The Convenience Store That Sells Bacon Grease By The Bucket

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Gas station convenience stores in the U.S. have taken on a life of their own, transitioning from simple stops where travelers could fuel up, grab a super-tasty hot dog and a drink, and then hit the road again, to enormous, sprawling destinations, with everything from massive food courts to gift shops filled with all kinds of branded goods. Wally's is a good example of one such enterprise, though it is still in the early days of growth, and — to our knowledge — doesn't sell a bucket of bacon grease, like its rival chain Buc-ee's. Yes, the convenience store chain that started the massive travel center trend (and is known for its squeaky-clean restrooms) carries equally massive containers of the rendered pork fat.

Clocking in at a whopping 7.5 pounds, these gargantuan tubs, which more closely resemble a bucket in which you'd buy winter salt for laying down on ice, are much larger than the typical 14-ounce tubs that the brand, BaconUp, sells on places like Amazon. And Redditors are tickled by their presence in Buc-ee's stores, with one commenting on a thread that features an image of these buckets stacked on a pallet, "I actually just looked for this at HEB. [Buc'ee's] has out-Texas'd HEB," while another proclaimed it was the "most Buc-ee's thing" to which they had borne witness in days.

If you've bought into the hype and purchased the seven-pound tub of bacon grease from Buc-ee's, but now you're staring at the bucket, wondering what the heck you're going to do with all this rendered fat, we have some ideas. First, and most obvious, is to cook with it. There are a variety of ways you can use bacon grease in your cooking, from putting some in the frying pan before cooking eggs to subbing it in for butter when making homemade popcorn. It helps flavor vegetables while sauteing or roasting them, and we guarantee you will never eat grilled cheeses any other way after using bacon grease to pan-fry them.

If you need to lay off the bacon grease after a while, but you don't want it to spoil before you use it all, there are a few non-cooking uses that bacon grease is good for, including creating firestarter kindling pieces for your next cookout or camping trip. You'll have to prep the wood sticks well in advance, but it catches so quickly and burns so well, the effort is worth it. You can also use it in your bird feeder, as the "glue" that holds seeds together for our winged friends to peck on.