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Cooking with Animal
Fat
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| Eating Economically at the
Co-op series |
by Miriam Axel-Lute
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Editor’s note: We recognize that for
a variety of reasons many Coop’ers choose not to include meat in their
diet, and printing of this article is by no means an endorsement of one
particular diet. We welcome the submission of vegetarian responses.
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I’m
going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you’ve never cooked with
lard (pig fat), let alone tallow (beef fat) or lamb fat. These
traditional fats have fallen so far out of favor most of us don’t even
give them a second thought.
However, if you are an omnivore, there are a few reasons why you might
want to explore these long-neglected fats.
First, they can be, and are being, produced locally. As anyone who has
tried the 100-mile diet knows, fat can be a bit of a sticking point, as
it were. In fact, thinking globally, Shannon Hayes of Sap Bush Hollow
Farm in Schoharie County argues that it’s ecologically irresponsible
and selfish to prepare everything with olive oil. She recalls doing
research in Argentina, where they "produce olive oil like mad and no
one can afford it, because it’s all being sent up here."
After many years of a seriously fatphobic culture, many researchers and
writers, from Michael Pollan to the Weston Price Foundation (Price was
an anthropologist who studied the health and diet of hunter-gatherer
cultures), are questioning whether the research actually shows any
casual link between saturated fat and heart disease (www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html).
Everyone will have to make their own assessment about fat in their
diets, but for myself, it certainly sticks with me that animal fats are
less refined, something healthy eaters value in all our other food
groups. They only require slow cooking, as opposed to the intensive
chemical processes that bring us canola oil and margarine.
And, of course, from an economical eating perspective, these animal
fats are a lot cheaper than butter. If you special order grassfed fat
for rendering from Sap Bush Hollow Farm you’ll spend close to $5/lb, or
you can purchase pork fat from Sweet Tree Farm, available for sale in
our meat case, for under $4/lb. Compare these prices to organic butter
for $7.79/lb and $9–10/lb for local butter. If you get fat directly
from a farmer or butcher, it’s likely to be even cheaper.
In a long-term way, buying locally raised animal fat is also an
investment in making local, grassfed, humanely and ecologically raised
meat more affordable and sustainable. As Hayes explains, "We all want
to eat more sustainably. But everyone only wants filet mignon,
porthouse steak and ground beef.… Americans don’t know how to use the
rest.… That means we have to raise more animals and charge a whole lot
to make a living. If we can sell the whole animal, our net
profitability goes up. We won’t have to charge as much for the fancy
cuts. Our waste goes down. And people can eat more economically."
Right now, she says, the fat is usually discarded by butchers, but that
could turn around quickly if customers start expressing interest.
Here are a few tips from Hayes for recovering some of the lost
knowledge of our grandparents on using animal fat:
• Get the right stuff, but don’t be picky. Don’t ask for the fat just
around the kidneys. The difference isn’t that great (kidney fat is 90%
fat, the fat layer against the flesh is 80%), and it’s too much work
for the farmer to separate. However, there should not be skin attached
to it. That outer layer of fat is difficult to render and delivers
little product for the labor.
• Rendering is much easier than it sounds. Basically, it means chopping
the fat up small, slow cooking it, and straining. Rendered fat will
keep for years in your fridge or indefinitely in the freezer. (For
complete details, see Hayes’ article "Making Use of the Fat" http://grassfedcooking.com/articles/prudentcarnivore2.html.)
• Reuse. Animal fats used for frying can be strained and reused at
least once, making them even more economical.
• Pick the right fat for the job. They don’t have the flavor of butter
or olive oil, but animal fats have a much higher smoke point than
vegetable oils, meaning they are better suited for high-heat sauteeing
or frying (unhealthy free radicals are formed when an oil is heated
above its smoke point). Tallow and lamb fat have an even higher smoke
point than lard, making them best for super high heat cooking, like
searing a steak—but only if the food will be eaten hot. Since they are
also more saturated, when they cool they feel greasy. Lard is less
saturated and softer making it good for baking, sauteeing vegetables,
or frying something that will be eaten cold.
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