You all know that I save the fat from cooking meat to use in future cooking. Scooping it all into a container for the freezer is the simple way to save the fat. However, I find that when the fat is in a solid blob in a single container, I just don't use it as much as I would have liked. Then, after a year or so, I have a freezer full of containers of fat that are only partially-used, and I've relied on other cooking fats in daily meal prep. My plan for saving meat fat is to offset some of my use of other cooking fats, both to use what I've been provided (I hate to think an animal isn't fully used seeing as how they have paid with their life for my consumption) and using the fat from meat will save some money on groceries.
My solution is to make it more appealing to reach into the freezer for fat when I'm starting a pot of soup or sautéing veggies. How I did that is by freezing the fat in tablespoon-size dollops.
I refrigerated the fat to firm up, then scooped small portions onto a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. This part takes about 3 to 5 minutes of work.
I froze these spoonfuls on the sheet until solid, then transferred them to a container which is kept in the top basket of the kitchen freezer. When I start a pot of soup by sautéing some onions, I use a fat-dollop in place of oil.
I baked a ham on New Year's Day this year. Afterward, I had about 1 and 1/2 cups of leftover fat. For best flavor, frozen ham fat should be used within 3 to 4 months, or until about the time I bake my next ham, on Easter.
