.

When combined with lye, it undergoes a chemical process called saponification, producing soap that can be used for cleaning and washing.

It's another way to turn something that might otherwise be discarded into a useful household product.

Just remember that lye is highly caustic and requires proper safety equipment and handling.

4. Make Traditional Candles

Long before electricity, families used tallow to make candles.

Rendered animal fat was melted and formed around a wick or poured into molds to create a source of household lighting.

Tallow candles weren't perfect, but they were inexpensive and practical when other lighting options weren't available.

It's an interesting traditional skill for homesteaders to learn.

5. Protect Your Tools and Equipment

Our grandparents understood the importance of maintaining their equipment.

Grease and oil were traditionally used to help protect metal tools from moisture and rust.

Today, modern rust-prevention products are generally preferable, but the lesson remains the same: clean, dry, and maintain your tools instead of replacing them.

6. Don't Forget the Cracklings!

Rendering animal fat produces more than just cooking grease.

Those crispy leftover pieces can be seasoned and enjoyed as a snack or added to other dishes.

It's another example of making the most of an animal rather than throwing useful parts away.

7. Store Your Rendered Fat Properly

Rendered fat doesn't last forever. Heat, light, oxygen, and moisture can cause it to spoil.

For best results:

• Store it in clean, dry, airtight containers.

• Keep it away from heat and sunlight.

• Refrigerate smaller quantities for regular use.

• Freeze larger batches for longer storage.

• Discard fat that develops an unpleasant, rancid smell.

Proper storage helps protect all the work that went into rendering it.

Bring Back the Old-Fashioned Way of Thinking

The real lesson our grandparents left us wasn't just how to save bacon grease or render beef fat.

It was about learning to use what we already have.

Bones became broth. Scraps became animal feed where appropriate. Fat became cooking grease, soap, and candles.

For modern homesteaders, learning these traditional skills can save money, reduce waste, and make us a little more self-sufficient.