Bacon Grease Gravy

Every Southern kitchen used to keep a tin of bacon grease by the cooker, and this is the simplest thing you can do with it. It is a milk gravy, but the fat is doing all the flavouring, so there is no need for sausage or seasoning beyond salt and pepper. Keep the flour on the low side and let it stay pourable rather than stodgy.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for four plates

• 200g (7oz) smoked streaky bacon cut across into short strips
• 3 tbsp rendered bacon fat from the pan, topped up with butter if you are short
• 30g (1oz) plain flour
• 500ml (18fl oz) whole milk warmed
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 pinch sugar optional, balances the salt
• salt taste first, the bacon is already salty

Kit

• Heavy frying pan
• Slotted spoon
• Balloon whisk
• Kitchen paper

Method

1. Put the bacon strips into a cold heavy frying pan and set it over a medium heat. Starting cold is the only reliable way to render the fat out rather than sealing it in.

2. Fry for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until the strips are properly crisp and there is a good pool of clear fat in the pan. Lift the bacon out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper.

3. Measure what is left. You want three tablespoons of fat and no more. Pour off any excess into a jar for another day, because too much fat here gives you a greasy, split gravy.

4. Scatter the flour into the hot fat and whisk it to a smooth paste. Cook for two minutes over a medium heat, whisking constantly, until it turns pale gold and the raw smell goes.

5. Add a quarter of the warm milk and whisk hard. It will clag together immediately. Keep whisking until smooth, then add the rest in two more goes, whisking each one in properly.

6. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for four to five minutes. It should be pourable rather than thick, coating a spoon in a thin, even layer. If it stiffens too much, splash in more milk.

7. Grind in the black pepper and add the pinch of sugar. Taste before adding any salt at all. Crumble in three quarters of the crisp bacon, keep the rest for scattering on top, and serve immediately.

Tips worth knowing

• Keep a jar of bacon fat in the fridge. It sets solid, keeps for a couple of months and makes this gravy a five minute job whenever you want it.
• Do not use unsmoked bacon if you can help it. The smoke is the entire flavour and unsmoked back bacon gives you a bland, salty white sauce.
• Add most of the bacon at the end and keep some back. The pieces in the gravy soften within a minute, so the scattered ones give you the contrast.
• If the gravy looks slick or oily, you left too much fat in the pan. Whisk in a splash of cold milk off the heat and it will usually come back together.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps three days in the fridge, where the bacon softens completely. Reheat with a splash of milk over a low heat, whisking. It does not freeze well because the milk separates and the bacon goes soggy.

Questions people ask