The Popcorn Weekly - Bacon Grease

For this weeks popcorn recipe I used some leftover bacon grease to pop the kernels.  And, yes, it tasted as good as it sounds!

I went to the local butcher* over the weekend to get some organic chicken and ended up also picking up some of the bacon that they cure in-house.  After cooking up the bacon for Sunday brunch I decided to keep the bacon grease.  In the past I have always discarded bacon grease by pouring it in a glass container we kept under the sink.  Although, lately I have really been trying to be more conscious of what I throw away and eliminating as much food waste as possible. So this time I decided to pour the leftover bacon grease into a glass container, let cool and put it in the refrigerator.  A couple hours later a light bulb went off in my head and I knew I had to use it to make popcorn!


RECIPE:
I melted approximately 3 TBSP of bacon grease with about 1/2 TBSP butter in the bottom of a pot on the stove.  I then covered the bottom of the pot with popcorn kernels, covered the pot and shook back and forth over the heat before and while it began popping.  Once the popcorn was done popping, I took the pot off the heat and seasoned with salt and pepper.  One thing I did notice twas hat it took a little longer for the kernels to pop this time.  I don't know if this has anything to do with the bacon grease, or was just a fluke, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

This was by far the best popcorn recipe I have made yet.  It was just the right amount of salty and savory and I am so glad I still have more leftover bacon grease in the refrigerator!

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*The butcher shop I went to was The Meat Hook (@themeathook / http://the-meathook.com/) found inside The Brooklyn Kitchen (@thebklynkitchen / http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.com/) located at 100 Frost Street, Brooklyn NY 11211 (Williamsburg).  If you live in the NYC area, I HIGHLY suggest visiting The Brooklyn Kitchen, not only does The Meat Hook have a really great selection, but the store itself is unbelievable...I fell in love the second I walked in!