All My Ancestors

When it appeared in my “Bloglines” a second time, I went back to read the comments posted at Simply Recipes in response to an entry entitled Rendering Bacon Fat. There were lots of questions about whether it has to be refrigerated and how long it will keep. What really surprises me is that there are people who had no idea that bacon fat, aka bacon grease, as the author points out, would be a good thing to use in cooking.

It made me think of the small brushed aluminum canister that used to sit on our stove at home–it had a strainer inside–not wire mesh but with little pin-sized holes in it that fit right around the lip of the canister. You had to take the strainer out if you wanted to dip out the fat. Both of my grandmothers has similar containers on or near their stoves as did nearly any one else’s kitchen of the era.

Was it a “southern thing?” I don’t remember when they disappeared–I just remember really yummy vegetables seasoned from that canister–and one of my friends’ mom made hot bacon salad dressing that she poured over young leaf lettuce. It was to die for.

It sounds kinda gross writing about bacon fat in this day of health-consciousness. But when I read all the questions and comments on that blog, it made me think again about my family and friends and the food we ate–growing up in the Texas panhandle wasn’t exactly “the South,” but the roots of those folks were definitely southern–Alabama and Tennessee.

What does it mean if I say I’m glad no one has to explain bacon fat to me?!