Of bacon grease

[Notchy Bob]

Dang, @tenngun. This is deep.

I think there was a passage in one of the Faulkner novels about a fellow greasing up his 10 gauge with bacon grease, but he checked on it the next day and it looked like it was covered with snuff.

However, I had not really thought about the cast iron ware. I used to cook bacon regularly, and just poured off the excess grease and wiped the skillet. It never showed a spot of rust, and food didn't stick if you paid attention while cooking.

We hardly ever eat bacon now. That's about to change, though... Our son came to see us a few days ago, and brought me a four-pound slab of it that he got from a Hungarian butcher shop. Good thing I had just sharpened up the big knife. I sliced it up and put most of it in the freezer, but couldn't resist cooking a few strips. I kept going back in the kitchen to get another bite all afternoon. It was like candy.

My wife will probably make me go outside and use the camp stove to fry the rest of it, which will not be a problem.

Notchy Bob

 

[LME]

I use animal fats that have had the salt removed. To remove the salt place the animal fat in a pan with water. 50/50 bring to a boil, let set until the fat has hardened. Pour off the water and salt. Repeat until the water does not taste salty.

If black powder is corosive but you can clean it out after shooting why not use bacon grease salty or not? It can be cleaned out easier than black powder residue? I don't know but I would lay you odds that it was used beck in the day?

 

[Notchy Bob]

I’m trying to think if bacon tastes salty. Cured but not salt cured like ham I mean it’s not salt pork is it ?

Now, this is interesting. Bacon tastes salty to me even if it isn't salt cured. We don't use much salt at my house, so I may just be sensitive to it.

However, it is my understanding that meats are pretty high in sodium. Those cultures whose subsistence base was primarily meat, such as the nomadic plains Indians, needed very little supplemental sodium in their diets. The agricultural tribes needed salt. There was apparently a lively trade in salt in pre-Columbian America.

Notchy Bob

 

[toot]

It's the sugar in some modern bacon that really sticks to my cast iron skillet. I had to go to a ceramic pan to cook the darn stuff. Plain old bacon is hard to find and salt pork even harder. As to the health hazards of eating bacon and sowbelly it's like my neighbor said, "My momma wouldn't a died at 96 if she hadn't ate all that hog lard".

remember that you have to have good ole salt pork to make rely great backed beans?!! I have a friend that uses bacon in his DOCTORED UP canned beans, then through's the bacon out, not good for you. I told him give me the bacon & through out the fake backed beans, well it bent his nose! OH WELL SO BE IT!!

 

[toot]

If black powder is corosive but you can clean it out after shooting why not use bacon grease salty or not? It can be cleaned out easier than black powder residue? I don't know but I would lay you odds that it was used beck in the day?

remember that grease cutting liquid's that your wife uses on pots & pans cuts grease, why not use it to cleans your weapon? isn't it the rule oh thumb, hot soapy water to clean with?

 

[toot]

Treestalker, it would be my luck if reincarnated I would come back as a squirrel and one of you fellas would shoot me, put me in a cast iorn griswald with some bacon grease, come too think of it kinda of a nobel way too check out.

remember that every thing tastes better with bacon grease! how would make great JOHNNY CAKES WITH OUT BACON GREASE> can't be done! I know that some people use CRISCO to make them but it is just not the same! it is like DIRT, REMEMBER YOUR MOTHER TELLING YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO EAT POUND OF DIRT BEFORE YOU DIE? that will go back to far for some of you young guys?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Now we all know that the salts in bacon grease will rust iron, so we never use it in a barrel, never as a patch lube.
Hmmm.
No rust on my pots, even the ones I’ve not used for some months.

So I think folks are missing some points...,
You clean, and dry the cast iron, and then some do season with bacon grease. That's a well known procedure. My grandma had a skillet just for bacon/sausage
So Why Not simply rub on the bacon grease on the cast iron pot or skillet without drying the pot or the skillet ???

Is it because you are likely to trap droplets of water in the grease, and these suspended against the iron will then cause rust?

SO..., unlike the skillet or pot that you can see is fully dried, the inside of the barrel might contain some moisture. Any grease then would cause a problem, but one that actually contained salt, would that not accelerate the problem?

As for a bullet lube..., sure you could use bacon grease, then clean and dry the barrel when done, then add a rust preventative, BUT if for some reason there is some sort of delay, and it might be as simple as you take a shot just at dawn, reload, now you have fouling (which we all know is corrosive) mixed with salty bullet lube against the walls of your barrel..., and you go all day since you apparently missed at dawn. Does your barrel rust in that time?

So IF it does rust in that time, likely very shallow surface rust and no harm but there are some who don't like any rust for any reason.

LD

 

[Whughett]

Bacon grease. bacon fried crisp crumbled then mixed with greens Smoking hot grease drizzled over fresh garden greens that have had a spray of vinegar. Wilted lettuce my mom called it. Best darn salad I have ever eaten.

I save the bacon grease for food. The guns get Ballistol for cleaning and lubing. Balls, bullets and patches get beeswax and Crisco. I’ve heard Ballistol is so no-toxic one could eat it. I couldn’t get past the smell where that the case.

 

[Notchy Bob]

It's threads like this one that keep me coming back to this forum every day!

Notchy Bob

 

[mushka]

I grew up on bacon grease and lard, 77 and still here. I too save bacon grease and use it for cooking not for guns. Green beans in a pot cooked slowly with chopped onions and a little garlic salt with some bacon grease thrown in, good stuff. I like to put the beans mixed in with brown rice. I clean all my cast iron with hot water only, dry, then a light coat of bacon grease. Never had a problem with rust in many years. I can't imagine a world without bacon or the leavings.

 

[Brokennock]

remember that grease cutting liquid's that your wife uses on pots & pans cuts grease, why not use it to cleans your weapon? isn't it the rule oh thumb, hot soapy water to clean with?

Oh boy, I sense another epic "Dawn" topic coming on.....

Lol.

 

[Whughett]

Oh boy, I sense another epic "Dawn" topic coming on.....

Lol.

My go to for all my black powder cleaning.

 

[Are. M.]

Have you ever tried sowbelly with the buttons on?

Man, I got a pork belly taco once and it had one of them "buttons" on it. Chewiest bite I ever took and I've never looked at bacon the same.

 

[Jim Wag]

Don't use
Water or
Soap
Salt is
OK

Jim in La Luz

 

[3Setters]

I suspect the difference is home cured vs factory cured bacon. I still make my own and without nitrates

This. factory cured has salt injected into the meat, bacon, ham, etc. My home cured bacon has salt placed on top or the curing process to draw out the moisture. I rinse mine my bacon then before the final seasoning and smoking.

Now is it good for your gun barrel, I'll leave that for the experts. Carry on.

 

[toot]

This. factory cured has salt injected into the meat, bacon, ham, etc. My home cured bacon has salt placed on top or the curing process to draw out the moisture. I rinse mine my bacon then before the final seasoning and smoking.

Now is it good for your gun barrel, I'll leave that for the experts. Carry on.

I don't know? but I will bet that it sure tastes rely good!

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

Not using bacon grease in my gun. Got way too much other good stuff for that. That being said, I do cook bacon once in a while. You MUST keep a jar for the bacon grease in the fridge. It is some of the best stuff you can have for cooking. Funny, I took a jar to give to my niece and her egg-head husband turned his nose up at it. She thanked me and told him NOT to touch it!

 

[tenngun]

Well since I was a kid I’ve heard bacon grease will rust your gun, and I’ve never used it in a gun, but my experience with cast iron makes me wonder.
However
I don’t have a gun I’m willing to test it on

 

[Crow-Feather]

Can't be, lol.

I love how very frequently around here one can be doing/using something for decades and someone will always come along and tell you, "it can't work," "it's bad for _____," it'll ruin your ____," and so on.
[/QUOTE

If I said something stupid (no comments please) and nobody disputed it, there are people out there that might try it, The dispute post is sorta being a public information safety post.

(I sorta wonder if there is a difference tween barrel steel and cast iron.)

 

[Crow-Feather]

Can't be, lol.

I love how very frequently around here one can be doing/using something for decades and someone will always come along and tell you, "it can't work," "it's bad for _____," it'll ruin your ____," and so on.

If someone was to say sumthin unnice, or unsafe, and other people corrected that person, it's a public correction or public safety message. Nuthin wrong with that. Difference tween barrel steel and cast iron?