13 Things Southerners Never Throw Out In The Kitchen

And it's not for the sake of penny pinching.

Some people might call it clutter or hoarding, but we like to think of it as resourcefulness, whether it’s keeping Country Crock tubs to store leftovers or saving ham bones from Thanksgiving dinner to make flavorful collard greens. While there are certainly items to keep out of the kitchen and things that should be thrown away, in the South those rules do not extend to our precious bacon grease and often excessive cookie tin collections. These are 13 things you’d never find a Southerner throwing out in the kitchen.

Related: 10 Things In Your Kitchen To Toss Immediately, According To Organizing Experts

Grandma’s Recipe Cards

No matter how grease stained or tattered they are, you won’t find us tossing these precious pieces of paper. Preserved just how Grandma left them, passed-down recipe cards are practically heirlooms in a Southern kitchen and carry family history—sometimes cake batter splatters too.

Empty Jars…Especially Mayo

Grandma would NEVER let empty jars go to waste, whether it was to wash and save them for canning, storing leftovers, using as bud vases, or soaking up the last of the jar’s contents. When you’re at the end of the barrel of that mayo jar, it’s not time to toss it quite yet. Use Ivy Odom’s hack to make an easy cucumber-onion salad. And don’t let that last bit of Dijon go to waste either! Add ingredients like olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and other seasonings to the jar to make a quick and easy salad dressing. The same can be done with the last of a jar of preserves for a fruity vinaigrette.

Bacon Grease

Bacon fat is like liquid gold in a Southern kitchen. You’ll never catch a Southern throwing out bacon grease, or worse pouring it down the drain. It’s simply a sin. And it’s not about pinching pennies, but savoring all that salty, smoky flavor that comes from cooking bacon which you just can’t get with anywhere else, even with the best olive oil. Store it in the fridge until you’re ready to use, whether it’s for perfectly crusted cornbread, extra flavorful biscuits, or taking brussels sprouts up a notch.

Related: Your Grandmother Treasured This Essential Southern Ingredient, And So Should You

Bones and Veggie Trimmings

Never (ever) throw out any bones in the kitchen—especially those prized ham bones that can be used to flavor greens, soups, and more. Chicken, turkey, and beef bones are also great for making stocks. And while not all vegetable scraps are suited to making broths, you best be holding onto those onion, carrot, and celery trimmings. If you’re not ready to make homemade stock at the moment, just toss them in the freezer to store for later.

Related: Ham-And-Bean Soup

Country Crock Containers

There’s an unspoken rule in every Southern kitchen that food containers get a second life—especially those empty butter tubs. From sending leftovers home with family members after Sunday supper to freezing homemade soup there’s always a few reused Cool Whip or Country Crock containers floating around the kitchen.

Related: The 12 Best Christmas Cookie Tins Of 2023

Slightly Soured Milk

While your first thought is to toss an “expired” jug down the drain, you might want to reconsider that decision. If it doesn’t smell too funky, don’t waste the milk (or your money), and instead use slightly sour milk to make homemade buttermilk. Soured milk just means it is beginning to ferment (like yeast in a sourdough starter) and is essentially the same thing as cultured buttermilk purchased directly from the store. Sour milk is especially good for baking things like buttermilk biscuits and scones because it adds a slight tang and helps them rise.

Related: Our Best Sweet and Savory Buttermilk Recipes (That Go Way Beyond Biscuits)

Cookie Tins

From delivering homemade baked goods to new neighbors to holiday cookie swaps, having a plethora of empty cookie tins on hand at all times is a must in any Southern home which is why you’ll never catch us recycling them.

Asparagus Rubber Bands

You never know when you might need a few extra rubber bands. Whether they’re in your kitchen junk drawer or in the cupboard alongside the ziplock bags and parchment paper, these small, thick rubber bands saved from bundles of produce like broccoli and asparagus are great for holding plastic wrap in place over an open can or bundling up a half-used bag of rice.

Coffee Tins

More than just housing coffee grounds, these handy little tins are known to grace our pantry shelves with other munchies, holding miscellaneous nails and screws in the garage, or serving as a watering can or dirt scoop for flower beds. The upcycling purposes are endless with these aluminum cans—especially if you keep the lid.

Zip-Top Plastic Bags

Unless it has contained raw meat or fish, you’ll find us rinsing zip-top bags with a little soap and reusing them until the zipper breaks or the bag busts—especially when it comes to freezing food. While a Ziploc might see a handful of different leftovers before it ends up in the waste bin, our freezers are a treasure trove of reused ziplock bags from the one that is continually refilled with vegetable scraps and bones to make homemade stock to the one dedicated to overripe bananas for baking banana bread.

Egg Cartons

Rather than purchasing seed-starting flats, recycle your cardboard egg cartons for the task. They make great portable trays for starting seedlings to plant in the garden and keep everything in neat little rows.

Related: How To Start Plants From Seeds, According To An Expert

Produce Bag Twist Ties

Those little bread tags and twist ties have a penchant for playing Houdini so it’s always good to have a handful of extras at the ready. You can never have too many! When you’re short on chip clips use them as a stand-in for bags of nuts, chips, cereal, chocolate morsels, and even frozen food bags.

Takeout Cutlery

Individually wrapped sets of silverware always come in handy. Packing a lunch on the go? Toss in a set for convenience. And Mama always taught us to keep a few pairs in the car glove compartment for emergencies—even if it’s for a quick fix of Blue Bell’s newest flavor in the grocery store parking lot.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.