Replies

You didn’t waste grease.
______________________

No one ever should. I save chicken fat and beef fat and render them. Nothing tastes as good, they are essentially free and they are extremely healthy.

Put pan drippings in the fridge. When chilled, take off the top layer of fat. Store fat in freezer separately from jelled drippings. Both are the best additions to gravy or soups. Fat & drippings for gravy; drippings only for soup).

Alternatively, cut off extra fat from fowl and beef and save frozen until you can fill a large fry pan. Cut into smaller pieces & just cover with water. Simmer until water evaporates (chicken will form cracklings. What’s left from the beef is gristle and can be discarded, IMO). Cool. Pour into container and freeze for later use. Separate out chicken cracklings (gribenes). Drain and salt Try to not eat them all (best still hot), as they are essential to chopped chicken liver and good in mashed potatoes.

Bacon grease is just fine for a lot of cooking, adds some smokiness and keeps forever in the fridge or freezer. Just cook at a lower temperature or it will smoke.

For current cultures that waste nothing and cook with very few implements except a pot and a fire, the Turkish, Armenian, and other Caucasus cooking vids are great. There are also some German cooking videos showing how to make homemade lunchmeat. Basically, chop the meat trimmings and cheap cuts, mix as for meatloaf, wrap tightly in plastic wrap (no idea what was used in earlier times, maybe a clean dish towel or feed sack material?), simmer in boiling water, chill, slice, serve.

Hard times can actually result in wonderful food. My grandparents, born in the late 1800s, would make very heavy dark bread (pumpernickel), smear it with chicken fat and top with sliced long white radish. Not to my taste, but I remember my parents eating that and loving it.