Skip The Butter And Give Mashed Potatoes A Flavor Upgrade With This Breakfast Leftover

Mashed potatoes are a comfort dish enjoyed year-round by many Americans, and while some create a butter-filled version at home to give it that creamy and flavorful finish, there are even better ways to level up the classic side. Cream can be a great mix-in to make your mashed potatoes silky, but the key to making the comfort food pack a much more hearty punch is using bacon grease to get the job done. Some have discovered this replacement after running out of butter and looking for a substitute, ultimately realizing that it's an even better fit than the more common ingredient.

While there are many ingredients you can add to mashed potatoes for a bold twist, bacon grease is a stand-out because it naturally fits with the classic comfort food's ingredients. It behaves similarly to the fat in butter, blending smoothly in the starch-rich potatoes that easily absorb it. We discussed how you shouldn't throw out this liquid gold after breakfast — and instead save it for mashed potatoes — with Kathleen Boureston, a recipe creator at Gonna Want Seconds. "Any kind of fat added to your mashed potatoes will make them richer and more flavorful, so the final texture and mouthfeel will be similar to potatoes with butter," she said.

Timing is key when making mashed potatoes with bacon grease. Because it's a fairly direct substitution for butter, you can add bacon grease at the same time as you would butter after the potatoes are cooked. "Add hot bacon grease to the mashed potatoes after they've been mashed a bit, and at the same time as you add hot milk or hot cream," Kathleen Boureston advised. "It is key to keeping the potatoes from being gummy." You can also add the hot, melted bacon grease slightly before the milk or cream to ensure the fat seeps into the potatoes first, or a few tablespoons drizzled directly over top afterward for a final addition.

Throwing in some more ingredients can amp up the bacon grease's impact on your mashed potatoes even more. "I like to use [bacon grease] to saute a few cloves of garlic before mixing it in, for even more flavor," Boureston revealed. You can also add bacon bits as a topping to really kick things up a notch, or simply stick with cheese, parsley, and green onions to complement the already rich, savory flavor.