Q: You would probably not be able to name a person who’d refuse eating bacon. A vegetarian, you may say. However, many of them also can’t stand apart when it comes to crispy bacon strips. As a matter of fact, cooking bacon is not so easy, and it requires knowledge of some secrets and hints. How to reserve bacon grease? It’s an even more challenging question. Thus, when the things become that difficult, we are trying to find an easy solution. One of them might be a microwave oven. Really?
Can I Microwave Bacon to Reserve Grease?
Bacon is one of the most popular products, especially in America and Western Europe.
In the end of the day, there’s nothing more delicious than crispy bacon for breakfast.
Bacon can be cooked with the help of a stove, a frying pan or a microwave oven.
Since bacon has sometimes been fatty enough, it’s logical to make bacon grease using microwave oven.
This is a fast and not so complicated method, if you are among those people who prefer keeping all the products and by-products in the fridge for their future culinary masterpieces.
Cooking bacon in the microwave oven is just like one two three:
- Take a dish, place two paper towels on it, and lay 3-4 strips of bacon on top. Make sure they don’t touch
- Cover the bacon with another paper towel, otherwise you’ll have to spend hours cleaning your microwave oven from fat
- Just put the towel on top and don’t press it or you will get something different that crispy bacon instead
- Microwave it for 3 minutes, check the readiness
- If the bacon is not ready yet, microwave for 30 seconds more
Some websites tell you that you are not able to reserve the bacon fat because paper towels absorb it all. Of course if you cook the bacon covered with paper towels, all you grease will absorb. If you stick to the above mentioned method of microwaving, you will lose the grease for sure.
Nevertheless, there are other methods that do help you to reserve almost all the bacon grease for future frying, baking or whatever you might think of.
How to Make Pure Bacon Grease in the Microwave?
It’s always preferable to have purely white bacon grease, and then you are allowed to use all of your talents to make it as tasty as possible.
You may add bitter or sweet pepper, or paprika powder (you must do this to see the beautiful color!)
Rendering the bacon sounds a bit weird at first, but when you think twice and follow the instructions, you’ll do that faster than you think.
- To save your bacon, set the microwave oven at low or medium power
- Stop the microwave from time to time to flip the sides and stir the grease
- Don’t allow it to start popping or get brown
- Use metal sieve and a spoon to separate the grease from the bacon
Another big secret here is a special instrument called a bacon hanger.
It’s microwave-safe since the bacon hanger is made of a specially created heat-resistant plastic. With its help you just hang the slices of bacon and collect all the grease in a special container below.
You cook the bacon vertically in the air, which is healthier and gives you more grease than cooking bacon in fat, or frying it.
Still, the container itself may require placing it on a towel to prevent your microwave oven from fatty spots.
The container is for microwave use only so that’s exactly what you need to reach the best results.
The received bacon grease can be stored in a refrigerator for up to six months!
How Can I Use Bacon Grease in the Kitchen?
You may cook bacon grease in all the possible ways:
- Add into soups
- Cook vegetables in it
- Replace oil with bacon grease when making popcorn
- Mix with cream cheese and make cream sauce for pasta
- Replace 50% of butter or oil in your cookies recipe
- Cook pancakes or toasts in bacon grease
