Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I'll be making some Whole Foods 365 Brand uncured bacon for breakfast.

Should I cook the eggs in the the bacon fat that remains in the pan,

OR

toss it, and fry the eggs in an ounce of kerrygold pastured butter?

Please answer from a health perspective, not a taste or waste perspective.

Thanks, Mike

flag	asked May 16 2012 at 11:07 CaveMan_Mike 4,643●13●51

	Not sure about the answer to your question, but can Kerrygold be bought in stores? – Shawn May 16 2012 at 11:40
	I get mine at trader joes – CaveMan_Mike May 16 2012 at 12:07
	I get mine at Wegmans, Whole Foods, or Trader Joes. Note: At Whole Foods, it's kept apart from the other butters - it's in what I'd refer to the "gourmet" or imported dairy section. – barefeet May 16 2012 at 12:46
	It's in the specialty cheese and salami section of my local grocery store, of all places... – Blitherakt May 16 2012 at 13:51
	Trader Joe's sells it for 2.99 in my area and Market Basket, a local chain with great prices, sells it for 2.99 as well. If you have a Market Basket in your area, you should check it out. Way better prices than Shaws and Star and lots of organic choices – deburn May 16 2012 at 22:14

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Aglaee the Paleo RD · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-16 11:14:32Z UTC

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Kerrygold butter and butter from grass-fed animals contain:

vitamin A
vitamin K2
vitamin E
CLA
other important fat-soluble nutrients

... which bacon does NOT contain.

I would go for the butter anytime.

answered May 16 2012 at 11:14

Aglaee the Paleo RD
3,934●4●16

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Awesome! Just in time: the bacon finished and I was just about to start the eggs. Thanks for a great answer AND a timely response! – CaveMan_Mike May 16 2012 at 11:39

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Keep in mind that when you cook with butter you lose a lot of the Vitamins/Minerals/Nutrients stated above... I'm not sure how much, and it depends on temp and cooking duration, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. In the end, it may not matter much at all... – jjtitus May 16 2012 at 13:03

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I've always wondered about Kerrygold. Do we know for sure it's grassfed/pastured? I'm only asking because it seems awfully AFFORDABLE for butter that's very high quality...not to mention imported. Butter at the farmer's market (which I know is the real deal) is a lot pricier than what they're charging for Kerrygold at the supermarket. Just curious. – Amy B. May 16 2012 at 14:19

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and the fat-soluble vitamins found in butter are not really affected by heat, so no worries about cooking with it. just make sure you don't heat it so much that it smokes or burns to prevent damaging the fat! :) – Aglaee the Paleo RD May 19 2012 at 4:58

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and yes, you can trust that Kerrygold butter is entirely grass-fed since it is the way they still do it in Ireland! while it is often hard to find out with most manufacturers, they are pretty clear about it on their website (kerrygold.com) and many people emailed them personally to double check. =) – Aglaee the Paleo RD May 19 2012 at 5:00

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Robin · Answer 2 · 2012-05-16 13:39:50Z UTC

Bacon grease is great when you need to cook at a temperature that is too high for butter -- when you need to sear meats, for instance. So I'd save the bacon grease in the fridge for that purpose, and cook my eggs in butter, which is arguably a healthier choice.

jake · Answer 3 · 2012-05-16 13:47:31Z UTC

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best choice: coconut oil

answered May 16 2012 at 13:47

jake
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amplify · Answer 4 · 2012-05-16 17:37:37Z UTC

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I sometimes eat the bacon fat, sometimes pour it off and use butter, sometimes pour it off and use coconut oil.

answered May 16 2012 at 17:37

amplify
447●1●5

Bryan · Answer 5 · 2012-06-25 19:28:18Z UTC

I drain the bacon grease until it's just covering the pan, hardly dripping at all. Then I fry the eggs. I use cast iron, which works particularly well for this sort of cooking (though butter does make the eggs stick a little less).

Butter actually contains more saturated fat than bacon grease, though it is true that grass-fed (pasture) butter has tons of good stuff for you, and should be the butter of choice for Paleoites. You should have little trouble comparing 100g of bacon grease to 100g of butter nutritionally, and you'll find they're mostly comparable, with the slight edge going to bacon (slightly less cholesterol, sodium - if using salted butter - and sat. fat).

My advice, if you've got the bacon grease hot from the bacon, fry your eggs in it. It's not any worse for you than butter, despite what many of us have been told. Use butter when you don't have the bacon grease or are looking for a sweeter, obviously butterier taste.

Despite loving coconut oil and using it all the time, I have trouble frying eggs in it. Probably user error.

Roberto · Answer 6 · 2012-05-16 12:32:37Z UTC

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According to the PHD, bacon grease is high in omega6 (ie the part that liquifies).

answered May 16 2012 at 12:32

Roberto
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Does that imply that the fat in the bacon strips is NOT omega 6? – CaveMan_Mike May 16 2012 at 15:39

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Dietary reductionism makes me want to cry. – Matt May 16 2012 at 15:49

Tell us more about your tears @Matt – CaveMan_Mike May 16 2012 at 23:10

Tommy · Answer 7 · 2012-05-16 21:47:17Z UTC

Sorry what bacon grease? I eat mine, none left.... :) Seriously it seems to me that there is more "burning" when I use bacon grease than butter. But I do not know the chemistry behind. The fact is that we never know where our food comes from. I buy my bacon at a good location where I hope the animals have a good life and are aloud to feed naturally. But really I do not know. So I mix it up. Buy from different sources. Sometimes use bacon grease sometimes butter and sometimes coconut oil. We have to adopt...or start growing everything ourselves (I'm not ready for that yet :))

Eggs with Bacon Fat OR pastured butter (Kerrygold): What’s a SMARTER choice?

7 Answers