Fat Is The New Black

“Fat is flavor” is one of the key terms a cook learns at the beginning of their career, regardless of what we know about cutting certain types of fat out of our diets to remain healthy.  In a cook’s world today there are many trendy fats that are getting all the press.  No, I’m not talking about trans-fats, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and the like; I’m talking about butter, lard, bacon fat, duck fat, olive oil, beef tallow to name a few.

When I first started cooking, I used lots of butter and olive oil in my food mainly because I was reading classic cookbooks that had those fats as the cornerstone for most of their recipes. As I noticed a shitload of weight gain and higher than normal cholesterol, I began to back off a bit and get a little smarter about how I used various type of fat.  Nowadays I use butter and oil sparingly and add them mostly at the end of a dish to add a little shot of flavor.  Of course there’s that lubing the pan issue to keep things from sticking, but even then not a lot is needed. If you use nonstick pans (I only recommend them for eggs, crepes, French toast, and pancakes, the latter two I rarely cook.), you can get away from using it all together.

As with anything en vogue, there is a shelf life of popularity.  Lard is really so out of the picture that it hardly warrants mentioning, but as soon as I don’t, some food revivalist will pop out of the woodwork saying that it’s all the rage. Same goes with butter, it’s seems a little “pedestrian”, but it is so widely used. Did you ever wonder why that steak or piece of fish at your favorite restaurant tastes so good yet so different from when you make it at home? It’s because it was more than likely basted in butter. Hopefully bacon fat is on its last leg of hipness, because it’s facing overexposure. Not a day goes by that I don’t read or hear some moron jabbering on in near bacon-gasm about how much they looove bacon.  I dig it too, but there comes a point where people need to reel it in a bit. Don’t get me started on pork belly, if you are all gaga about this worthless chunk of crap, you may need an intervention or a swift kick in the arse.

I admit that I really like duck fat, but luckily I don’t run into it enough to start a problem. I find it works best on potatoes (again, something I try not to eat much of), be they roasted or French fried and other vegetables that can be successfully roasted. The flavor is rich without feeling too heavy. Duck fat can be hard to find and it’s usually pretty expensive, so use just a little, unless you are making Duck Confit which is duck cooked in its own fat then cooled in the same fat until it’s basically preserved. It’s still not very good for you, but then again, what is?

I’m starting to hear more about beef tallow as a more readily available fat in a few of the food mags and sites. Remember beef tallow? This is the stuff that Vegetarians got all up in arms about a few years ago because McDonald’s uses it in their fries thus rendering (no pun intended) them not Vegetarian friendly. I can’t say I’ve seen beef tallow in stores, but it can probably be procured from a butcher or a fat-friendly restaurant. This is a trendy fat because not everyone has a source for it.

Treat this as a ridiculous guide as to how cool your area restaurants are. Are they stuck in neutral, or are they burning up the trendy fatty highway? Butter or duck fat? You be the judge. I'm just hoping whale blubber doesn't become a "thing".

Ciao down,

Penn