apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My sweet, wonderful chef introduced me to a killer butcher shop yesterday - I now have a couple pounds of gorgeous center cut porkchops and will be doing something with them tonight. :)

Mmmm...pork chops.

Another pork related question--what's the best way to store rendered bacon fat? I've always poured the liquid bacon fat from frying into tin cans and then thrown away the tin cans once it was full, but I recently started experimenting with using rendered bacon fat in my cooking in place of butter, olive oil, etc. and feel that there must be a better way to store bacon fat for the long term. Perhaps a better way that also has a lid of some sort (I have an irrational fear of open containers in my fridge). Any suggestions?

Emma C--
I stored duck fat in a little tupperware container in the fridge (one of those disposable gladware things). I had poured it from the pan into a dish first to cool to room temp, then into the plastic container.

As for me, I should be doing Chinese New Year cooking, but am too much in the winter doldrums to get my energy up for it. Sigh. If only we had a long weekend up here.

i am having a few friends over during the week for dinner and a dvd. anyone have any ideas for a lap-friendly winter meal?

hey liz.

what about the white bean-carmelized fennel soup on well-fed blog? http://wellfed.typepad.com/well_fed/2007/02/white_bean_cara.html

I just made it tonight and it was easy to dish up in bowls around the tv as an antidote to this mishegos weather!

Cold, cold weather here in western New York State. I've been all about warming, comfort foods. Last week I made the lovely Zuni Cafe Chicken Bouillabaise linked in the last open thread...fantastic!

Saturday was stuffed pork chops. Sunday, meatloaf! I'm not usually a meatloaf person but it completely hit the spot last night. Used a Michael Chiarello recipe that should make for great leftover sandwiches.

On the deck this week...more soup, pasta. Maybe a roast chicken and a lasagna at some point. Comfort food central here.

Don't know if this will work for you, but several years ago I bought wide-mouth canning jars in pint and quart sizes and use them for storage. I find grains/rice stay fresher longer and "smelly" things don't leave any trace when stored in glass. You do have to replace the round lid part, but that's really inexpensive.

My first thought was why not save a pint sized mayo jar for your bacon fat, but then I remembered mayo now comes in STUPID PLASTIC

lisa-- that sounds really yummy. i got a request for chili, though, so i'm serving that with grilled polenta squares. i used ground turkey and chicken stock, because that's what i had on hand, and gave it some oomph with a couple of tablespoons of diced pancetta (thereby erasing any nutritional virtue derived by using turkey and chicken stock). i gotta say, it's totally yummy. pork fat rules.

Um, that was going to be my suggestion, but I forgot about mayo jars being plastic now. I use a big canning jar to store my bacon fat. And I am making minestrone tonight because it is freezing out here! It always comes out nice and thick so I have no problems eating it on my lap. But I can see chili being a slightly better option. Yum!

Thanks for the bacon-storing recommendations! I had initially discounted glass jars because I thought they would break if the bacon fat is too hot, but then realized that--duh!--you can let the fat cool just a bit before pouring it in. I also found a few gadgets online that are specifically for storing bacon fat and have handy mesh screens for straining out the bacon bits. These are mostly made of metal. In doing my research, it's been fun to find so many people who cook with bacon fat. Who knew?!