Have you ever made the fatal mistake of skimming the fat off of your homemade broth as it's cooking? While it might seem like a good way to cut down on calories and remove any lingering oil, as one Instagram user shares on her feed, there are many ways to pull the fat off the meat and put it toward other flavorful uses in the kitchen.
The scoop
Cooking enthusiast Clara's Canning Company (@clarascanning) shared a video of what to do with the leftover fat. "But if you do have a big excess, there's a use for that and it still doesn't belong in the trash," she notes. Clara explains that folks can place the solidified fat in a pot with water to make a mock "herbal butter."
As she notes in the video, the concoction can be boiled for about five minutes to help the sediments drop in the water. Then, she explains that you can pour the water and fat concoction through a fine strainer and allow the fat to cool completely. Once it's solid, you can scrape it off and use it for low-heat cooking or refine it again in a pot with a lid to remove the moisture for high-heat cooking.
As Clara shares in the video, the rendered lipids are a healthy source of fat and help with the absorption of vitamins including A, K, D, and E. Leaving some of the fat in the pot will help you absorb the nutrients from other ingredients in your soup, including the grains and veggies. It also imparts a meaty flavor to whatever you cook in it. But if you end up with a ton of it, you can render it down and save it for a rainy day.
How it's helping
Saving the fat from cooking is an easy way to reduce the amount of this valuable fat going into your trash can. Clara shares that if you don't flavor the broth with any onion, garlic, or seasoning, then you can use it for baking to replace shortening or butter in sweet and savory recipes. It cuts down on the money you'll have to spend on cooking oils, and Clara even notes that you can use the rendered fat sparingly in dog treats, too.
What everyone's saying
Other users were impressed by Clara's hacks. "Oh my god. I wish I had known this. I literally threw out an entire Tupperware container of it [because] it had turned into a gelatin in the fridge overnight!" one user shared.
"I have never refined the fat before!! I am gonna try it," another user expressed.
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