I Did a Bad, Bad thing… or Did I?

Well, probably not as bad as “Baby” did in Chris Isaak’s song - she broke his heart, of course. I just broke an egg. Intentionally, of course. And here’s how the story goes…

So a couple of weeks ago, I got my January/February 2009 issue of Saveur magazine. One of the ultimate tomes for epicures, chefs, good cooks, and just plain foodies alike. (I fall into the latter category.) And every year’s fist issue features the “Saveur 100” – 100 things about food and cooking which are favorites of the writers, staff and editors of the magazine. I’ve looked forward to that issue and have enjoyed it for several years now.

Well, this year’s issue was a bit of a disappointment. One hopes this is not an indication of a good magazine in decline. But one article struck a chord with me. An article about the benefits of using bacon drippings (aka grease) instead of butter for frying foods. It included some history, a reference to an 1824 southern cookbook titled “The Virginia Housewife”, related how it was an ingredient that “poor folk used”, etc. etc.

Then came the reference to the 1847 cookbook “The Carolina Housewife”. Quoting the article now and not the cookbook: “For a postbellum (sic) working class that couldn’t spare precious butter for frying its eggs, grease ultimately won out over grace”.

Hmmm. Let’s see. Both my grandmothers kept all the grease left over from frying bacon. So did Ma for a long time. So did I for that matter, until the Great Bacon Grease Jar Disaster of 1978. But that’s another story.

The author of the article praised the use of this frying medium, and recounted how he had crunched the nutritional numbers regarding grease vs. butter. And concluded that except for caloric content, bacon grease is better for you.

Of course I had to pull out a pound of bacon and a pound of butter from the freezer and do the comparison myself. Without boring you with the numbers, I’ll just say he’s right. Read it yourself. Page 24 of Saveur magazine, Issue Number 117. Check it out at Barnes & Noble or Borders.

And so this morning, after frying bacon for our breakfast, I made myself a treat – a basted egg. Meaning a tablespoon of bacon grease in a frying pan heated just back to sizzling, broke an egg into the pan, and basted the top of the egg with the hot bacon grease until it, too was cooked. Never flipped the egg.

I did drain it with paper towels before enjoying it with a piece of buttered toast. Whole grain, of course. I loved every bite that I hadn’t tasted for years – decades, maybe.

My cardiologist would probably be apoplectic had he seen this. And it would be hard to explain that the bacon grease, the egg white and the whole wheat toast were the healthiest part of this treat. Can’t really argue about the butter and the egg yolk, though.

They would be the bad, bad things.