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Crockpot Sludge: What do you do with it?


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I have to start by saying how grateful I am that dishes duty is dh's job. He does the previous night's dinner dishes every morning before he leaves for work. Sometimes he has cooked the meal, and sometimes I have. When I cook in the crockpot neither of us really knows what to do with the sludge left over, and he'll (we'll) leave the dirty, sludge-filled crock in the sink (or on the counter next to the sink) for up to a week before cleaning it out. I'm always at a loss for what to do with the sludge. We have a septic system, so it really shouldn't go down the drain; we have no disposal for that reason. It's often too goopy/liquidy for the trash. In the summer we'll sometimes dump it out behind the compost pile, but I don't love that solution because it attracts critters, and it's not a practical solution when there are two feet of snow on the ground.

 

There must be a better way.

 

Please share your crockpot-sludge solutions.

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Try emptying it out into a strainer. The pieces get thrown into the trash, but liquid goes into the drain. Or save a butter bowl, etc to put it in and throw it all in the trash.

 

I have septic, too but I have a disposal, we have lived here for two years and just got our tank pumped and they said it was fine.

 

I do, however try to dump into the trash before the sink. Usually it is thick enough to throw away without any problems.

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Well, that's a new one for me. I have never in my life heard of crock pot sludge and had to click to see what in the world it is.

 

I don't get crockpot sludge but when my husband has been in the kitchen frying eggs or we have a rare batch of fried green tomatoes or okra, we have a lot of grease cum crummy/crumbly bits left over. I keep a pickle jar in the cabinet over the stove. When it's cool I pour it in there. When it's full, it goes to the trash.

 

That's the way my mom did it and that's the way her mom did it since I've been alive. As far as I'm concerned, that's practically religion. However, they say that when my mom was younger, they fed it to the livestock.

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we feed ours to the dog:)

 

but before dogs....we'd pour it into an old yogurt container, cooll whip bowl, applesauce jar, etc. something that might be thrown out later and put it in the trash can.

 

Or you could put some rice in it and serve soup the next day.

 

Sorry, I don't know what crockpot sludge is but I was guessing grease. Can dogs eat that? Would ppl want to? Now I'm guessing it's not grease.

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Sorry, I don't know what crockpot sludge is but I was guessing grease. Can dogs eat that? Would ppl want to? Now I'm guessing it's not grease.

 

Well, right now I have a gelatinous substance about 1-1/2" thick in the bottom of my crockpot that is leftover from a couple of nights ago when I cooked chicken legs with a bottle of terriyaki sauce. It was 2-family packs of chicken legs, filled the crock right up; now all that's left is the sludge. The kids think it looks like gross jello. This type of thing happens whenever I cook a whole chicken or chicken legs. I guess it's mostly congealed fat. I don't think it would be healthy for our dog to eat it - and it would surely make him sick. I might feed it to the pigs if I had any... :tongue_smilie:

 

When we do a small amount of frying on the stovetop (ie brown ground beef) we do dump the contents into an old glass jar for disposal, but this is way too much to fit in a jar like that. Maybe it would fit into a 1-quart yogurt container... we always recycle those.

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Well, right now I have a gelatinous substance about 1-1/2" thick in the bottom of my crockpot that is leftover from a couple of nights ago when I cooked chicken legs with a bottle of terriyaki sauce. It was 2-family packs of chicken legs, filled the crock right up; now all that's left is the sludge. The kids think it looks like gross jello. This type of thing happens whenever I cook a whole chicken or chicken legs. I guess it's mostly congealed fat. I don't think it would be healthy for our dog to eat it - and it would surely make him sick. I might feed it to the pigs if I had any... :tongue_smilie:

 

When we do a small amount of frying on the stovetop (ie brown ground beef) we do dump the contents into an old glass jar for disposal, but this is way too much to fit in a jar like that. Maybe it would fit into a 1-quart yogurt container... we always recycle those.

 

I guess I'm the weird one because I eat it! The fat will rise to the top. If you let it cool, the fat will congeal into a distinct layer. Then you can easily skim the fat off the top and throw it away. The leftover "jello" looking stuff is juice from the meat. You can warm it and thicken it with cornstarch or flour to make gravy or add it to broth to make a tastier soup. I like it over rice or even just warmed up in a mug. It's like a very rich broth, definitely not sludge! :D I wouldn't eat it if it was left on the counter for a couple of days though! :)

Edited by Cricket
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I guess I'm the weird one because I eat it! The fat will rise to the top. If you let it cool, the fat will congeal into a distinct layer. Then you can easily skim the fat off the top and throw it away. The leftover "jello" looking stuff is juice from the meat. You can warm it and thicken it with cornstarch or flour to make gravy or add it to broth to make a tastier soup. I like it over rice. It's like a very rich broth, definitely not sludge! :D I wouldn't eat it if it was left on the counter for a couple of days though! :)

:iagree: This, absolutely! Can't imagine throwing that away, in fact.

I put a strainer over a refrigerator container and strain the sludge into the container. Pop it in the fridge. The next day, I take it from the fridge, skim off the congealed fat from the top, and use what's left to make gravy or add it to homemade soup. Honestly, the more gelatinous & gross-looking it is, the better it will taste. And just in case you don't already know this, the jello stuff will melt into yummy broth as you warm it even slightly.

 

ETA: If you skim the fat, but then don't have an immediate use for the broth, you can also pop the container into the freezer for later use.

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:iagree: This, absolutely! Can't imagine throwing that away, in fact.

I put a strainer over a refrigerator container and strain the sludge into the container. Pop it in the fridge. The next day, I take it from the fridge, skim off the congealed fat from the top, and use what's left to make gravy or add it to homemade soup. Honestly, the more gelatinous & gross-looking it is, the better it will taste. And just in case you don't already know this, the jello stuff will melt into yummy broth as you warm it even slightly.

 

ETA: If you skim the fat, but then don't have an immediate use for the broth, you can also pop the container into the freezer for later use.

 

*whew* Maybe I'm not so weird after all! :D

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:iagree: This, absolutely! Can't imagine throwing that away, in fact.

I put a strainer over a refrigerator container and strain the sludge into the container. Pop it in the fridge. The next day, I take it from the fridge, skim off the congealed fat from the top, and use what's left to make gravy or add it to homemade soup. Honestly, the more gelatinous & gross-looking it is, the better it will taste. And just in case you don't already know this, the jello stuff will melt into yummy broth as you warm it even slightly.

 

ETA: If you skim the fat, but then don't have an immediate use for the broth, you can also pop the container into the freezer for later use.

 

Same here!

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