Even our butter has been at risk as all those alledged healthy options of margarine and spreadable oils came into our lives. This also had an effect on our baking industry as more and more artisan bakers closed due to the competition of supermarkets with their mainly bland confectionary. I'm not saying you ought to make your own butter as I often do, but please think about the British dairy farmer as you choose your fat source for your baking. He needs you!
Flare fat / Leaf fat whatever you call it in your region is the finest lard you can obtain.
Pull away from the pig's stomach the set flare fat and roll it up into a tube shape.
Then cut across the length before placing the segments into a slow cooker to render down into pure lard. The old terminoligy for the cooked remnants is Skretchings not to be confused with scratchings.
Cod Fat is the fat you see tied over the boned & rolled beef joints in your butchers window. This fat helps baste the meat during cooking and by adding flavour and moisture to your lean meat.
Here the fat is being sliced from the cod piece and before it it is battered flat with the fat basher. For those of you who don't know, cod fat is taken from the scrotum / crotch area of beef cattle, and hence probally why cod piece was so named.
We need fat for many reasons, I'll name a few here to get you started and then you think of a few: Candles, Soap, Christmas Pudding, Waxing Ski's, Waterproofing Clothes, cooking Yorkshire Pudding, Suet Pastry, Larding & Barding, Confit and the best Fish & Chips are fried in dripping !
One last thing about fat I'd like to ask of you, if you are not the kind of person who likes to eat fat, then can I ask that you still buy fatty meats, cook with it and only when it reaches your plate cut off and leave what you wish not to eat? Buying fatty meat usually means that the animal has had a longer and sometimes better life in order to reach a level where it has a good covering of fat. You see, you can make a difference!
Bon appetite!
Marc, I agree. Cook the meat with the fat, then trim it off afterward. Butter is my favorite. Everything is better with butter! Years ago when margarine was being pushed as the
ReplyDelete"healthy" alternative, my mother instinctively knew that butter was a healthier option; decades later, she was proved right. So I have never given up butter. I often use half butter/half olive oil, and that is a lovely combination.
Bring it all back I say! Bring back the FAT!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant article, Marc