Save That!

[Smithy]

I recently heard that during WWII, when food rationing was in force in the USA, cooks were urged to save any unwanted grease for ammunition. The Good Housekeeping (or Better Homes and Gardens, I forget which) magazine said, at the time, to save every drip of grease for re-use, and if you had more than you needed, to pass it on for the defense. It was used to make glycerin.

That reminded me of our growing-up days, when we purchased vegetable oil and Crisco (never olive oil, which was exotic and expen$ive) for new uses, but also saved bacon grease in a jar or pot. The bacon grease was used instead of Crisco for everything except pie crust. The bacon grease pot disappeared from our household, and no doubt many others, when the word 'cholesterol' entered the public awareness. (Now that trans-fats are considered suspect, I wonder if bacon grease is ok again?)

Me, I save some bacon grease (not much, because I can't use much, and I've learned to render lard). I save snips and scraps of celery and onions for soups. I save random scraps of chicken, as well as whole carcasses, for broth. The wonderful thick gel (I call it demiglace but it probably really isn't) from chicken cookery gets saved. Our freezer has an area more or less devoted to these random elements, much to the dismay of my husband. He's of the look-for-something-edible-now school of thought, and got himself into deep trouble not long ago for throwing out my cooked chicken carcass with all that lovely thick gel that I'd been saving until I could make broth.

How about you? What things do you save to go into later cookery? I'd also like to know any further historical bits like the grease-for-ammunition, if anyone knows some.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I save breads and rolls for making breadcrumbs later ... this what you had in mind?

[bleudauvergne]

I have memories of the coffee can on the stove (never refrigerated) where all bacon drippings were deposited and spooned into the hot pan for making everything from cornbread to fried eggs.

Now I save everything - not because I want to save money - but because drippings, scrapings and itty bits add flavor. Leftover duck fat from the confit, bits of scraps, extra cloves of roasted garlic, drippings, sauces, even veggies which add depth when added to soups, things guarded over to use as garnishes, etc.

everything is saved in my kitchen.

[MsMelkor]

We render and save all sorts of fats: schmaltz, turkey fat, duck fat, goose fat, smoked chicken fat, beef fat. Ditto with stocks, bones, carcasses, drippings. We saved the oil from oil-packed tuna and made mayo with it for tuna salad. I save egg whites if I only use yolks, and vice-versa. All of this behavior could be explained if I were a child of the Depression, but I'm about 50 years too young for that.

[s'kat]

Rinds from hard cheeses are sealed, and kept in the freezer for flavouring soups.

[melkor]

We render and save all sorts of fats: schmaltz, turkey fat, duck fat, goose fat, smoked chicken fat, beef fat. Ditto with stocks, bones, carcasses, drippings. We saved the oil from oil-packed tuna and made mayo with it for tuna salad. I save egg whites if I only use yolks, and vice-versa. All of this behavior could be explained if I were a child of the Depression, but I'm about 50 years too young for that.

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So what explains the buttermilk in the fridge with a sell by date that passed six months ago?

[deibu]

Along the same lines as saving bread for breadcrumbs, I save leftover hardened pieces of baguette/French bread to make croutons...

[Smithy]

I save breads and rolls for making breadcrumbs later ... this what you had in mind? 

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Yes indeed, and everyone else's responses so far too! I'd forgotten about saving cheese rinds - unfortunately I save some of them, then forget that I have them . Bread crumbs I hadn't thought of.

[Smithy]

We render and save all sorts of fats: schmaltz, turkey fat, duck fat, goose fat, smoked chicken fat, beef fat. Ditto with stocks, bones, carcasses, drippings. We saved the oil from oil-packed tuna and made mayo with it for tuna salad. I save egg whites if I only use yolks, and vice-versa. All of this behavior could be explained if I were a child of the Depression, but I'm about 50 years too young for that.

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Tuna oil for mayo...what a great idea!

What the heck is schmaltz? I always thought it was a musical term!

I too am too young to be a child of the Depression, but I am a child of two children of the depression, who passed those habits along. As a child of the West, I tend to be a water saver, as well, although I'm far more profligate with water than I used to be.

[MsMelkor]

Schmaltz is chicken fat. Think of it as chicken-flavored lard.

We were saving bread for breadcrumbs for a while, until we realized that we have a 20-lb bag of panko we bought at a restaurant supply store that we are going to have trouble finishing before it gets stale. So instead Melkor turned a stale loaf of pugliese into a decadent chocolate bread pudding.

I put parmesan rinds in minestrone soup - yum.

And as far as buttermilk goes...I hide it in the back of the fridge on purpose, so it can "age" properly and without detection!

[Yuki]

I save the tip of the dried shiitake mushroom for soup. Also, there are chicken bones, turkey necks, and pork bones in the freezer. The broccoli stalk, core of the cabbage, and left over onions for more soup.

[andiesenji]

I save just about everything also.

I have several sets of "vintage" canisters and kitchen accessories from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s and just about every one has a "Grease" container. I am still using the grease container (very large) from a set of West Bend aluminum canisters - I have retired the rest of the canisters as I keep everything in Cambro containers now, but still use the grease container for bacon drippings.

I never stopped using it because I always thought that cholesterol was more a matter of genetics than diet and never trusted the artificial stuff. (Since I have recently been proved right about some of these things I still trust my own judgement.)

My garbage disposal gets only a small amount of use. All vegetable/fruit scraps go to into the worm composting bins or the regular compost. Bread is turned into crumbs or croutons. Cakes and quick breads also. Leftover vegetables go into a container in the freezer for use in soups and stews.

Like most of you I save bones and such for stock.

I was born at the end of the depression and my family was not affected much by the depression, mainly because the farm was pretty much self-sufficient and the same thing was true during the war. The family was just naturally frugal. Both of my grandfathers had contracts with the government to sell beef, pork and poultry, lard and sorghum molasses, to Ft. Campbell, and Ft. Knox, in Kentucky. This meant they were allowed much more gasoline than most people.

I think most of the grease produced on the farm was used on the farm or sold directly to the Army for kitchen use - I know for sure lard was because it was packed into big metal drums and had a government seal put on the rim.

The only thing I remember saving for the war effort was tin foil and steel cans, although we didn't have a lot of food in cans, most was canned at home. But "exotic" stuff like pineapple would come in cans, and tuna fish. Both ends of the cans were cut out and the cans flattened. I liked to do that.

[cakewalk]

I save everything, too.

And then when it's been in the fridge long enough and starts to get moldy, I throw it out.

[fifi]

I pretty much save the things mentioned above... with the exception of vegetable trimmings. I have never gotten into that habit for some reason.

One of the revelations that comes from hanging out at eGullet was the concept of saving the fat from defatting chicken stock. Why I never thought about that before is beyond me. I did see a suggestion here not long ago that the chicken fat (or whatever fat) from stock making will keep much better if it is heated to drive off any water before storing. The comparison was to making ghee. Brilliant.

I am not sure if this is the same thing as saving, but I will make and store some basic ingredients that I use when an opportunity presents itself. For example:

Mojo de ajo... When the garlic is really nice, I will bite the bullet, sit down and dice a half cup or more and make this. The diced garlic is simmered, barely bubbling, in oil until the garlic is nicely toasted. This is wonderful for grilling fish, adding a little of the oil to a salad dressing, dressing vegetables, etc.

Roasted red bell peppers... Ihave been fortunate a few times to snag a bag of red bell peppers at a discount because they were about to "go off". I will roast the whole lot of them and store in oil for use in other dishes.

[mike_r]

i save whatever i can for stock; the green from leeks, mushroom stems, parsley stems, bits of this and that; i used to scrub my carrots really well before peeling, then save the peels for stock but i wasn't always happy with the result. my stockpot isn't my garbage bin, but it is a practical use for stuff that is perfectly flavorful, just not exceptionally palatable in their current form. flavor is flavor. oh and onion peels add a lovely robust color and flavor to stocks, especially veg stock.

[ludja]

Schmaltz is chicken fat. Think of it as chicken-flavored lard.

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I received the impetus to make my own chicken schmalz (with onions) from egullet. yeah!

Just for info, in Germany/Austria schmalz generally means pork lard . As I understand it, in America, schmalz, via Yiddish roots, does usually refer to chicken fat. I grew up with the "pork version" of schmalz. With some of the cracklings left in it, it can be used as a spread for rye/country bread as a rustic snack to go with beer or wine.

I know there are threads on this, but I have a quick question on chicken schmalz--does it always imply rendering the chicken fat with onions? (And are the onions just used for flavor and then strained out?)

Edited November 10, 2004 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

I thought of something else I freeze-- corn cobs asa base for vegetable stock used in a corn soup.

Also, if I'm using up a bunch of grapefruits to make a sorbet (a favorite flavor), I'll reserve the peels to make pamelas (candied grapefruit peels).

Also, along the lines of saving parmegiano or pecorino rinds, I'll keep tough end of proscuitto or speck for flavoring soups.

[Smithy]

I thought of something else I freeze-- corn cobs asa base for vegetable stock used in a corn soup.

Also, if I'm using up a bunch of grapefruits to make a sorbet (a favorite flavor), I'll reserve the peels to make pamelas (candied grapefruit peels).

Also, along the lines of saving parmegiano or pecorino rinds, I'll keep tough end of proscuitto or speck for flavoring soups.

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That reminds me, I have jars as well as freezer bags with zest collected from oranges and mandarin oranges when I get fresh ones in the winter. I haven't tried candying them. They make nice additions to sauces, but all too often I forget they're there.

Corn cobs! I haven't tried that! My poor husband...

[snowangel]

I, too, save it all. The odd veg bit that doesn't get saved gets composted.

Chicken fat also helps keep leftover chicken meat from drying out. Had leftovers one time, and we had to rush out of town. I've always really disliked cooked chicken that has been frozen, so I bathed this in chicken fat before freezing. Yum. Probably somewhat akin to confit.

I am also manic about reusing what I can (plastic bags, yogurt containers, etc) and recycling what I can't. Use paper grocery sacks for trash (I think the trash bag industry is the smartest of all -- they have people actually believing that you need to spend money for the sole purpose of throwing it away!).

As a side not, my mother's family owned a small corner grocery from late depression days to the early 60's, back when they were common in the midwest. During rationing days, my mother well remembers someone coming in and buying coffee; this person had never bought or drank coffee before, but they figured since it was rationed, it must have been good.

[ruthcooks]

My favorite trick is to save the milk solids from butter when making baklava. Usually it takes a pound of melted butter and the butterfat clings to the pastry brush I use so the milk solids are left in the bottom of the measuring cup I melt it in.

I freeze the solids (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup) and add them to spaetzle: it's like adding the flavor from a pound of butter but includes very little fat. You could do the same to add flavor to vegetables.

I save the liquid from boiling potatoes for making yeast breads, but mainly end up throwing it away because I don't make bread too often.

[bloviatrix]

I do a lot of the things already mentioned: freeze old bread for breadcrumbs, save the rendered duck fat. I also have a container of dirty oil for deep frying and several bags of mushroom stems in the freezer which will be turned into mushroom stock (good for enriching mushroom barley soup)

[ludja]

I don't do this, but I recall Susan Feniger or Mary Sue Milliken mentioning that they were fanatical about saving butter wrappers-- freezing if necessary--- to be used to butter pans!

[eunny jang]

I "save" everything too.

If by "save", you all mean "shove towards the back of the fridge and toss everything every couple months".

Sigh.

[snowangel]

Wow. I'm learning all sorts of other things to save which will make my family crazy. (Why do we have bags of vegetable and meat scraps? etc.).

[Dr. Funk]

The door of the freezer part of our refrigerator has a series of cans with labels as to what type of rendered fat they contain. Why would you throw out bacon fat? or schmaltz? and I've never had schmaltz at home rendered with onions - that's German, not Jewish. As for schmaltz as music, I think you mean Rudolf Friml.