How To Get Bacon Grease Out Of Clothes

How to get bacon grease out of clothes is one of the most significant issues and still causes many troubles in your daily activities. It’s so embarrassing to have stains and an unpleasant smell no matter how beautiful you are, isn’t it?

So you can see the importance of clearing the bacon grease out of your clothes. With cleaned clothes, you can be confident in any circumstance and even avoid skin irritation caused by long-term access to fat from the bacon.

What Is Bacon Grease?

Have you ever known about bacon? I believe that it’s very familiar to you because you may have eaten it before or watched it on TV. You can’t learn how to get bacon grease out of your clothes if you don’t even know what it is.

Bacon is a small piece of meat cut from the pork belly or back preserved by salting and smoking. Salads, sandwiches, and other types of dishes contain bacon to make those foods tasty and yummy. ⁽¹⁾

When you cook bacon, there is a small amount of oily liquid rendered by high temperature. Its greasy substance can easily adhere to various surfaces such as kitchen-self, pan, and especially clothes.

A popular question about bacon is, “ Are bacon grease and lard the same?”. I’m sure that you also have the same consideration. Actually, lard and bacon are different.

Whereas lard is a white fat covering a pig’s kidneys and loin, which are the fattest part of this animal, bacon grease is less fatty and rendered by cooking the bacon.

You may wonder why the bacon is so greasy and hard to remove totally. Fortunately, you don’t need to waste time looking up Google search because I have provided the answer you need in the following section.

Why Is Bacon So Greasy?

In your daily dishes, you can realize that each type of meat has a typical feature so that the cleaning methods applied to each class when it sticks to clothes are various. As I have mentioned above, bacon is greasy, so you need to be careful when using this kind of food.

There is a difference between Canadian bacon and American-style bacon. Canadian ones have leaner parts than slices of bacon from American-style. It’s mainly because Canadian bacon is often cut from the hog’s loin, resulting in less oily extraction when cooking.

According to research, raw American-style bacon only contains 8,5% of protein compared to its high-fat ratio. Therefore, a considerable amount of grease extracted from bacon is unavoidable. ⁽²⁾

Despite its fatty content, I can’t deny that this type of meat is still one of the favorite dishes in many families. So what should you do if you accidentally pour bacon grease on clothes? Don’t worry. I’m here to guide you right now. First, let’s check the needed items for cleaning.

The General Guide To Clean The Bacon Grease Properly

You really love eating bacon, but you are also afraid of cleaning clothes with bacon greases on them. Or, you don’t want to throw away your favorite clothes because of using the wrong bleach.

The best way to remove bacon grease from clothes effectively is to treat it immediately instead of waiting to dry, as many people have misunderstood. Just scroll and follow my ultimate guideline, and they can solve your concerns.

Different Options For Getting Bacon Grease Out Of Clothes

You should consider which item is available in your house and choose a suitable cleaning option in the list below.

Option 1: Use A Paper Towel And Laundry Detergent

You can carry out this option easily at your house because paper towels and laundry detergents are daily used items and can work well with many kinds of stains. 

Necessary Tools

• Paper towel
• Laundry Detergent

First and foremost, you have to throw all of the leftover pieces of bacon away from your clothes. Then, you can treat the grease spots on your clothes with these steps:

Step 1: Put the white paper towel on the dirty area, then let it absorb as much oil as possible. Remember not to move around or rub the paper towel because the grease can stick tighter to the fabrics.

Step 2: After the paper towel absorbs most of the grease, you should pour an appropriate amount of laundry detergent directly on the oily area. Rub dirty sides of the garment together by hand.

Step 3: Wait for 10-15 minutes before taking it to the washing machine or washing it by hand.

Option 2: Dish Soap

Dish soap is also a practical cleaning item when treating grease-affected clothes. One of its advantages is the ability to work well with other substances.

Necessary Tools

• Dish soap
• Toothbrush

First, ensure that no excess grease on your clothes by using a paper towel. Then you can put a small amount of dish soap on the grease spots. Use your fingers or toothbrush (to avoid touching chemicals) to rub it carefully.

Let the grease sit for 30 minutes. After that, you can rinse the stained area with hot water and launder it in the washer if you don’t see the grease appearing anymore.

Note: Always remember to check the care tag on your clothes before using dish soap for cleaning. “Dry clean only” and “cold water only” fabrics can’t suffer from the substances of dish soap.

Watch this video to know more:

Option 3: Dish Soap Combined With Salt, Baking Soda, or Cornstarch

This combination is well-designed for removing one stain on clothing, so you can try to use it if your clothes don’t have many affected areas. You don’t need to use all the ingredients I have listed above, but choose the item which is available in your kitchen at the moment.

Necessary Tools

• Dish soap
• Baking soda
• Salt (optional)
• Cornstarch (optional)
• Laundry detergent (optional)

Now, scroll down and read my guideline carefully. In this method, you need to be patient to get the best result.

Step 1: Sprinkle salt/baking soda/cornstarch on the grease spots and wait 30 minutes.

Step 2: Use a brush to clear all the powder on your clothes. Repeat this step until you find the majority of bacon grease faded away. 

Step 3: Use a toothbrush or simply use your hand to take a small amount of dish soap and place it on the need-to-clean area.

Step 4: After a few minutes, you prepare a hot water bowl to soak all your clothes in for 30 minutes. 

Step 5: Take your garment out and flush the hot water on the garment inside. Then hang it on to dry.

Note:

If the bacon grease is still visible, pour a mixture of baking soda and water following the ratio of 3:1 on the dirt. Then, you can remove the powder and continue to run a detergent liquid on the affected area. After 10 minutes, wash your garment with hot water.

You should see the video below:

Option 4: Dish Soap Combined With Hydrogen Peroxide And Baking Soda

Unlike the previous method, this cleaning technique is beneficial for you to get bacon grease out of dark-colored clothes. Hydrogen Peroxide is an everyday item that you can find in the pharmacy or healthcare stores. Don’t be in a hurry. I’ll move to the detail process right now!

Necessary Tools

• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Dish soap
• Baking soda

Instructions

Step 1: Spray hydrogen peroxide and pour a little dish soap on the greases.

Step 2: Sprinkle baking soda and brush around to cover all the grease-containing areas.

Step 3: Keep this state of your clothes for 1 hour 30 minutes

Step 4: Dry the clothes

How To Clean Bacon Grease On Different Clothes Materials?

In fact, each garment has its typical characteristic because the material used to make it is diverse. Therefore, you can meet some challenges when washing your clothes without ruining them.

That’s why I will share how to remove bacon grease out of different types of fabrics in the next part of this section. Don’t miss my guideline below!

Bacon Grease On Dry Clean Only And Delicate Fabrics

When you use any cleaner to remove the grease, you will care about whether there is any damage to your clothes, especially delicate and dry clean only fabrics.

Dry Clean Only Fabric

Dry clean only fabric requires washing all the surface of clothes in chemical solvents without pouring water in.

Before taking your garment to the dry cleaner, you should wipe off the solids on the stained area with a knife. Place a paper towel on the stain to absorb grease, and add the talcum powder or cornstarch if available. Then you can ask the dry cleaner for help.

Delicate Fabric

The delicate fabric has two unique features, which are lightweight and flexible. However, its weakness is the easy-to-tear feature caused by wearing and laundering. Therefore, while you are getting the bacon grease out, you should do it gently.

What you need:

• Paper towel
• Cornstarch

With this type of fabric, there are 3 important steps you can apply to treat the bacon grease.

Step 1: Use a paper towel to let the oily penetrate and stop when you can’t absorb any more stains.

Step 2: Scatter a large amount of cornstarch on the area where you need to clean. Then, you leave your garment for a few hours at room temperature.

Step 3: Remove the powder by shaking your clothes or blowing powders on its surface. Check your result. If you still see the grease on your clothes, you should do these steps again.

Bacon Grease On Silk, Leather, And Suede Fabrics

It must be painful when you accidentally find bacon grease on silk, leather, and suede fabrics because they are costly. However, you can control the damage at the lowest level by some cleaning hacks below.

Silk And Leather

The stain cleaning methods for silk and leather are pretty similar, but you can adjust the cleaning tools according to the efficiency and quality of your garment.

Preparation

• Talcum powder
• Cornstarch (optional)
• Baking soda (optional)
• Dish soap

Instructions:

Step 1: Strew a suitable quantity of talcum powder/baking soda/cornstarch on the stained area.

Step 2: Keep the garment overnight

Step 3: Remove the powder by shaking your garment and thencheck the result. If you still see the bacon grease on your clothes, you can use dish soap on the affected area.

Step 4: Launder as usual.

Note: You can use a leather cleaner in Step 4 for a higher cleaning capacity.

Suede

Bacon grease on suede fabric will be more challenging to clean because you can see the stain clearer on this material than other fabric types. That’s why you have to identify the stained area correctly before cleaning it.

Preparation

• Cornstarch
• Toothbrush
• Lemon juice

Instructions

Step 1: You sprinkle the cornstarch on the bacon grease and let the powder absorb oil on your clothes.

Step 2: You can shake your clothes to get rid of the powder or use a toothbrush to wipe them quickly.

Step 3: Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 until the bacon grease disappears.

Step 4: If you can’t remove the stain, you can try to use lemon juice. First, you can check whether lemon juice can work on suede or not by testing on inconspicuous areas.

If it works well, you rub your garment with lemon juice and place your clothes on steam extracting from boiling teakettle in 3-5 minutes. Then, you rub the stained area with a toothbrush.

Stubborn Bacon Grease

It’s challenging for you to remove the stubborn bacon grease out of clothes totally in some situations. However, you can’t afford the professional cleaning service because of its expensive costs, so I suggest you try these tips before going to the laundry store.

What you need:

• Cotton ball ( a tiny ball made from cotton, frequently used to remove makeup)
• Alcohol
• Hairspray (optional)
• WD-40 (optional) ( a famous brand in providing displacer)

Instructions

Step 1: With small grease, you let a cotton ball penetrate alcohol and then put it on the grease area.

Step 2: Wait for the stain to absorb the alcohol in 10 minutes.

Step 3: Place the grease under the hot water and start to rinse.

Step 4: After rinsing, hang on your clothes to dry.

Besides cotton balls and alcohol, the efficiency of hairspray and WD-40 in getting the bacon grease out of clothes is undeniable. With these substances, there are a few steps that you need to carry out.

Step 1: Spray the hairspray or WD-40 on the grease.

Step 2: Rinse the garment under hot water after waiting 20 minutes.

Step 3: Put them in the washing machine or launder them by hand.

Disclaimer: The following tips are not applied to the “cold water only” and “dry clean only” labels.

FAQs

Although I have tried to cover all knowledge related to getting bacon grease out of clothes, there are some questions you may consider. Thus, feel free to check your answer below.

Real Experience

I always remember the moment when I dropped a piece of bacon on my T-shirt. I was hopeless at that time, and I even believed that I couldn’t use that T-shirt anymore because the grease was tough to remove as I had thought.

Fortunately, my mom timely placed a paper on the oil and then washed it as usual. It worked perfectly! The tip I want to share here is to treat the stains as soon as possible, and you need to worry anymore.

Do you remove bacon grease from your clothes successfully? Feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below!

References:

1. En.m.wikipedia.org. 2021. Bacon – Wikipedia.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2021. bacon | Description, Types, & Nutritional Value.