Bacon fat

“ Fat.—The fat of cold boiled bacon is much better than anything else in which to fry onions for making curry. It should be cut into small pieces, and when melted in the frying-pan the slices of onions should be added and fried in the usual way. The flavour is much better for curry than when dripping or even butter is used. If there be not enough bacon to do the entire frying, whatever there may be should be added to the fat used. Cold bacon fat is also much better than when uncooked for wrapping round oyster or small balls of mince for frying, it is so much more delicate, and less greasy. ”

“ There is about three times as much fat in bacon as in beef. When prepared for the table bacon contains, from 40 to 50 per cent of fat. A pound of high grade, lean bacon furnishes from 0.1 to 0.3 of a pound of digestible protein and from 0.4 to 0.6 of a pound of digestible fat, which is about two thirds as much fat as is found in butter. Bacon contains nearly as much digestible [Pg 106] protein as other meats and from two to three times as much fat, making it, at the same price per pound, a cheaper food than other meats. ”

“ The bacon supplies the fat that the liver lacks and at the same time provides flavor.
To prepare calves' liver and bacon, cut the liver into 1/2-inch slices, cover these with boiling water, and let them stand for 5 minutes. Remove from the water, dip into flour, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. For each slice of liver pan-broil a slice of bacon. Remove the bacon to a hot platter, and then place the slices of liver in the bacon fat and sauté them for about 10 minutes, turning them frequently. Serve the liver and bacon together. ”

“ A tablespoonful of bacon fat or beef drippings has the same fuel value as a tablespoonful of butter or lard, or as the lamb chop mentioned above. The man who insists that he has to have meat for working strength judges by how he feels after a meal and not by the scientific facts. While in the long run appetite serves as a measure of food requirement, we can find plenty of instances where it does not make a perfect measure. Some people have too large appetites for their body needs and get too fat from sheer surplus of fuel stored in the body for future needs as fat. ”

“ Equal parts of ham or bacon fat, pork chops or sausage fat, combined with butter, are excellent for frying cornmeal mush, eggs, sweet potatoes, egg bread and calves' liver. Also sliced tomatoes have a particularly fine flavor if fried in bacon fat. Should fat removed from top of stock pot have a flavor of vegetables, pour boiling water over, strain and stand aside to cool; then remove the clean cake of fat on top of the water and add to bowl of drippings. This is one of the small economies which will, I think, appeal to the frugal young housewife. ”

“ When a child can take bread crumbled in a little of this fat, it will not be necessary to give him cod-liver oil. Bacon fat is the much better fat for building tissues. Then comes cream, a natural emulsion, and butter. He further says there is one form of fat not commonly looked at in its proper dietetic value, and that is "toffee." It is made of butter, sugar, and sometimes a portion of molasses. A quantity of this, added to the ordinary meals, will enable a child in winter to keep up the bodily heat. ”

“ When different fats have been tried out, to clarify them, add to every pound and a half of combined fat or drippings a half cup of boiling water and a pinch of baking soda. Boil until water evaporates and fat is clear. Strain into a bowl and keep in a cool place. Clean, sweet drippings are preferred by most cooks to lard for many purposes. All young housewives do not know that ham or bacon fat may be substituted for half the shortening called for in many recipes for molasses cakes (where spices are used) with good results. ”

“ Then it is a dish fit for gods, and for mortals who know what is good. Then there is left the grease, golden brown and delicious. Now the usefulness of bacon only begins.
Hear this! From one pound of breakfast bacon you get one pint of precious bacon grease.
What do with it? That's easy.
Fry eggs in it. You will never again use lard. Even butter is inferior to it.
Season boiled string beans with it. It is a substitute for cooking bacon with them. Two or three tablespoonfuls will give the proper flavor. Use the bacon fat in place of butter or lard. ”

“ Letheby, [9] "is to overcome excessive tendency to accumulation of either surface fat or visceral fat, and at the same time to produce a fat which will not melt or boil away in cooking. Oily foods have a tendency to make soft fats which will not bear cooking." Such differences are also seen between English and American bacon, the former being much more solid; and we know, also, that the fat of different animals varies remarkably, and that some, as the fat of hay-fed horses, is readily worked off. ”

“ Well-cooked bacon is digestible if the surplus fat is poured off instead of allowed to soak into the cooked bacon. The most efficient method of cooking bacon is to place the strips upon a broiler under the flame. In this way the hot fat drips down into the pan beneath, leaving the bacon crisp and delicate.
The meats to be used for the invalid must be selected with care. The quality of this item of food is most important. It is not always necessary to purchase the most expensive cut. ”

“ As the fat tries out, drain it from the bacon. Scorching of the fat is thus prevented. Cook the bacon until it is brown and crisp, turning once.
Bacon fat should be saved. It can be used in cooking.
SCALLOPED POTATOES WITH BACON 4 medium potatoes 1/4 pound sliced bacon Flour Salt, used sparingly Pepper Milk
Pare the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Cook the bacon until brown; cut each slice of bacon into several pieces. Oil a baking-dish and place a layer of potatoes in it, then a layer of bacon and some of the tried-out bacon fat. Sprinkle with flour, salt, and pepper. ”

“ The most useful and digestible fat meats are bacon and ham, as the dried, salted, and usually smoked, {55}meat of the pig is called. Like all other fats, they can be eaten only in moderate amounts; but thus eaten, they are both appetizing, digestible, and very nutritious. One good slice of breakfast bacon, for instance, contains as much fuel value as two large saucers of mush or breakfast food, or two eggs, or two large slices of bread, or three oranges, or two small glasses of milk, or a quart of berries. ”

“ Fried bacon is remarkably strong, and is hence more likely to offend the stomach than when it is broiled, or preferably toasted before the fire; the last being, of all others, the best way of dressing it so as to preserve its delicacy and flavour. Gourmands, however, often esteem, as ‘une bonne bouche,’ bacon dressed in the flame arising from the dropping of its own fat.
Choice. Good bacon has a thin rind, and an agreeable odour, the fat has a firm consistence and a slightly reddish tinge; the lean is of a pleasing red colour, is tender, and adheres, whilst raw, strongly to the bone. ”

“ To cook bacon.—Bacon has alternate layers of fat and lean, but it is the fat that has chief consideration in the cooking process. The aim is to brown and crisp the fat without burning it and without causing a volume of smoke in the kitchen. Make ready a frying pan, and have at hand a jar for holding fat standing on a plate. Cut the bacon in thin slices with a sharp knife. Heat the pan, and put in the bacon. The fat will begin to “try out” at the melting point. Pour this melted fat into the jar. Turn the pieces of bacon with a fork. If the smoke is rising in volumes the pan is too hot. ”

“ Many housekeepers cook bacon in the oven on a wire broiler over a pan and believe it more wholesome than fried bacon. The reason, of course, is that thus cooked in the oven there is less chance for the bacon becoming impregnated with burned fat. Where fried salt pork is much used good cooks know that it must not be cooked over a very hot fire, even if they have never heard of the chemistry of burned fat. The recipe for bean-pot roast and other similar recipes may be varied by browning the meat or part of it before covering with water. ”

“ It is easy to cook, combines well with almost [349] anything, is handier than lard to fry things with, does just as well to shorten bread or biscuits, is very nutritious, and nearly everybody likes it. Take it with you from home, for you can seldom buy it away from railroad towns. Get the boneless, in 5 to 8 pound flitches. Let canned bacon alone; it lacks flavor and costs more than it is worth. A little mould on the outside of a flitch does no harm, but reject bacon that is soft and watery, or with yellow fat, or with brownish or black spots in the lean. ”

“ Soak the liver in cold water fifteen minutes; wipe dry, and cut in strips an inch wide, and three long. Cut as many thinner strips of bacon, and fry these three minutes in their own fat; take out and keep hot while you fry an onion—sliced—with the liver in the same fat. Salt, pepper, and dredge the liver in flour before it goes in. When it is done lay in two rows, the length of the dish, with a strip of bacon between each piece and the next. Strain the fat, and return to the pan with a cupful of hot water, the butter rubbed into the flour, and, when it has boiled up, the juice of a lemon. ”

“ Doubtless in the fat of food the body finds material for its fats in the most easily convertible form. Of the various fatty substances taken, some are more easily assimilated than others. Dr. Fothergill, in "The Town Dweller," says that the reason that cod-liver oil is given to delicate children and invalids is, that it is more easily digested than ordinary fats, but it is an inferior form of fat; the next most easily digested is the fat of bacon. ”

“ Lean bacon is the most wasteful thing that any family can use. In short, it is uneatable, except by drunkards, who want something to stimulate their sickly appetite. The man who cannot live on solid fat bacon, well-fed and well-cured, wants the sweet sauce of labour, or is fit for the hospital. But, then, it must be bacon, the effect of barley or peas, (not beans,) and not of whey, potatoes, or messes of any kind. It is frequently said, and I know that even farmers say it, that bacon, made from corn, costs more than it is worth! ”

“ The temperature at which a fat becomes hard is a fair guide to its digestibility. Thus we know that beef, and still more, mutton fat, would become solid, under conditions in which bacon dripping is still soft. Where digestion is weak, there may be an instinctive loathing of fat meat; for such persons, especially for children, some other fat should always be substituted. Thus the addition of butter to the potatoes makes up the deficiency.
Butter forms 31⁄2 to 41⁄2 per cent. of cow’s milk. ”

“ Bacon (1 Slice) 194 calories
Place bacon on a rack and place rack in a dripping pan, set in oven and bake until crisp and brown. Or, arrange bacon on broiler, place pan beneath to catch the drippings and prevent the fat from catching afire, broil as beefsteak.
When steak or chops are served, parsley or sliced lemon may be used as garnishes. Chops may be served garnished with green peas, and the beefsteak served with potatoes cooked in any way; all meats should be served very hot. It is best to cover with a plate. ”

“ The Irish bacon is not of such good quality as that fed in England, as the animal is generally fattened on potatoes only, while the best practice here is, when half fat, to finish off with peas-meal, or barley-meal. ”

“ A generation ago it was the custom to kill pigs about two years old, at enormous weights, after the flesh had become coarse. The method of curing left the lean portion gorged with salt, hard, indigestible and uninviting: then it was an advantage to have a large proportion of fat to lean. Now, however, the system of mild-curing renders the flesh sweet and juicy, and all efforts are directed towards the production of as great a proportion of lean to fat as possible. The large increase of the consumption of fresh pork has also encouraged the demand for young lean bacon ”

“ Fat is available in various forms, with differing flavors and a wide range of prices. To many people it is unpalatable in some of its cheapest forms; yet its use is important, and some kind should be included in the diet. Fluid and emulsified fats are the most easily digested, hence olive oil, cream, and egg yolk are highly desirable. Bacon and butter belong nearly in the same class. A vigorous man at hard labor can digest fat of any kind without difficulty, and needs it because it gives so much fuel in proportion to its bulk. ”

“ In a hundred parts of the meat, only nine of nitrogen are found, fat being forty-eight and water thirty-nine, with but two of salty matters. Bacon properly cured is much more digestible than pork, the smoke giving it certain qualities not existing in uncured pork. No food has yet been found which can take its place for army and navy use or in pioneering. Beef when salted or smoked loses much of its virtue, and eight ounces of fat pork will give nearly three times as much carbon or heat-food as the same amount of beef ”

“ Chop two pounds of lean and very tender beef or mutton, with three quarters of a pound of beef suet; mix them well, and season them with a dessertspoonful of salt, nearly as much pounded cloves, a teaspoonful of pounded mace, and half a teaspoonful of cayenne. Line a round baking dish with thin slices of fat bacon, press the meat closely into it, smooth the top, and cover it with bacon, set a plate on it with a weight, and bake it two hours and a quarter. Take off the bacon, and serve the meat hot, with a little rich brown gravy, or set it by until cold, when it will be equally good. ”