Well, maybe not ALL about animal fats. This isn't going to be a comprehensive study of every type of animal fat, but I thought it might be a little helpful to have a brief overview of the more-common types of animal fats, at least.
At this very moment in my refrigerator, I have four different types of rendered animal fat: sheep, cow, pig, and chicken.
"Rendered" is the word used when the fat has been processed. That is, it is not straight off the animal. Rendered fat has been heated so that the pure fat separates from any impurities. Most of the fats I have right now have been rendered by the simple expedient of skimming liquids in which fatty meat has been cooked.
The chicken fat came from the stock I made a couple of days ago. The beef fat came from cooking a chuck roast. The pork fat was from a shoulder roast.
Chicken fat is the softest of all these fats. At room temperature--around 70 degrees--it will be more or less liquid. I use chicken fat mostly for things like roasting potatoes or making stir-fry.
Pork fat, called lard when rendered, is the next softest. Lard is the animal fat traditionally most used for baking. Leaf lard (that is, the fat from around the kidneys) is especially prized for this, as it is almost flavorless. I don't usually have leaf lard, so I use pork fat for frying.
Beef fat, called tallow when rendered, is fairly hard. It can be used in baking--traditional mincemeat calls for tallow--but does impart a flavor of beef and needs to be shredded to be incorporated. I use it for frying meat. Anytime I need to brown stew meat or something, I use tallow. I also use it for french fries or roasted potatoes.
Last and hardest is sheep fat, also called tallow when rendered. Some of it is more strongly flavored than others, and I use it like beef tallow.
3 comments:
I have a nice jar of duck fat in my fridge; I cooked a duck at Christmas, and I use the duck fat (when I remember) for roasting potatoes. Goose fat is prized, but I roast a goose about once every thirty years. And I think you have bacon fat, which deserves special mention!
I’m trying a different (keto-like) way of eating, and it’s a huge mental change to go from avoiding fat, esp animal (saturated) fat, to actually trying to eat fatty things! Maybe you’ve talked about it, but I missed reading- does your family eat this way because you have a lot of access to meat and fats, it’s frugal for you, you know where it comes from, or more because of health reasons, or it’s just what you like? Do your doctors understand? Everyone looks healthy and fit in photos! Thanks!
Anonymous: I definitely understand that, as I grew up in a family where fat was something to be avoided. We eat this way now for all of those reasons you mentioned. We do know where it comes from, it is frugal, and I do believe animal fats are a good part of a healthy diet. As for doctors . . . we don't actually "have doctors" in the American sense of the word. We go for interventions only for things like A. getting a nail in the foot or me getting shingles. We are healthy, and our children are exceptionally so. Certainly zero weight problems for them. They are tall for their ages, active, have good teeth, and are well-developed in all ways. That said, we don't eat a keto diet. There are carbohydrates in there, too, and we're not trying to maximize fat.
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