Bacon Grease
 

This is one of those questions where the desire to know the answer outweighs the embarrassment of asking the question lol..
SO-
I am counting calories & I wanted bacon & eggs for breakfast- and I got the low calorie bacon- 70 calories for 3 slices- and I was wondering- is the grease thats left over from the bacon count as part of those 70 calories? Cause who doesnt like fried eggs (:^:) lol & I could kill 2 birds with one stone there if it does count as part of the calories- I would be saving calories on not using the margarine to cook the eggs with...

Boy, I don't know the answer but I also really would like to know!

yes.

when they calculate the calories in a food, the put it "as is" in this special machine that effectively burns it and they measure how much energy it releases.

so, for goods bought with a calorie content on them, you can safely assume that it accounts for the whole of it.

Of course left over food has calories ! Where would it go ?

Those are extra calories. The serving size is 3 pan fried slices. Not 3 pan fried slices and all remaining drippings. If counting calories, I definitely would not assume the remaining grease as included.

Here's my suggestion just because it is what I do:rollpin:
I turn on my oven to 350, line a pan with foil and cook the bacon in the oven. I have a really good caphalon skillet and lightly spray it with cooking spray and cook my eggs that way. I am following Insanity's meal plans, so from there, I have an Engrish Mufrin and put tomato on it with the bacon and egg and I put about a teaspoon of light mayo next to the tomato side. Mmm.

And you are correct, who doesn't love fried eggs in bacon grease!

this is true ONLY if the package says "3 rashers, grilled, contain...blah blah"

sometimes they have different calories for grilled, ovenbaked and as sold.

Calorie counts for bacon vary. But, here are the calorie counts I'm most familiar with.

70 calories for 3 strips of bacon seemed very low, so I googled and the
only bacon I could find at 3 strips for 70 calories is Eckrich Ready Crisp bacon.

If you're using this bacon, because it's already cooked, the 70 calories probably encompasses all of the calories in the bacon.

If you're using other bacon, the calorie level is always for the preparation method listed (usually the nutrition label will say pan fried slices, or crisp, in which case the calories are listed only for the bacon, not the grease left behind).

If you've got a food scale, the best way to calculate bacon calories if you're going to use the fat, is to weigh the bacon before you cook with it.

Bacon thicknesses can vary, but I've always (for the past 30 or so years I've counted calories) counted one slice of bacon (including the fat) as 100 to 150 calories (thin slices 100, thick slices 150)s. I just googled to verify, and this still seems to be accurate. But brands vary in thickness, so if you have a food scale or look up the specific brand on a site like Daily Plate or Calorie King.


American bacon is called "streaky bacon" in the rest fo the world.

On the daily plate
Bacon (streaky)
Serving Size: 29 g; Calories: 157, Total Fat: 12.12g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 10.74g



If you're only going to use some of the bacon fat - I find it easiest to cook the bacon in the pan alone and pour off the unused bacon grease and then measure or weight the grease and subtract those calories from the starting total (bacon grease has about 100 calories per tablespoon).


Hope this helps.

my goodness.... bacon is confusing. I usually eat uncured bacon and according to Daily plate it's 60 calories for 2 pan fried slices. However the package I have here says it's 70 calories per (admitedly pretty thick) cooked slice. Even at 70 calories a slice it's still a bargain compared to Kaplods 150 quote. So I went back to daily plate and their quotes for streaky bacon are all over the place but most are well under 100 calories for 2 "rashers" aka slices.

And here I always think of calorie counting as the easy straight up way to go but as bacon shows, there's no easy answer.

I mean, look at the options for "bacon streaky" or here are three options for uncured bacon:

uncured Sunday Bacon (Applegate Farms)
Serving Size: 2 slices; Calories: 60, Total Fat: 5g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 4g

Organic Uncured Pork Bacon (Wellshire)
Serving Size: 2 Pan Fried Slices; Calories: 60, Total Fat: 3g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 8g (same calories but twice the protein and less fat - how's that work????)

Applewood Smoked Uncured Bacon (Hannaford)
Serving Size: 1 slice; Calories: 70, Total Fat: 7g, Carbs: 0g, Protein: 2g
(this the one I usually eat and it's the same thickness as the Applegate Farms bacon above which is the bacon I used to eat till I found Hannaford's less expensive one... but more than twice the fat and calories ? I'd defy anyone from telling the two apart - they look and taste identical....)

gotta love the daily plate... for suggestions of healthier alternatives to my uncured bacon they say:

Healthy Alternative with fewer calories

* Sour Cream Nonfat
(45 fewer calories)
* Canada Wintergreen Mints
(45 fewer calories)
* Chicken Gravy
(45 fewer calories)
* Diced Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic & Onion
(45 fewer calories)

oh yeah, chicken gravy or wintergreen mints are really gonna make my Carbonara or Sunday brunch soooo special....

(Some folks would say just giving up bacon altogether would be the easy answer but you'll get my bacon when you pry my well seasoned cast iron frying pan from my cold dead fingers....)

Well I guess I could have just read the packaging in the first place to find the info!
Anyways, the brand is Oscar Mayer Naturally Smoked Center Cut Bacon- 70 calories for 3 "skillet cooked slices" & later on it says to let the grease soak off on a paper towel SO guess no fried eggs for me! :)

LOL! Im in a hankerin for some bacon... OH look I can have a dollop of sour cream instead yay!! hahahha :dizzy:

You're comparing apples and oranges, or rather you're comparing a slice of bacon cooked and drained, to a slice of bacon plus the fat that you cooked out of the bacon.

My quote for 150 calories is for raw bacon (or cooked bacon when you eat both the bacon and the drippings). An average slice of bacon has 100 calories raw (meat plus fat), and 45 calories cooked fairly crisp. Thus a thick slice of bacon that has 70 calories cooked, probably has 150 calories if you not only eat the bacon, but also the fat that was cooked out of the bacon.


If you cook and eat one slice of that bacon, it would have 70 calories.


However, say you dice that slice of raw bacon, and saute in a pn and add some veggies, and some beaten egg. You now have an omelette, but you have to count more than the 70 calories for the bacon, because you didn't eat just the cooked bacon, you also ate the bacon fat that would have been left behind in the pan if you cooked it as in the prior example.



That's why I recommended using a food scale to weigh your bacon for the calorie count. Most brand of bacon give you only the calorie count for the cooked bacon only, not for the bacon and the fat that was rendered out of the bacon. I hate that. It makes it difficult to count the calories when you use the whole slice of bacon, even the fat (such as sauteeing veggies, or in german potato salad, etc.
).

... or you could carefully pour off the grease and measure it into a new skillet and then fry the eggs in that fat (counting 38 calories for every tsp of bacon grease you used).

eventually you wouldn't have to use a new skillet, because you'd be able to estimate how much grease is left behind from the bacon.

Okay, now that makes sense! Thank you so much Kaplods!!!

I'm still curious how my Applegate Farms bacon can claim 60 calories for 2 pan fried slices while my Nature's Place - which looks (thinkness, length, streakiness) and tastes identical - says it's 70 calories for 1 cooked slice.

I think the main difference lies in the level of cooking. "Pan fried," isn't very descriptive. You can pan fry bacon until it's extremely crisp (least amount of fat and calories) or you could pan fry bacon leaving it chewier (more fat and calories). The different labs that determined the calorie count probably cooked the bacon to different levels of crispness.

Which is another reason I like to actually use the food scale. If I'm going to eat bacon pieces (no drippings), I weigh the bacon after cooking and draining. I weigh the bacon, using the metric function, and multiply the gram weight by 6 (the number of calories in each gram of pan fried bacon, according to the daily plate).



Using a scale works best in our house, because we often buy bacon "ends" so we can get gourmet bacon on the cheap. Nueske's for example (famous for their mail order, but their retail store is only about 40 minutes from our house), in their retail store sell bacon ends for half the price per pound of their thick cut bacon.

Since bacon ends are all different lengths, widths, and thicknesses, calculating by "slice" doesn't work.

If I'm going to use the bacon in a recipe, including all the fat, I weigh it before cooking (then go online and get the calorie estimate based on raw bacon).

If I'm going to use the bacon cooked, I weigh it after cooking (as described above).

I just acquired a weight watchers scale at a yard sale but even with that I doubt I'll weigh most stuff unless I really stall and have to readjust my thinking. Right now I'm doing a good job with packaging labels, the occassional measuring cup, and my estimating abilities. I might have to use a scale to lose weight but I want to hone my "figuring it out" skills so I can maintain using experience instead equipment. Might not work out that way but that's what I'm hoping for....

When I have bacon I cook at home I use the calorie count per serving according to the package. I also so very seldom have fried eggs that when I do I am not counting the bacon grease, I am just going to enjoy my two fried eggs and call it 140. 2 eggs cooked in bacon grease once in a blue moon won't make us gain weight. 2 fried eggs every morning cooked in bacon grease - that would be a different story. Enjoy the fried eggs and move on I say. JMO - I may feel different later, but for now I need to enjoy the journey.

Edited to add: According to fitday 1 teaspoon of bacon grease is 38.6 calories. Now you know!

Although I estimate more often than not, I find I use the scale a lot more than I expected (even when estimating), simply because it's actually easier and quicker than getting out measuring cups or even measuring spoons (because my scale zeros out. I just zero it between each ingredient I add to the bowl). Because my scale is so easy to use, it actually takes no more time or effort or utensils than guesstimating without the scale (the only difference is the 3 seconds it takes to press two buttons - the first turning the scale on. The second after putting the bowl on the scale to press the zero button. Three seconds, two buttons and no extra dirty spoons or measuring cups.

It's actually easier and quicker than gesstimating without the scale, and makes it easier to guesstimate when I don't have the scale (like at restaurants) because I get the constant feedback. I've noticed that without the scale's feedback, I experience gradual "portion drift" the size of my estimation gets slightly bigger and bigger. The scale keeps me aware of what the portion size is supposed to look like.

It also helps that I have most calorie counts memorized (After nearly 40 years of calorie counting, there aren't many foods I can't estimate fairly accurately - at least by "exchange" which I use more than calories).

I did have one that stumped me the other day, though. Rhubarb. I had to look it up in my exchange book: 1 (122g) cup diced, raw = 1 vegetable, 30 calories. 2 cups (244) = 1 fruit, 60 calories.

I measured out and weighed out the rhubarb - 250 grams for a rounded 2 cup glass measuring cup). The way my memory works (great for this kind of stuff, horrible for practical stuff, like where I left my keys)., I never have to use a measuring cup or the scale again. I'll just weigh the rhubarb right from the cutting board, and remember than 250g has 65 calories (which I can work out in less than 2 minutes with a calculator, or just try to go for measurements that I can do the easily math in my head, such as cutting it in halves and quarters 125g = 32 calories. 182g - 48 calories....

I can do the calorie counts in my head without a calculator 90% of the time. So knowing how many calories are in 250g, I can figure in my head any calorie count rounded to 25s and 50s in just a few secondes. 25 grams = 6.5 calories, 50g=13 calories....).

I know not everyone can do that kind of math easily in their head (I get to thank my Dad's math drills when we were kids), but with a calculator handy - the math becomes so simple, you do it without even thinking about it.



Even when I come across a new fruit or vegetable, I can usually estimate the calories just by it's weight, volume, and flavor. It doesn't always work, but I usually try it just to test myself. I was a bit off with rhubarb, because I overestimated the carb content. I knew it would be a lot lower in calories than most fruits, but I didn't expect it to be as low as it turned out (lower than many other vegetables, even). Only twice the calorie of celery (I use mneumonic devices to help me remember calorie counts, which is one of the reasons I rarely forget). Rhubarb looks like celery, but has twice the calories. So celery has 20 calories for 150g and rhubarb has 40 calories (and I'll never forget it, because any time I measure out either rhubarb or celery, it will remind me of the calorie counts for each).


Sounds complicated, but it's really easy when you've been working with calorie counts as long as I have.

That grease is really bad...

I fry eggs all the time - I eat a lot of eggs. I just fry mine with a couple sprays of pam.

Also, try turkey bacon. I love that stuff and only 35 calories a slice.

Thanks! I'll have to try that!

Yep, I know that the bacon grease adds flavor, but I also fry eggs with a cooking spray (the pan will make a difference in the sticking, tho).

I always thought that saturated (meat) fat was horrible for you, but I really think it's the animal fat/carbohydrate combination that's the real killer.

When my doctor suggested low-carb, I thought he was crazy. I didn't even seriously consider it, until I had a counsult with the doctor running the weight management clinic in the local hospital (she and her husband each lost about 100 lbs on a modified Atkings).

When I started reducing carbs, and eating more fat (including bacon), I expected my cholesterol numbers to skyrocket. Instead they plummetted. So did my blood pressure and virtually all of my other health indicator tests too.

So long as my health indicators are improving, I don't worry about it.

I've given up margarine for butter (much less butter, but I only use real butter. It's expensive, so I use it sparingly).

I don't eat bacon or bacon fat every day, but I use it more than I did when I thought low-carb was unhealthy. I've found that fats we think of as unhealthy (bacon, butter, full-fat cheese....) often have so much flavor that a very little bit goes a long way.

Most people think low-carb is huge amounts of meat, especially bacon, but I think I'm actually eating no more meat than I was before. The reason is that without the high-glycemic carbs, I'm much less hungry. So I eat less food overall, so much less that the amount of meat isn't changing much. I can take away the carbs and be satisfied with the rest, because the carbs aren't fueling hunger 24/7.

I am eating a higher percentage of fat, but as long as the health indicators are improving, I'm not worried. I'm eating TONS more vegetables (non-starchy ones), so I think the volume of food I'm eating isn't too different. I graze on raw veggies alot, and I use full or partial-fat dips.

No matter what you eat, it's not one meal, or even one day that makes or breaks a healthy diet, so cooking eggs in bacon fat occasionally isn't the worst thing you can do (no, I'm not advocating the bacon-at-every-meal diet).