Introduction: Bacon Fat & Cinnamon Candle With Bonus Bacon Recipe

By Unicoi Preserves
About: I’m a self-taught recipe creator, home baker, award winning competition cook, and entrepreneur 🍑🍒🍏. I smile 😃 a lot, and make a mean cheeseboard 🧀🍇.

When I cook bacon, I always pour the bacon fat into a canning jar. I wondered if I could make a candle from the bacon grease, and use a cinnamon stick for a wick. Spoiler alert! I had to buy some candle wick to make it glow.

Supplies

  • Bacon
  • Sheet pan
  • Fork - to turn bacon
  • Paper towels - to drain bacon
  • Plate - for bacon
  • 4 oz. Canning jar
  • Cinnamon stick
  • Beeswax coated candle wick
  • Scissors
  • Lighter
  • Baking soda (in case of emergency grease flare up)

Step 1: Cook Bacon

Place 4 slices of bacon on a baking sheet. Place in cold oven, turn oven on and cook 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Flip bacon, cook 8 minutes. Bacon will tell you it’s ready by showing a little bit of white bubbly foam, AND smelling delicious. Remove from sheet pan, drain on paper towels to demolish at your leisure.

Step 2: Pour Up the Bacon Fat

Pour the hot bacon fat carefully into the jar. 4 slices of Wright’s bacon yielded exactly what I needed for this 4 oz. canning jar.

Step 3: Making the Candle

I chose a hollow cinnamon stick (foreshadowing??), then refrigerated the grease until it hardened.

Step 4: Make the Cinnamon Wick

My cinnamon wick was way too long for the jar, so I broke some off.

Side note, I didn’t want to waste those little pieces I broke off, so I used them in a pot of tasty tea. 😃

Add the cinnamon stick to the hardened bacon fat.

Step 5: Let’s Light It Up! 🔥

I waited til nightfall, and took my candle, lighter, and emergency baking soda outside to light the candle

Step 6: Disappointment!

While the bacon was delicious, this cinnamon wick didn’t stay lit 🔥🥲.

Step 7: Not Giving Up!

Not one for giving up, I assessed the problem.

  1. The cinnamon stick was too long.
  2. Cinnamon is tree bark, but it wouldn’t burn on its own. 🤔

My solution? I bought a pack of beeswax coated candle wick, and forged onward.

I shortened the hollow cinnamon stick by breaking it, then used a piece I broke off to make a hole inside the cinnamon stick in the bacon fat so I could insert the candle wick. I eyeballed a piece of wick to feed down the cinnamon stick, and used scissors to trim the wick so it would burn into the bacon fat.

Step 8: Fingers Crossed!

Let’s light it up 🔥!

Step 9: It Worked!

Hooray! Never give up! Thanks for following along on my Bacon Fat & Cinnamon Candle making adventures. 🔥