10 Things Southern Grandmothers Never Throw Away (Americans Toss Them Every Week)

The average American family throws out about $1,500 worth of food a year. The grease poured down the sink, the bones off a Sunday chicken, the heel of a loaf of bread, the peels off a bag of apples. My mother would have called every one of those things groceries. I'm Ruby Mae, and I've lived my whole life in a holler in the eastern Kentucky mountains. These are 10 things the women up here never threw away, and what each one turned into. THE 10 1. Bacon grease. Strain it into a can by the stove. It seasons green beans, cornbread, eggs and gravy, and never goes down the sink. 2. The bones. A ham bone seasons a pot of soup beans. One chicken carcass makes about 2 quarts of broth. 3. The scrap bag. Onion skins, celery ends, carrot peels and parsley stems in a freezer bag, then into the stock pot. Leave out cabbage, broccoli and potato peels. 4. Stale bread. Bread pudding, breadcrumbs, cornbread dressing and milk toast. 5. The last of the buttermilk. ½ cup of buttermilk plus whole milk, 12 to 24 hours on the counter, makes another full quart. 6. Glass jars. For the pantry and the icebox, never the canner. 7. Worn-out clothes and feed sacks. Quilts, dish rags and rag rugs. 8. Eggshells and coffee grounds. For the hens and the compost pile. 9. Pot likker and the cooking water. Greens broth, potato water for bread, and a second batch of pickles from the leftover juice. 10. Peels and rinds. Watermelon rind pickles and apple peel jelly. BREAD PUDDING 6 cups stale bread or biscuits, 3 eggs, 2 cups milk, ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, a shake of cinnamon. Soak 20 minutes, then bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes. THIS WEEK, BEFORE TRASH DAY, SAVE THREE THINGS The bacon grease, the chicken bones and the bread heels. That's a pot of green beans, 2 quarts of broth and a bread pudding you won't have to buy. Tell me in the comments what your mother or grandmother never threw away that I didn't put on this list. Next time: why most people's biscuits come out flat and tough, and the old Southern tricks that make them tall and tender.