Saving $28 per year by deglazing fond I normally wash away

[JenniferW]

After frying a couple beef hamburgers in stainless steel frying pan, I was left with quite a bit of fond. I had an idea. I drained the fat off then deglazed the pan with some water, releasing all the flavorful fond. I worked every bit of the fond off then strained the juice into a mason jar, for use later in a soup.

It's so flavorful and beefy. I previously used a full heaping tbsp of Better than Bouillion Beef Base for our soup meal (usually a quick Pho without noodles). Now I cut that in half and supplement with fond juice. It tastes even better and reduces the cost of the beef base by quite a bit. These jars cost $4.65 a piece -- with sales tax on food here in Oklahoma -- and last about a month. So that yearly expense is normally 12 x $4.65 = $56 per year. But if I am now cutting that in HALF I am saving $28 per year. $28 saved per year for a better tasting soup base. Not bad I'll put that $28 per year in VTI instead of Walmart's bank.

[kawaivf1]

Great idea, I will try this next time I make beef! I always save my bacon grease, and use it for cooking versus using butter, or oil. It has cut down significantly on our spending of those items.

[JenniferW]

Works great with steaks as well -- for when you don't deglaze and make a steak sauce with it. I do leave a little fat in the juice, which tastes good in the soup. I just roughly pour off the bulk of fat from say a 73/27 ground beef patty fry, before deglazing.

[Sclass]

This is really wonderful. I have happy memories of using my grandmother’s homemade soap. She saved her beef tallow.

Grandma was a chemist. Apparently there is a whole family of reactions around fat for biodiesel, soap, explosives. All seem to use sodium hydroxide at some point in the reaction. I kind of missed out on this education because my parents moved away from them. But my brother lived with my grandparents for years and learned all this stuff. He can make all kinds of stuff from beef tallow and drain cleaner.

They also added the fat to their deep fryer. Grandma had unbelievable deep fried treats for us when we visited. My mom would get really upset when the kids would say grandma was the best cook in the world while eating her fries, chips, doughnuts and deep fried nuts. They all had that burger smell.

[jacob]

Grandma was a chemist. Apparently there is a whole family of reactions around fat for biodiesel, soap, explosives. All seem to use sodium hydroxide at some point in the reaction. I kind of missed out on this education because my parents moved away from them. But my brother lived with my grandparents for years and learned all this stuff. He can make all kinds of stuff from beef tallow and drain cleaner.

DW's first batch of soap was made from lard she rendered for 24hrs in our slowcooker after trolling a good number of butchers to find some pork fat. (They usually throw it out.) It was pretty time-consuming but that first batch created the longest lasting bars I've ever used. Three or four times longer than cheap soap. However, now she just uses walmart lard. (Cheaper, less hassle, not quite as long-lasting but still better than commercial bars.)

For NaOH, she used pellets. We've yet to try using lye made by dripping water through wood ashes.

However, I believe she has ghettoed the mixing radio by making pH-indicator out of red kale (yes, the vegetable turns out to be perfect for that job). Normally, one would use an online calculator and a gram scale.

[Sclass]

My grandma did some kind of titrating reaction. According to my brother the free fatty acid content and how much lye determines the quality of the soap - laundry vs. body soap. Using scales gets the reaction going but reliably reproducing quality soap needs some kind of ph measurement. That’s fascinating that it can be done with kale juice.

I’m kind of scratching my head now wondering how this works in oil rather than in an aqueous solution. Hole in my knowledge.

Yeah, so my brother has a lot of glycerol, fat based waxes, glues and other tallow based compounds in his workshop. Personally I like petroleum based chemicals around my workshop. I think I’ve avoided fat technologies due to lack of understanding.

The fact the diy soap lasts longer is interesting too. I recall those gran’s yellow bars with the bone chips never seemed to go away. They must have lasted longer. I wonder why. More soap and less junk?

Gran used to keep all those little free perfume samples handed out at stores to add fragrance to the bars. You never knew what you’d smell like after a bath.