A Fat Problem

[Robson Valley]

Availability varies! I forgot that I do have coconut oil. The singular best tasting oil in any bison preparation is corn oil.
Just to do my little bit for those long suffering Greeks, I buy 3l tins of Kalamata olive oil. Quite like that taste.

"Canola" is a registered trade name, invented in Canada, to define the high oil content seed varieties.
Would not surprise me to learn that your rapeseed oil is Brassica rapa.

Now, I shall clean up a pair of Corninsh Game Hens. Dry herb and spice rub then into my smoker BBQ with apple wood
for 3 hours at 275F. "Lovely Grub" is a most appropriate term.

 

[Tengu]

I use olive oil as a rule but its no use for Indian cookery.

 

[santaman2000]

I use olive oil as a rule but its no use for Indian cookery.

Olive oil is one of my favorites. It just doesn't take high temps well though. When I can afford it, I use peanut oil for high temp frying.

Avacado oil is another high end (very high priced) oil that's both reasonably healthy and takes high heat well.

 

[santaman2000]

......Different countries, different climates and different trade routes.

M

I suppose it's a toss up as to whether the availability influences tastes or the other way around.

 

[Toddy]

When I was little no one used oil for cooking. Olive oil and sweet almond oil came in tiny wee bottles from the Chemist's, though an Aunt who holidayed abroad brought it back for salads and dipping bowls for bread and vinegar.
That was pretty much it really. Frying was done in beef dripping, bacon fat was used for savoury baking of things like oatcakes and cheese scones. Butter was used for baking pretty much everything else. Margarine was used in winter since we didn't have centrally heated houses and butter was rock hard. (we had a double layered domed dish cover that could be filled with hot water to soften the butter none of this ten seconds in the microwave instantaneous magic)

I think the first 'cooking' oil we had at home was Crisp 'n' Dry, and it was a pain since you couldn't put the cold chip pan away safely with it. My Dad was seriously under impressed and Mum went back to buying dripping from the butcher for the rare pan of chips or fritters that she cooked.
Rice was a pudding not a dinner ingredient (didn't matter what the tv advert's claimed for Vesta) and oil was still something that was used in the workshop or garage.

Rationing was long past by my childhood, but people still remembered it and it made them very wary of wasting food. Cooking oil was frivolous and wasteful and expensive.

Now we have supermarkets with half an aisle just full of them in every assortment and variety and cheap 'special offers' working their way through the ranges, from budget to gourmet.

Different times.

M

 

[Tengu]

As a rule I stick to olive oil and butter, though I never use much.

deep fat frying is a great way to cook fried things though. (I generaly use oven chips actualy) The flavour is very different.

as long as you drain well....and be careful!

 

[santaman2000]

When I was little no one used oil for cooking. Olive oil and sweet almond oil came in tiny wee bottles from the Chemist's, though an Aunt who holidayed abroad brought it back for salads and dipping bowls for bread and vinegar.
That was pretty much it really. Frying was done in beef dripping, bacon fat was used for savoury baking of things like oatcakes and cheese scones. Butter was used for baking pretty much everything else. Margarine was used in winter since we didn't have centrally heated houses and butter was rock hard. (we had a double layered domed dish cover that could be filled with hot water to soften the butter none of this ten seconds in the microwave instantaneous magic)

I think the first 'cooking' oil we had at home was Crisp 'n' Dry, and it was a pain since you couldn't put the cold chip pan away safely with it. My Dad was seriously under impressed and Mum went back to buying dripping from the butcher for the rare pan of chips or fritters that she cooked.
Rice was a pudding not a dinner ingredient (didn't matter what the tv advert's claimed for Vesta) and oil was still something that was used in the workshop or garage.

Rationing was long past by my childhood, but people still remembered it and it made them very wary of wasting food. Cooking oil was frivolous and wasteful and expensive.

Now we have supermarkets with half an aisle just full of them in every assortment and variety and cheap 'special offers' working their way through the ranges, from budget to gourmet.

Different times.

M

Yeah what we use/how we cook has evolved here as well. Pre WWII everybody cooked with pork lard/bacon fat. They used it for EVERYTHING; frying, shortening in baked goods, etc. and used real butter. After the war they switched. First to vegetable shortening such as Crisco (the type that has the consistency of gelled lard and comes in cans) and used margarine. Later still, vegetable oils began to replace the Crisco.

Ironically the switch here to margarine was more due to the cheaper price. Even now a cheap generic margarine is only about 88 cents per pound vs $2 for butter. And margarine doesn't melt as easily unrefridgerated. That said, margarine doesn't taste anywhere near as good as butter

I don't know of anybody here that ever used beef drippings for anything other than gravy though.

As a rule I stick to olive oil and butter, though I never use much.

deep fat frying is a great way to cook fried things though. (I generaly use oven chips actualy) The flavour is very different.

as long as you drain well....and be careful!

If you like oven cooked chips try tossing them (the raw ones) in olive oil and an Italian herb mix (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, garlic) before chucking them in the oven. Add a bit of grated cheese for a real treat (I like mozzarella) the last few minutes before taking out of the oven.

 

[bilmo-p5]

The best use for beef dripping is on bread.

 

[santaman2000]

The best use for beef dripping is on bread.

LOL. That's actually similar to gravy on toast. Just not as refined. I like pot roast (with the potatoes, carrots, and onions chucked into the same pot to roast with the meat) I make sure to spoon up a good bit of the drippings onto said meat and veg.

 

[bilmo-p5]

LOL. That's actually similar to gravy on toast,

You might think it would be, but it's more akin to simple bread and butter. The dripping is allowed to set in a dish then spread on the bread along with the delicious brown jelly underneath it.

 

[Robson Valley]

The use of animal fats is prehistoric. The desirable tastes appeal to my genetics.
Oil seed crop selections, research, development and production accelerated after WWII. After all, crops
such as safflower are very very old and war shortages drove the search for substitute lubricants.
There was some growing concern regarding the consumption of saturated vs unsaturated fats such as olive oil.
Reactions to rapeseed oil may be sensitivity to the (somewhat) toxic effects of erucic acid content = hard to refine.

 

[bigbear]

Dripping is the food of the Gods, on bread or on toast, plenty of salt and pepper, or instead of butter in a cold rare roast beef sandwich.

 

[santaman2000]

Dripping is the food of the Gods, on bread or on toast, plenty of salt and pepper, or instead of butter in a cold rare roast beef sandwich.

Tastes vary. I prefer bacon grease for frying, butter as a spread or for sautéing (sometimes olive oil) or gravy over an open faced hot roast beef sandwich (or over rice or mashed potatoes) a minced meat gravy or toast/biscuits. Well, sometimes a tomato gravy (made with a bacon fat roux) over the toast or biscuits.

 

[Toddy]

We didn't use lard….that's the soft white pig fat that comes in blocks of waxed paper, isn't it ? Butcher's beef dripping or occasionally goose or duck fat. Grandpa liked mutton fat though…..and lived to his late 90's so he did okay on it
Clarified mutton fat cooks very cleanly indeed, as does suet, the hard fat from around the kidneys.
I know some folks really like frying in lard or bacon fat, but the smell lingers in a house, and like french toast, isn't a good smell after a bit. Maybe somewhere where the windows can be wide open all day it'd be different, but it's the 1st of June and we have torrential rain and winds today here First day of Summer and the central heating's on…and the windows and doors are closed up.

M

 

[santaman2000]

We didn't use lard….that's the soft white pig fat that comes in blocks of waxed paper, isn't it ?.....

....I know some folks really like frying in lard or bacon fat, but the smell lingers in a house, and like french toast, isn't a good smell after a bit.....

-Yeah lard is basically gelled pork fat. It comes in various forms though; cans, blocks, etc.

- Agree about the smell. I rather like it at first but it does linger and gets tiresome after a while. That said, back when it was common I expect they were just so used to it that they didn't notice it.

I suppose one of the reasons it was so popular back in the day is that every farm and country family raised their own pigs and it was so cheap. Even the city folk buying it would have gotten it cheaply. Hogs were just so cheap to raise compared to beef (still are TBH)

 

[Robson Valley]

One step further back: The Hudson's Bay (fur trading) Company kept meticulous records for every one of their fur trading posts in western Canada.
Rocky Mountain House had an annual quota of 40,000lbs of pemmican (dried bison meat and bison backstrap fat), most of which was done up in
90lb bison hide bags. Top quality pemmican was done up in 60lb hide bags. Dried berries were a rare additive. This was not "House-food."
It was for the travelling fur traders in the field. What further amazes me is that the entire lot was done in 9 days each year.

I've rendered bison backstrap fat. I buy a side of bison almost every November. Coached by some native elders, I have made pemmican.
I have made burgoo with it. I don't care for it, but 2lbs/day should keep a hard working person going.

 

[Toddy]

Scots used to make skirlie. It's tasty, filling food, and some still do make it as a 'side' to dinner. It's basically oatmeal fried in leftover fat.
It's incredibly calorific, easy to digest, doesn't bung up the guts or make them loose, and it's relatively lightweight for it's energy impact.
It's one of those foods that can have whatever meat or herbs you forage added to it.
Cold skirlie though keeps well, and will pack into a pouch as a carrying meal.

M

 

[xylaria]

It is palm oil i don't trust. Apart from the making orangutans homeless thing when heated it randomly reacts with it self make wierd new fatty acids. I swear that muck floats about the blood stream clogging up arteries and brains. It makes good vegan soap, I like saying I personally murdered orangutans to make it when health food shops request vegan soap.

 

[British Red]

It is palm oil i don't trust. Apart from the making orangutans homeless thing when heated it randomly reacts with it self make wierd new fatty acids. I swear that muck floats about the blood stream clogging up arteries and brains. It makes good vegan soap, I like saying I personally murdered orangutans to make it when health food shops request vegan soap.

I won't use it. Any bushcrafter should be very aware of how horrible their soap, cosmetics and foods are when they use this rubbish. Good for you in pointing it out!

 

[xylaria]

Palm oil is down in ingredients in food as vegetable oil. It is in loads of foods, most margs especially cheap ones, cakes pies biscuits ect. Cosmetics tendsoto have lauryl sulphates as the soap which can be coconut, but there is palm oil based ingredients most of them. The sustainable palm oil is a joke, the committee that desides what qualifies as sustainable is made up of rep from huge companies that use it and own the plantations. There is nothing left of borneo, it has been deforested in my lifetime for palm oil.