Video: There is only one correct way to “dispose” of bacon grease, and that is by consuming it. While it is a fantastic frying oil — especially for eggs and bread — it also makes a superb mayonnaise, a rich and salty compound butter, and a truly transcendent salad dressing.
Tender, sweet asparagus stalks are about as springy as it gets, but their tough, fibrous ends have to be removed before they can take their place at the table. These are usually tossed (or composted), but they can actually be used to make little green soufflés.
Peeling capsicums before cooking makes them so silky they practically melt, but it does leave one with a lot of peels. You could use them to flavour homemade stock, or you could be extremely clever and make a vibrant red salt that tastes like paprika.
Video: Welcome back to Eating Trash With Claire, the Lifehacker series where I convince you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious. In this episode, I show you how to transform strawberries that are just a bit past their prime into a sweet sauce, cocktail-friendly ice cubes and a delicious compound butter.
Video: Welcome back to Eating Trash With Claire, the Lifehacker series where I convince you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious. In this episode, I show you how to make a delicious, hearty pesto out of carrot tops.
Video: Welcome back to Eating Trash With Claire, the Lifehacker series where I convince you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious. In this episode, I show you how to use spiky, seemingly useless pineapple peels to make a tasty, tropical gin.
Video: If you're a reader of Eating Trash With Claire the Lifehacker series where I convince you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious - you should get excited, because it's now a video series. First up, I show you how to make a delicious, flavour-packed stock out of scraps, shells, and other "trash" that is actually treasure. Enjoy!
I love coffee, but my mind and body are both easily overwhelmed by caffeine, so I often find myself with a cup or so of leftover java (do people still call it that?) by the time noon rolls around. It's usually too stale for drinking by then, but it still has its uses.
Out of all the trash I've eaten, pineapple peels might be my favourite. Not only can you use them to make an ice cold glass of tea or a decidedly tropical infused gin, but it has come to my attention that there is yet another fantastic beverage this noble scrap can be used for: Chicha de arroz con piña.
One can never have too much thyme, but I often find myself with a lot of leftover thyme stems. These woody, inedible, but still fragrant little plant parts may seem unusable, but you can reclaim every bit of your thyme by using them to flavour cocktail syrup.
If we learned anything from LadyDoritoGate, it's that women hate dumping chip crumbs into their wide-open mouths. But maybe this has nothing to do with keeping up appearances; maybe these savvy women are saving the crumbs for clever, delicious uses.
If you enjoy of martinis or Manhattans, you probably have a couple of bottles of vermouth on your bar cart. If you're a lover of a fancy aperitif, you probably have more. These fortified wines are a lot of fun but, due to their lower ABV, they don't last forever.
The stock pot is often the ultimate destination for all sorts of kitchen trash, but once the liquid has been drained away, some of those scraps - namely, carrots - still have more to give.
We all know to save bird bones to make stock, but the excess skin and fat you find yourself with after butchering a piece of poultry is just as valuable. With very little effort on your part, you can render out some of the tastiest cooking fat around.
The first time I tasted orangette - after making a batch out of curiosity and kind of expecting to hate it - my tongue perked up in recognition. It was like a gourmet version of those sugared gummy orange "slices" except way better. Orangette, or candied orange peel, is now my go-to giftable sweet.
There is no such thing as "leftover cheese" but, if you are a cheese collector such as myself, you probably find yourself with little nubs and ends of various dairy treasures. You could keep making increasingly tiny cheese plates, or you could make fromage fort.
Cherry pits may seem like one piece of kitchen refuse that has no second life, but as Stella Parks of Serious Eats points out, the little bit of fruit that clings to the stone has the ability to infuse flavour and colour into all sorts of tasty treats.
In terms of savoury no-cook sauces, it's hard to beat pesto. You can spread it on bread, toss it with grilled vegetables, drizzle it on fish, or use it as a pasta sauce. Though it's usually made with fresh basil, it can actually be made with almost any green thing, including kitchen scraps.
If you are a fan of fresh mozzarella or feta, you have no doubt found yourself with a container or two of somewhat cloudy water in which your precious cheese was packed. You could dispose of the salty, slightly creamy liquid by dumping it down the drain, or you could use it as a tasty cooking liquid.
Steak has always been my favourite protein, and I tend to favour cuts of the bone-in variety. But once the meat has been consumed and the martini has been polished off, it always seems kind of sad to toss the bone, which is too small to make an appreciable amount of broth.
