Fats

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Contents 1 USEFUL FACTS ABOUT FATS 2 Cooking and Table Fats Classified as to Sources 3 Cooking and Table Fats Classified as to Use 4 OILS 5 SOLID SHORTENINGS AND COOKING FATS 6 BUTTER 7 MARGARINES 8 Shortening 9 How to Try Out or Render Fat 10 How to Clarify Fat 11 How to Care for Fats 12 Deep Fat Frying 13 Vegetable Fats and Oils 13.1 Olive Oil 14 Lard 15 Types of Fat

USEFUL FACTS ABOUT FATS

The cooking and table fats available for use in the modern household range from liquid oils to hard fats. The source may be vegetable, meat, milk or a combination of these.

Cooking and Table Fats Classified as to Sources

Oils Solid Fats

(Vegetable Product) (Milk Product) Olive oil Butter

Cotton seed oil (Animal Product) Corn oil Lard

Other salad combinations Drippings as from bacon, suet,

(Milk Product) chicken > beef > etc

Cream (Vegetable Product)

Vegetable shortening compounds

(Animal Meat and Vegetable Product)

Oleo margarine Nut margarine

Cooking and Table Fats Classified as to Use

Fats are often classified as to their use: (1) for table use (2) for shortening, and (3) for frying.

Many of them belong to two or all of these groups, while others are limited to one.

OILS

Oils are both salad and cooking fats. As salad oils they are chosen for their flavor and smoothness in salad dressings. Those made of cotton seed, corn and peanut oil alone or in combination with olive oils are less expensive than pure olive oil. From the labels, the purchaser will know just which type she is buying.

Oils for shortening are becoming increasingly popular because of their convenience. They are easily measured; they do not need to be creamed or melted.

For frying, particularly deep fat frying, cotton seed and corn oils are practical and inexpensive. They do not smoke and burn easily and, properly cared for, they can be used over and over again.

SOLID SHORTENINGS AND COOKING FATS

Lard and meat drippings for shortening and cooking date from the time when all fats were prepared in the home.

Lard is solid without being hard to handle in doughs, and has an established reputation for pastry.

Fat from chickens and other poultry is highly prized for cake making.

Bacon, ham and sausage fats are too highly seasoned for any but limited use but are excellent for sauteing any food where their seasoning is desirable.

Drippings are not possible for deep fat frying, because they burn so easily; unless they are clarified and combined, when they become a good mixed fat. They may be used for saut&ng or in seasoning.

In the solid vegetable compounds, vegetable oils cottonseed, corn, and sometimes peanut are solidified by a special process. This gives certain characteristics of both the original oil and. The solid fat, i.e.: they do not smoke or burn except at a high, temperature. This makes them desirable for deep fat frying. They do not easily melt which makes pastry making easy in ordinary temperatures.

BUTTER

Probably butter will never lose its place as the favorite for eating. Its texture and flavor are particularly satisfactory. For certain types of cooking also, it is desirable, notably in sauces, and in some baking where its flavor becomes a part of the flavor of the dish.

MARGARINES

The nut and oleo margarines are less expen- sive than butter but are nicely flavored and salted for table use. They should not be considered a substitute but rather another product suitable for the same use as butter. In the manufact- ure of these products, liquid fat, either of animal or vegetable source, is churned with milk. The oil may be principally olein from meat source, giving the name oleo margarine; or it may be derived from peanuts, coconut or other nuts, making a true vegetable margarine. They are purchased uncolored to dis- tinguish them from butter, but they may be easily colored at home for table use.

Shortening

The term shortening includes fat of any kind that is used in pastry, doughs, and batters. Any clean, sweet fat may be used. The best known and most commonly used are butter, solid vegetable fats, margarine, salad and cooking oil, lard and drippings* In general they may be used interchangeably for "shortening" in a recipe, remembering the difference in flavor, and that since some contain more water than others more fat is needed to give the same shortening quality.

How to Try Out or Render Fat

Every bit of fat from scraps of meat, bacon drippings, roasts, soups and poultry may be made into a mixture useful for gen- eral cooking purposes. The scraps should be "tried out" together. The proportion of soft fats to hard fats will usually be enough to make of the whole a good medium fat.

Chop the fat into fine pieces or run it through a meat- grinder. For each pound of fat allow one-half cup of milk. Cook in the top of a double boiler, or in a kettle set over water, until the fat is melted. Strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth laid over a strainer.

Fat may be tried out in exactly the same way without the use of the milk, but milk improves the flavor and texture of the product. Sweet, sour or buttermilk may be used.

If the crisp cracklings left after straining are of good flavor and color they may be substituted for other fats in various dishes, notably in corn-meal and graham-flour mixtures, hashed brown potatoes, cornmeal mush that is to be fried, and any kind of baked hash.

How to Clarify Fat

If fat that has been tried out from scraps and drippings needs to be clarified, let it harden, remove it from the container, scrape away and discard any sediment that has settled in the bottom of the cake and melt it by pouring boiling water over it. Boil this mixture thoroughly, strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth placed over a strainer, and set away to cool. When the fat is cold, remove the solid cake from the liquid. Discard the impurities in the bottom of the cake. If this process is repeated two or three times, a cake of clean fat may be obtained.

If fat acquires, through use, a slightly burned or disagree- able flavor, melt it and for each pound or pint add a medium- sized potato cut in quarter-inch slices. Heat gradually. When the fat ceases to bubble and the potatoes are well browned, strain the fat through several thicknesses of cheesecloth placed over a strainer, and set away to cool. When ready to use, scrape away and discard sediment from bottom of cake. Po- tato helps to clarify fat as well as to purify it, for the potato is porous and gathers into its pores much of the sediment in the used fat.

How to Care for Fats

Since the four factors that are instrumental in making fat rancid are light, moisture, air and warmth, all fats should be kept in a dark, dry, cool place and as far as possible away from air.

Oils, particularly, are affected by air. If oil is bought in quantity and used a little at a time, it should be transferred from the large container to small ones. Each container should be filled completely full to exclude air, and should be sealed or stoppered. The containers should be kept in a dry, cool place, but not so cold that the contents will congeal. The top shelf of the refrigerator is usually satisfactory.

Deep Fat Frying

Fats for deep fat frying, should be capable of being heated to a high temperature without smoking or burning. Smoking impairs the flavor, the digestibility and the durability of fat. A fat should be capable of being used over and over again, but everytime the fat is used the smoking temperature will become lower, because of the amount of crumbs or other foreign matter which escapes from the food into the fat, unless the fat is always strained carefully after frying and clarified frequently.

Vegetable Fats and Oils

Vegetable oils and fats are used increasingly for frying. They have high smoking temperatures. They can be used over and over again and are not likely to burn. They absorb practically no odor from the food so can be used for all sorts of foods. They are, perhaps, the best all around fats for general use in frying. See photographs opposite.

Olive Oil

Olive oil has a comparatively low smoking temperature. This is partly compensated for, however, by the fact that it produces smoke slowly and the smoke is non-irritating. It has more decided flavor than the other vegetable oils.

Lard

Lard must be used with great care to avoid overheating, and must be well clarified after each time of using. It has a rather low smoking temperature, smokes rapidly and produces an irritating smoke. Like all animal fats, it absorbs strong odors from foods.

Types of Fat

Fats, or oleaginous substances, are composed of carbon, hydro gen, and oxygen, the two former elements preponderating, and, having a very strong affinity for oxygen, are highly combustible.

Fats are solid ; oils are liquid. Fats may be changed to oil by a slight accession of heat, and are obtained from both animal and vegetable tissues, suet and dripping, from beef fat j lard, from the fat of pigs; butter, from the cream of milk; olive oil, from the fleshy pulp of the fruit of the olive tree. Oil is also found in nuts, seeds, cereals, and fruits. Croton oil, used for medicinal purposes, is from a plant, a native of India; cod liver oil, from the liver of cod fish ; castor oil, from the seeds of the castor-oil plant.

Fats and oils contain three different oleaginous substances, known as stearine, margarine, and oleine. Oleine is that portion of oil that causes its fluidity. It is more abundant in oils than fats, and in the fat of swine than in the harder fat of sheep or beef. Lard is better than mutton fat or suet for frying, because, having more oleine, it can be converted into a liquid sooner.

Margarine is harder than oleine. It exists in human fat, in but ter, and olive oil. Stearine is the most solid substance of the three, and is most abundant in tallow and suet.

The peculiar odor some fats and oils possess is from the pres ence of an acid. In butter it is butyric acid. Glycerine is the base common to all the fats. In stearine, the hardest fat, it unites with stearic acid; in margarine, a less solid form, with margaric acid; in oleine, or oil, with oleic acid.

" Fat forms the chief material of adipose tissue. It serves to fill spaces and give rotundity and beauty to the form, to equalize external pressure, to diminish the friction of the parts, to give suppleness to the tissues, and, being a non-conductor of heat, to keep the body warm. An undue accumulation of fat is a species of disease."

Oils and fats will not mix with water; but if an alkaline sub stance, like potash or soda, be added, the oil becomes separated into fine particles, and is held suspended in the watery fluid.

This is called an emulsion, and this is what takes place in intes tinal digestion. The gastric juice, being acid, does not digest fat, but only separates it from these substances, that it may digest the albuminous portions with which it is mingled.

The pancreatic fluid, being alkaline, resolves the fat into an emulsion. This completes the digestion, then the fats are ab sorbed and received into the general circulation. Having a strong affinity for oxygen, these fatty particles in the venous blood, when they come in contact with the oxygen of the air, burn, and heat is evolved. The power of fat in maintaining heat and activity is two and a half times that of starch.

Oils which are used as food are fixed oils. Volatile oils are found in many condiments and perfumes. Volatile oils can be distilled, or changed to vapor, and recondensed into their original form; they leave no permanent stain on paper. Fixed or greasy oils cannot be distilled; before changing to vapor they recombine into new compounds.