Why You Should Save That Bacon Fat

There are many ways you can use bacon to take a dish from good to great. I love chopping it into crispy bits and adding them atop a bowl of ooey-gooey mac and cheese. In an all-new episode of Girl Meets Farm, Molly Yeh showed me another way to get the most out of bacon, and it involves saving what most people throw out: the bacon fat.

On Molly’s menu for a double date on the farm are Italian-inspired dishes, including a crisp Romaine Salad drizzled in her homemade vinaigrette. To make sure her vinaigrette packs loads of rich flavor, Molly uses the leftover bacon fat.

After the bacon crisps up, Molly transfers it to a paper towel to drip off any excess fat. Instead of discarding the bacon fat that’s left in the pan, she uses it to start building the vinaigrette for her salad. “This is great,” she says, “because I'm using up all the bacon fat and just adding more flavor to the salad.”

To balance out the richness of the bacon fat, Molly adds a splash of red wine vinegar. She also adds maple syrup for sweetness and some Dijon mustard to “bring it all together and add that bright zinginess.” Molly finishes her vinaigrette with a little black pepper, skipping the salt altogether. “I don't need to add any salt since the bacon fat is salty enough,” she explains.

Once all of her ingredients are mixed together, Molly keeps the vinaigrette over low heat because she thinks it tastes better warm. After slicing hearts of romaine lettuce in half, chopping up the bacon into bits and mixing these ingredients with some additional fixings, she drizzles the luscious vinaigrette over her salad. The result is a mouthwatering salad and (best of all) zero need to clean up the bacon fat!

For more tips and delicious dishes, catch all-new episodes of Girl Meets Farm, Sundays at 11a|10c.