Bacon Up Bacon Grease started in 2018 after three family members fried their Thanksgiving turkey in bacon grease. At that time, Owensboro native David Bissmeyer didn’t envision the future of the company growing to multiple stores across the country.
Bissmeyer said the idea to provide bacon grease as a product came from memories of his family saving it in a Folgers butter tub underneath the sink. He and his colleagues aligned themselves with a bacon producer while in Cincinnati, and the company started going from there.
Their system filters the grease out three times to ensure no food particles are in the grease.
“Now we’re selling it out across a whole multitude of retail outlets and online,” Bissmeyer said. “People are using it for frying but also do everyday cooking, which really just shows itself as a huge compliment to anything anybody’s doing in the kitchen.”
He said the product can be found in Owensboro at Rural King on KY 144. It’s also available on Amazon. Bissmeyer said by the start of the year they plan to be on Walmart’s online service as well.
Bissmeyer said there has been a large uptick in sales during the holiday season, but the big increase started roughly in mid-2020.
“With so many people staying at home and wanting to get that enhancement, or some people couldn’t go out to eat at restaurants so they brought their cooking experience into the house more. Our product really is a great supplement to give you that extra kick,” Bissmeyer said.
They saw another large increase when they reached out to a Tik Tok influencer named Darryl who began spotlighting their product in cooking videos across his feed. Bissmeyer said they had received over 55 million views across all Darryl’s videos including Bacon Up.
Darryl uses the grease for numerous recipes, including chicken parmesan, burgers, meatballs and more, but Bissmeyer said it can be used for a plethora of other methods and recipes.
He uses it in his own gumbo and has seen customers use it in gravy, frying hush puppies, tater tots, chicken fried steak and baking biscuits and cornbread. When he goes to conventions, Bissmeyer uses a recipe his sister came up with for cookies.
Bissmeyer cites Owensboro for instilling in him a strong sense of family importance.
“Just building this business from scratch and kind of just seeing the momentum take off and everybody we present this to is like ‘oh wow, what a great convenience,’” Bissmeyer said.
