My first choice is fried and second is...fried. Fired in bacon grease and salted. That is the way I was raised with bacon grease. Fried potatoes, okra, eggs, everything was fried in bacon grease.
We still keep a container of bacon grease in the fridge for cooking.
I just checked and I have five quarts of bacon grease in my refrigerator.
I save every drop for adding flavor to many dishes and to occasionally fry something up in.
They say that bacon grease is bad for the heart. Increases cholesterol etc. They said charcoaled meat was bad, coffee was bad and now they say coffee is good. Soner or later the FDA or some authority will say there is a health benefit to bacon grease and those that tossed theirs in the garbage will be sorry.
If you check out the work of Nina Teicholz you will find that what we've been told about cooking oils is a load of bull. Most "vegetable oils" have to go through significant processing to become that way, while most animal based fats are ready to use after butchering.
Worth a watch:
There's not much better for a summer meal than a BLT sammitch with fried okra and squash fried in the bacon grease. I stocked up on okra in 2018. The garden went totally crazy (good). Produced heavily, 40 pints of pickled okra, a dozen or more 1/2 gallon bags of cut & breaded frozen okra.
Dennis, the secret to keeping the breading on (for anything) is after you dredge it in flour/corn meal, just let it sit in the fridge for 45 minutes or so. Works every time!
Happy frying!
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