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It's simple but delicious: bacon grilled cheese, where the grilled cheese is griddled in the bacon fat instead of butter.

matza balls ( chicken fat is my secret ingredient)

chicken liver, so important to have the chicken fat, we free the livers in the chicken fat ,than use the fried skin pieces as a topping for the finished dish.

Kabab koobideh. So important to have flecks of fat in the ground meat mixture. It makes for a perfectly juicy and grilled skewer of meat. Oh, and the aroma of the hot coals when the fat drips on to them and the smoke from it all? Om nom nom.

I have to agree with sakuraa, pie crust and pastries are the items I make where fat is THE key ingredient.

Pork belly udon! It's not nearly as velvety good without the fat.

confit anything.

Green beans sauteed with bacon fat, garlic, anf hot chili flakes. I tried it once with olive oil...fine, but as they say everything is better with bacon!

As I read this post I was feasting on a lunch of green beans with onions sauteed in bacon fat. A favorite since childhood!

Any meat. Dark chicken meat, pork ribs, lamb, beef - it all has to have some fat in it or else it's not good. And omg - bacon. BACON! BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!BACON!

A coconut-based shrimp curry.

crispy juicy pork belly after being caja china-ed

Twice Cooked Pork Belly - you leave tons of pork fat on there, and that's the best part to eat!

French bread cut in half length-wise, and each half slathered with it's own stick of soft butter. Then 15 minutes at 350 degrees with a finish of broiler to brown. Pioneer Woman then sprinkles with fresh thyme, but it's darn tasty without, also. That's right two (2) sticks of butter, one loaf of bread...that's it!

Tender, juicy pulled pork.

roasted chicken. The skin gives it the seasoning and the crispyness that offsets the juice of the meat. It also can help save an overcooked bird too.

Matzoh balls w/ Chicken fat for the holidays, and I make my stuffing for Thanksgiving by sauteeing my mire poix in bacon fat! Yummy!

carbonara - you just can't have it without the grease from the pancetta!

Oh yeah, I'll second the vote for double-cooked pork belly, and raise you a Thai ground pork with eggplants -- nothing can fully substitute for fatty pork.

pasta tossed in bacon grease with blue cheese

pork and chive dumplings - fatty ground pork helps make the filling juicy

Goose Confit. Easily. I'm hoping to get my hands on a wild goose soon, which will be destined for a slow braise in goose fat.

French Fries cooked in rendered duck fat

pound cake. either all butter, or butter with a little cream cheese.

Italian buttercream.

I'll have to agree with matzoh ball soup, and of course macaroni and cheese. Though I must say that my absolute favorite use of fat has got to be good butter spread generously on a good baguette.

duck confit

Chicken fried in lard.

chicken fried steak and gravey

Pulled pork.

Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise, chopped liver made with plenty of schmaltz!

Pork Confit, definitely. I prefer to make it with hocks.

My favorite has to be Japanese styled garlic and shiso fried rice using the fat of A5 kobe beef (the real deal from Japan).

Another one is stir-fried egg noodle with roast goose fat, topped with scallion and ginger.

Oh now I am hungry!

butter, cooked in butter, with a side of bacon and eggs.
chicken liver pate',
gravy,
ice cream,
cream in my coffee.

I cannot fail to note chorizo-potato soup or patatas a la riojana. I tend to hew to the recipe of Barrenechea, which is simple but hardly austere. While others sometimes include peppers, wine, and spices other than pimenton, hers omits even garlic.

Anyway, copious olive oil combined with chorizo fat puddles on top of the bowl and absorbs amazingly in bread. This is my favorite vehicle for no-knead bread (two or three days old… crusty perfection).

Quiche.

Ok that was supposed to be "Biscuits made and topped with real butter..." but I got so distracted by the breakfast-y daydream that it didnt come out that way....

Plain old beans. I'm a college student, so living on a budget but eating well go hand-in-hand with me. I simmer beans till they're ready, then mix them in lard or bacon fat with some herbs. Yum!

Fried chicken. Can't make it without the fat, no sir.

The easiest sauce for whole steamed fish or poached chicken:
slice two stalks of green onion thinly on the bias and put those in a coffee mug. pour 1/4 cup of soy sauce over the green onion slices and set in an empty sink. heat 1/6 cup of corn oil, laced with a few dashes of dark sesame oil until smoking and then pour carefully into the mug. when the bubbling subsides, give the contents of the mug a quick whipping and pour over your fish. amazing.

Well, in Alsace: schmaltz on bread. Hereabouts, duck confit.

donuts fried in lard

A cheeseburger. If the fat is not dripping down your arm half way through eating it, then it wasn't made properly.

roast potatoes duck fat style you know it

fried pig skin ...fried fat

Shrimp Creole -- with a whole cup of heavy cream.... mmmmmmmmmmmmm i love cream.

pan-fried duck...so delicious....

Duck confit, rillettes, really good French fries, an English breakfast. I'm getting hungry just typing this up.

first fry bacon.
then slow fry diced potatoes, onions and bell pepper in the bacon grease....

Bagna cauda.

Flavored, yummy fat with assorted breads and veggies for transporting it into your system.

Gumbo with a roux made from lard.

Anything confited under duck fat or lard: duck legs, necks, pig's ears, cheeks, rillets, etc. It's getting to be that time of year again. . .

Oh boy, has to be pork belly confit from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie. Pork belly (loads of fat) confited in lard, then deep fried-yum!

bacon chocolate chip cookies, bacon fat roasted brussels sprouts, duck fat roasted potatoes, beans made with lard or bacon fat. fat is a beautiful thing. oh and milk gravy made with pepper bacon drippings.

A porterhouse steak, grilled to medium rare with a big slice of blue cheese compound butter melting on top. Serve with a side of pommes Anna.

Wilted lettuce and onions with hot fat back greese. Yikes

Potatoes cooked in duck or goose fat. So addicting.

Leftover potatoes sizzled in olive oil and served with garlic mayonnaise. Mmm.

How to choose just one!??!
I would say pork carnitas. Nothing can match the silken texture of pork that's been slow cooked in fat.

Marrow, or country pate formed into patties and pan fried in marrow. Mmmmm. Or, of course, greblings from chicken skin.

Roast chicken for sure!!

Braised pork belly or really anything with bacon fat as a main ingredient. hmmm bacon!!!

Chocolate chip cookies without serious butter? Not possible.

I'm with the bacon people. Someday I will make my own confit or pork belly. Someday soon.

Roasted Yukon Golds in duck fat.

Fried eggs in bacon drippings. *salivates*

can't make sausage gravy without some bacon lard. yes, I'm from tennessee. I run a lot.

Pasta Carbonara. How 'bout some bacon, cream, eggs and cheese...and some of those rendered bacon drippings? Yes, I know it's not precisely the original but I learned to make mine from a fellow that lives in Bari, Italy so it can't be too wrong, can it? :)

There are so many wonderful ways to use fat in cooking. My refried beans wouldn't be right without bacon and bacon fat. The best fried chicken is made with lard and I could go on and on. I try to watch caolires but I refuse to punish myself with "non-fat" food.

Potatoes roasted in duck or goose fat.

Biscuits and sausage gravy. Just wouldn't be right without plenty of fat.

Sarabeth's Velvety Cream of Tomato Soup -- just google the recipe. Made it this afternoon. The house smells...unbelievable.

Schmaltz and gribbins. Basically chicken skin and a little onion slowly rendered to tasty goodness. Strain the fat (the schmaltz) and chill for a tasty little spread for toast and eat the now golden deliciousness that is crisped chicken skin (the gribbins). This little concoction clogged the arteries of many a Jewish man. We miss you grandpa.

Like a lot of others, I say potatoes in duck fat. Mmm...

Homemade pie crust. The addition of butter AND shortening makes a world of difference. Store-bought just can't hold a light to it.

I make a mean duck confit, but I think my favorite "fat" dish might just be butter. Seriously. My boyfriend yells ate me every time he catches me eating it straight. But it is just so damn tasty...

Like the commercial where the dog keeps yelling Bacon! Bacon! You can make almost anything better with bacon fat.
But, I also love a grilled sirloin with that nice edge of grilled fat. I think I was born with the fat gene 'cause I love to eat that when it's really crispy. My grandfather used to love that part also.The fat police have almost beat that out of me but sometimes. . . .

Roasted bone marrow with sea salt and black pepper... Fat is the only ingredient.

Pie...any kind :)

i made a roux for a smoked duck gumbo this weekend that used the fat which dripped off from the duck as it was smoking.... not the healthiest thing i've ever made, but it sure was tasty.

Two words--clarified butter. The beginning of so many wonderful dishes...

cookies

Deep fried chicken

I cook my scrambled eggs in bacon fat.

pie crusts - made with butter!

White sausage gravy

bacon here

Easy and delicious refried beans: melt 3 - 4 T. bacon fat, add one can drained and one can undrained kidney beans, mash with a potato masher.

Crawfish etoufee' with roux. Thank you!

Bacon bacon bacon!! Oh, and fried eggs with melted cheese on top!

Mashed potatoes with butter, whole milk, sour cream and bacon. Fatty goodness!

bacon...Bacon...BACON!!!

emerald420@hotmail.com

Carnitas, chile rellenos, & refried beans with lard! Duck confit on a lovely tostada (tortilla fried in duck fat) and tostones. Polenta made with heavy cream and either a huge lump of gorgonzola melted in or a big piece of truffle butter. Swiss chard wilted in bacon fat with elephant garlic and red onions. A beautiful ribeye steak all crispy fat on the outside and silky cool meat inside. Potatoes fried in chicken fat. Oh my, how on earth do you choose??

Fried rice, starting with a base of 1/2 lb of chopped up bacon and diced onions.......

Gotta be frites, real Belgian frites. Both the means of preparing it and the dipping sauce of mayonnaise are vital to its very pleasure. Beef tallow, olive oil or peanut oil. All make such a huge difference in how good it is.

Fries (or anything else!!!!) in duck fat

Pie crusts!

Bacon wrapped water chestnuts, or chicken roasted in a "bacon blanket".

Grilled bacon wrapped shrimp

Wilted Lettuce. An easy way to use up lettuce from the garden that uses bacon and bacon fat with vinegar, a little salt, and sugar. Easy and refreshing.

biscuits and gravy (together is good, but definitely not required)

molokhia (an egyptian soup) with LOTS of garlic fried in butter as the final touch

Cassoulet! Without fat you are just eating pork n' beans!

Duck and Chips cooked in duck fat!

I love putting a little bit of duck fat into my mashed potatoes. It feels so wrong, but tastes so right!

Savoy cabbage and sauteed bacon.
Need the bacon and the fat to make it. Deelish!

Um, you know, food. That is definitely my favorite thing to cook where fat is important. I don't make a lot of fat-free dishes - a meal without fat is like a day without sunshine, I always say.

Pizza

Sptitz Christmas Cookies! Just can't make them without BUTTER!

The crispy, crunchy parts of a grilled ribeye!

I love to make deep fried onion rings from scratch and deep fried Haddock or if my hubby was lucky, some fresh fish he caught in nearby Lake Erie

Puff Pastry! couldnt have those flaky layers without butter :D

The gravy for my turkey will be smooth and fatty!
I also need fat for pie crusts.
The stuffing will feature goat cheese and a fatty sausage.

bacon

duck fat popcorn with mini M&Ms. the chocolate melts in the hot salty popcorn... mmmmm......

Bacon confit:
1. Collect bacon fat for days/weeks/months until you have at least a pint or two
2. Cut good slab bacon (I like Neuske's) into 1–2" chunks
3. Cover the chunks with the fat and put into a 250 degree oven for 3–4 hours
4. Chill in the fat (note: will keep for months in the fridge)
5. To serve: remove from fat, fry until crispy on all sides.

The result is crispy on the outside and just melts and oozes bacon fat into your mouth. Delicious.

bagna cauda

Pork Shoulder must have more porky fat around it for a nice carnitas!!

My favorite meal fried chicken and macaroni and cheese.

Traditional Uzbeki plov which is a rice dish and which lamb fat is rendered and all the ingredients cooked in before adding stock and rice and it cooking through!

Red-cooked pork belly. Gotta leave the fat on...why do some people trim it?!?

My king-size crispy chocolate chip cookies ........starts with 2 sticks of real butter .....ummmmmmmm .

Pot Roast. The meat has to have some fat in order for it to be tender, and it also adds flavor to the dish.

I will use bacaon fat in almost anything, so anything!

dumplings! put some lard inside. YUM. JUICY!

First thing that came to mind...fried chicken (I love the taste of crispy chicken skin)!

Cassoulet. Duck fat, sausage fat, butter.....

Biscuits and gravy. Without the fat from the sausage, the gravy ceases to exist. I like to add a tiny bit of rendered bacon fat into the gravy to give it a subtle smoky depth. And of course what would biscuits be without creamery butter?

Pork belly cooked in soy sauce and sake with green onions. The fat makes it taste so good!

Baked Artichokes & Cheese.
It's Mac 'n' cheese made marinated artichoke hearts instead of pasta.
Caramelize the onions in duck fat, add the artichoke hearts, sprinkle with flour, thicken with heavy cream and add tons of asiago cheese. Sweated bacon llardons get stirred in right before baking until bubbly. Oh My God.

Bacon rolled in flour and then fried or take a Butterhorn and spread butter all over it and fry that.

Heart Heaven!!

Fried rice with Chinese sausage

Sausage gravy for biscuits
Pie crusts with lard
Wilted spinach leaves with bacon grease an balsamic vinegar
Biscuits made with lard and spread with bacon grease b4 baking
Anything fried
A flap meat burger with flap meat and pork fat back ground together

Bacon.
Bacon cheeseburgers.
Chicken skin.
Gravy.
Mashed potatoes with loads of cream and butter (and garlic).
Home fries.
Ice cream (the place I go to has ice cream with a massive quantity of butterfat-- www.creolecreamery.com )

Moar fat, moar better. Oh yes.

True Carnitas prepared in lard in the traditional way. Nothing more than salt, pepper, some lime juice and a dash of Tequila. The very slowly cooked in a huge vat of lard.

This is obviously a helluva tough one... I was tempted to say Spaghetti Carbonara or Bucatini all'amtriciana, both with disgusting amounts of guanciale - jowl fat.

Then I thought, well, roast stewed pork belly Japanese style - think Kaku-Ni from the likes of Chiyono or Sakagura - which is basically just hunks of pork belly troubled by modest amounts of meat. In this category also falls the fresh-roasted smoked uncured pork belly sold in the better Greenpoint meatmarkets.

But, I would say number one fat dish for me is not a dish at all: it's sort of an ingredient: pie crust made with fresh lard. Last january we butchered a couple of pigs at a friend's farm... these pigs were fed on whey and lived outside in winter, which left them with a 3 inch think layer of fat all along their backs, as well as tons of leaf-lard inside their bodies. We took some of it back to NYC, rendered and filtered and cleaned it all up, and used it to make unbelievable pie crusts.

Apple pie with pork-lard pie crust is probably at the top of my list.

Bacon fat is really the best addition to most anything.

I make a chicken and rice and the chicken fat seeps into the rice while cooking. Don't tell anyone...it's great.

Yorkshire pudding

I never start any soup without bacon grease, it's against my soup cooking rules. It makes all my soups yummy.

deep fried anything, especially calamari

French fries

though I've yet to make this myself, my grandmother said the secret to the best xiaolongbao skins, the most cui cui and tender, was a touch of lard.

Pork Belly Confit!!!

Brisket! I brown in fat before I add the spices and liquids.

Egg fried in bacon fat, served on cheddar-covered english muffin, with bacon of course!

sausage. Ever try to make a low fat sausage? Don't.

okinawan pork with ginger and spinach

Pork belly braised in port wine. If you're not going to eat the fat, there's no point in cooking pork belly at all.

asian braised pork belly. the fat is essential to the broth and also for the amazing texture of the pork itself. mmmmm.

Bacon^3 - Bacon Squared - Blackberry braised pork belly wrapped with pancetta, roasted in oven, seared on bottom with frying pan. Shaved bacon bits to garnish.

cassoulet

Toss-up between duck confit and kimchi fried rice with pork belly cooked in the rendered fat from frying the pork belly.

A homemade mac and cheese with bacon. I render the fat which i use to thicken the roux for the bechamel sauce -mmmmm. Then The bechamel becomes a bacon cheese sauce with which I mix the pasta and crumble the cooked bacon pieces into. OOOHHHH so good - I feel like Homer - I am drooling. MMMbacon

Pork Belly Caesar...Pork Belly cooked in its own fat, cooled, then diced and breaded. After that, they are deep fried and tossed as croutons for the caesar salad.

Best crouton for a salad EVER!

anything with butter

I'm not sure I make a dish that doesn't involve fat, but my favorite is fried green tomatoes, the way my Graddad used to make them for me (and nobody else!). Cut thick slices of unripe tomatoes, dredge 'em in cornmeal seasoned with salt and pepper, and fry 'em up in bacon grease! Mmmmmm....

tostones. better than french fries! (must be the double-deep-frying....)

Pie crust made with leaf lard. Fried chicken. And another vote for bacon cooked with, well, anything.

thanksgiving cornbread stuffing!! all the veg is cooked in sweet, sweet bacon fat.. the crumbled bacon goes back in with all the veg and pecans and cornbread. heaven.

ooooh I want that book!

I use my rendered duck fat for sauteeing my meatballs in my meatball soup, and my father uses his rendered duck fat for sauteeing sausages: like brats, weisswurst.

HOORAY for saving your drippings!!!!

A simple fried egg.....in the rendered bacon fat rather than butter.

Bacon grease is the best ingredient in most things.

Potatoes oven roasted with garlic and goose fat

The heart attack on a plate, or that is scrambled eggs cooked in the fat from the sausage and bacon you just made. Chop the sausage, crumble the bacon, toss into the eggs, fry it up and top with cheese.

carbonara...the fattier, the better!

and spinach salad with warm bacon vinegarette :D

Mmmm. . .carnitas!

Sausage lasagna - how can we count the ingredients with fat? Don't you dare, just enjoy!

Fried chicken-my grandmother greases up her old fashioned iron skillet and it gets so crisp and delicious

I love mashed potatoes and stuffing with gravy.

I love cream gravy! On mashed potatoes or biscuits or chicken fried chicken. Yum!

Sausage. We butcher / mix our own. I have to add more fat than I think would be necessary.

Fry bacon. Then fry my eggs and french toast in the grease. Please enter me, thank you

French fries.

Tomatoes with basil and feta, drizzled with olive oil.

Fried potatoes and okra with lots of grease.

pie crust is great when made with fat

Pie crust made with Crisco.

French fries

I do not have a fat phobia. I love veggies flavored with bacon - especially green beans or squash, pork chops fried in bacon grease, pie crust made with lard, LOTS of gravy, full flavor and full fat mac 'n cheese or au gratin potatoes, all kinds of bread eaten with good old butter, potatoes and onions fried in bacon grease, and I could go on for days. Paula Deen's recipes do my tastebuds good and make my tummy happy!!!
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this giveaway!

A big honkin' salad with a ton of avocado slices, or my special tortilla soup, topped with sour cream and guac.

pork belly