Start Scrambling Your Eggs In Bacon Grease And You'll Never Turn Back

Fried bacon never lasts long on Sunday morning. But if you strain and reserve the drippings, you can bring new life to breakfasts throughout the week. That shimmering film left in the pan is a souvenir of salt and smoke that deserves a second act. Crack your eggs into it and you'll be licking your plate as they become imbued with everything that makes bacon great. 

When bacon fat renders, it carries soluble flavor molecules from the meat and the Maillard reaction (that delicious browning that occurs when protein meets heat), which leaves behind a mix of savory compounds that infuse into the grease. In other words, you're cooking your eggs in a concentrated bacon reduction when you fry them in leftover fat. The same principle applies to butter, but bacon grease has a higher smoke point (325 degrees Fahrenheit) and more body, so it coats the pan like silk. Cooking eggs in bacon grease also allows them to come out of the pan richly flavored and delicately seasoned with the salt that the bacon was cured in, easily providing depth to an otherwise simple scramble. 

There's no tricky method here, simply heat the drippings in a pan, add your scrambled eggs and stir, cooking till the eggs are to your liking. Just don't use leftover grease if you scorched the bacon beforehand as burnt fat turns bitter – and that flavor doesn't dilute into the scramble, it only ruins the eggs.

Anywhere you'd use fat for flavor (sauteeing, roasting, baking), bacon grease belongs. Spoon a little into a skillet before frying potatoes or searing Brussels sprouts, and it'll give them a savory, smoky edge. Do like Dolly Parton does and incorporate some into cornbread, or melt a spoonful into a pot of collard greens for a soulful Southern classic. It's even good for seasoning cast iron, simply spread a thin layer over the surface, bake it in on low heat, and you've easily cared for your pan.

The only hard rule is to follow common sense and don't leave bacon fat sitting out too long. It is rendered, so it's not the same danger level as leaving out raw or cooked meat. However, at room temperature, the compounds that make bacon grease taste and smell heavenly will start to oxidize. Additionally, we suggest skipping it for delicate dishes where smoke overpowers sweetness or delicate aromas — it's perfect for pancakes, not pound cake. And in most cases, a little goes a long way.

People used to keep jars of it by the stove the way we keep olive oil now, an inherited habit from a time when nose-to-tail thrift and finger-licking pleasure were peas in a pod. Rendered fat was a way of respecting what you had. Today, a spoonful of grease is a dollop of the same value system: waste nothing, flavor everything.