Pancakes & Bacon fat

Buttermilk pancakes and Snow's Maple Syrup

I had buttermilk that needed using up. And bacon from Sparrow Market that really needed to be cooked sooner rather than later. And a brand new bottle of locally produced Snow's grade B maple syrup in the fridge. (By the way, if you haven't tasted Grade B maple syrup before, it's darker and richer in flavor than Grade A. Mmmm....)

That was a sign that, even though I now had plenty of onions, I still wasn't going to be making Ethiopian food, and it was time for a buttermilk pancake dinner. Although I can make pancakes without a recipe, I actually enjoy trying the (usually only slightly) different versions in our various cookbooks. This time I pulled out our 1953 Edition of the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook to see what it had to say about making pancakes.

Pancake recipes generally call for some melted butter, oil, or shortening to be added to the batter. This was a 1950's cookbook, so of course the fat called for was shortening or — and as I contemplated whether I wanted to melt some shortening or just use butter I took a second glance at the recipe — bacon fat.

Bacon fat. In pancakes.

I eyed the bacon frying in the pan. Okay, sure. Why not? If I'm already eating bacon, is some bacon fat in the pancakes really going to make dinner that much less healthy?  I had never made pancakes with bacon fat before, but I'm sure many of you out there have (or your grandmothers did). I measured out some of the fat into a small cup and let it cool a bit before whisking it into the eggs and buttermilk, which was then quickly and loosely blended with the flour and other dry ingredients.

Since I was already using buttermilk, which has a distinctive flavor, I don't think the bacon fat had much of an impact on the flavor. The pancakes were perhaps a bit more rich and a bit less sweet, but when you're putting maple syrup on them they don't really need to be all that sweet.

Yum.

Anyway, just a thought to leave you with as we head into the weekend, that glorious time when there is more time to make breakfast than the work-day quick bowl of cold cereal on the way out the door. (Or, as some of my co-workers seem to do, the cup of coffee from a drive-through.)

So what's your favorite pancake recipe?

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Snow's Maple Syrup is available at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, at their store in Mason, Michigan, or online from their website.  And it's worth it.

Comments

[Alex]

Lacking butter, I recently discovered that bacon fat makes for one fine grilled cheese.

[Kirsten]

Great recipe. My son loves pancakes. This is definately worth a try. Thanks for sharing it.

[cherydactyl]

I've used bacon fat to fry pancakes in, but never put bacon fat into the pancakes themselves before. Mostly because I usually try to cook the pancakes and bacon simultaneously (which is not always successful ;-), so the bacon fat is not available when I'm mixing up the pancakes. I should be good to try it tomorrow morning though. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Kitchen Chick]

cherydactyl: I did them pretty much simultaneously. I had the pancake dry ingredients and the wet ingredients (minus fat) pre-mixed but separate, started the bacon, and then when the bacon was about half done I spooned out the bacon fat and, after letting it cool a minute, combined it with the wet ingredients, then added that to the dry ingredients to finish the batter. The bacon was done first, but that's the ideal order for me. I don't care if my bacon isn't hot when I eat it, but I do care that my pancakes are hot off the grill.

[Lynne]

In my house growing up, there was always a little crock next to the stove to store the bacon fat. It never went rancid because it was used regularly. Pancakes were of course made with this fat, and the handwritten cookbook my mom gave me when I got married includes the pancake recipe that calls for 3 TB bacon fat.

I don't keep a little crock by my stove like my mom did, but on the rare occasion I cook bacon, I try to always find a way to use the fat - in a spinach salad, corn bread, green beans, fried eggs, and especially pancakes.

Full disclosure - we're all basically healthy, but everyone in my family *does* have a weight problem :)

[Kate Boyd]

Mmmmm, bacon fat is what dutch pancakes are fried in when you're in the Netherlands...delish.

Sadly, Ralph Snow passed away this winter - hopefully someone else from the family will be at the Farmer's Market booth??