The Coffee Filter Trick For Saving Used Cooking Grease

There's a reason why home cooks and our grandparents save and use grease for cooking in the kitchen. Cooking grease is fat that's been rendered from meat or vegetables during the cooking process and can be reused for various recipes, especially for frying. While we may relegate this stuff to the garbage far more than past generations, this type of grease is very easy to save, especially if you're someone who likes to make coffee at home.

Chances are, if you brew your own coffee, you may have a few hundred coffee filters at your disposal. Designed specifically to contain the coffee grounds so they don't enter your brew, a coffee filter is a great tool for saving your kitchen grease. Any rendered fat, especially from meat, is going to have bits left in it. If not removed, the bits will only serve to make the grease rancid as the meat or vegetables decay. 

As a quick trick, simply secure a coffee filter around the lid of a jar, keeping it loose so the grease won't pool. As you pour in the cooled, but not solidified, kitchen grease, the coffee filter will catch any stray solids. When you're finished, you should have clear and clean grease that can be put to a multitude of uses inside your kitchen.

For example, you can keep your filtered grease in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for three to six months, where it will cool and solidify. During those months, you can continue to strain and add new grease to the old grease, which serves to increase its longevity. To use the grease for cooking, simply take a measured spoonful of it and allow it to melt and come to temperature in your pan. 

If you've got bacon grease, use it for cooking eggs, roasting potatoes, or tossing it into popcorn as a meaty alternative to salt. Lard is another brilliant cooking fat you can save that has a more neutralized flavor. Once you strain it via a coffee filter, you can save it for baking and creating a pie crust, sautéing, roasting, frying, and almost any other cooking method.