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fabrisseWhen I began my "Pot herbs" post the other day, I hadn't intended to make anything. But, I like the idea of this being a preliminary cookery lesson.
So I'm going to backtrack and discuss oils in a little more detail. Then tomorrow, I'm going to start the choose your own adventure of three different recipes working from the same basic start.
The best way to understand the difference in taste is to scramble an egg or fry a small piece of peeled potato (because the peel's flavor might overwhelm the oil's, that's why) in the oil, butter, or other fat you intend to use.
Vegetable and Nut Oils:
If you want to know whether a fat is mono or poly unsaturated or whatever, look it up yourself. What concerns us is flavor.
Most nut oils (Hazelnut, Walnut) are great for salad dressings. You can use them for cooking, if you like, but they tend to burn easily and don't add much in the way of taste. For the purposes of cooking, toasted sesame seeds are nuts.
Peanut oil is the exception to this. It's used for stir fries because it takes a very high heat. However, so many people are allergic to it, that it's essentially banned from my kitchen.
Coconut oil is one that I'm just now beginning to use. The flavor is very good for "tropical" dishes, but it is high in saturated fat and burns very easily. Using coconut oil means sauteeing that onion will take fifteen or more minutes instead of the usual seven to ten. It's solid at low temperature and turns liquid around room temperature.
Safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil -- These oils have a very light or nonexistent flavor. Their smoke points are fairly high, too. They are certainly inexpensive, and the flavors of the meal will come from the food, not the oil.
For some reason I can't put my finger on, I don't like corn oil. Maybe it's the fact that I associate it with heavy, oily foods. If you like it, please use it.
Olive oil is delicious. Extra virgin olive oil is terrific for salads. A later pressing which has fewer solids is often better for cooking. If you buy the "extra light in flavor" olive oil, you're wasting your money. It's expensive compared to canola or vegetable oil, but it has the same type of flavor (or lack of flavor).
Infused Oils:
I tend to use these toward the end of cooking as flavor enhancers. Occasionally, when starting a risotto or something similar, I'll use an orange or truffle scented oil. In general, though, I prefer to use plain oils for cooking.
Butter and butterlike objects:
Butter, whether salted or unsalted comes in nice easy sticks with tablespoon measures on them. It is possible to get non-cow's milk butter, but it takes some trouble to find and some people find the taste of goat's or sheep's milk too sour.
The solids in butter give it a low smoke point and hold most of the cholesterol (or so I've been told). Only salted butter will brown, but both kinds will burn.
Drawn butter is made by melting butter over a very low heat and skimming the foam off. Eventually you end up with a yellow oil that resembles the stuff movie theaters put on popcorn, but it tastes much better. Pour it into a clean covered container and keep it in the refrigerator. It will resolidify there, but will return to liquidity at room temperature or just above.
Ghee is slightly different. Melt the unsalted butter over a low heat. Keep it on the low heat for at least 45 minutes. Some of the water will cook out. The solids should sink to the bottom and probably brown slightly. When it's cooled a little, pour it through a fine sieve with a coffee filter or several layers of cheesecloth to catch the solids. Store as you would drawn butter.
Ghee has more flavor than drawn butter, but without the solids also has a lower cholesterol level than regular butter.
Solid margarine should never be used for cooking (baking is a different story and one that I'm not telling). It's partially hydrogenated and generally made out of one of the vegetable oils listed above. Skip the middleman.
Schmaltzes:
The rendered fat of poultry.
Real schmaltz is chicken fat. It's important in kosher cookery because it has texture similar to butter but keeps milk from mixing with the meat.
One of my favorite sins is goosefat. The little clanging noise you hear while eating your tasty egg or piece of potato is your arteries. There are certain French regional dishes that just won't taste right if another fat is substituted.
Duck fat may also be used this way.
Lards:
I count suet, horsefat, and bacon grease in this category as well as real lard which is the rendered fat of a pig.
Suet is from cows. If you can't tell where horsefat comes from, I'm not going to tell you.
Bacon grease is different because it's both salted and smoked. You can always cut your bacon into the pan with the onions to cook them together. Those of you who have had noodle stuffing at Thanksgiving or Christmas with me have tasted this particular alchemy.
Many Belgian recipes use multiple types of fat. Mixing olive oil with butter gives a higher smoke point than butter alone.
So, in your pan you have a fat and chopped onion. You may also have carrots, but they were optional.
Part of me says I should lead us through several variations on a potato side dish. But I could also make waterzooie or puttanesca sauce or curried cabbage (among other things) from this base.
So I'm going to backtrack and discuss oils in a little more detail. Then tomorrow, I'm going to start the choose your own adventure of three different recipes working from the same basic start.
The best way to understand the difference in taste is to scramble an egg or fry a small piece of peeled potato (because the peel's flavor might overwhelm the oil's, that's why) in the oil, butter, or other fat you intend to use.
Vegetable and Nut Oils:
If you want to know whether a fat is mono or poly unsaturated or whatever, look it up yourself. What concerns us is flavor.
Most nut oils (Hazelnut, Walnut) are great for salad dressings. You can use them for cooking, if you like, but they tend to burn easily and don't add much in the way of taste. For the purposes of cooking, toasted sesame seeds are nuts.
Peanut oil is the exception to this. It's used for stir fries because it takes a very high heat. However, so many people are allergic to it, that it's essentially banned from my kitchen.
Coconut oil is one that I'm just now beginning to use. The flavor is very good for "tropical" dishes, but it is high in saturated fat and burns very easily. Using coconut oil means sauteeing that onion will take fifteen or more minutes instead of the usual seven to ten. It's solid at low temperature and turns liquid around room temperature.
Safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil -- These oils have a very light or nonexistent flavor. Their smoke points are fairly high, too. They are certainly inexpensive, and the flavors of the meal will come from the food, not the oil.
For some reason I can't put my finger on, I don't like corn oil. Maybe it's the fact that I associate it with heavy, oily foods. If you like it, please use it.
Olive oil is delicious. Extra virgin olive oil is terrific for salads. A later pressing which has fewer solids is often better for cooking. If you buy the "extra light in flavor" olive oil, you're wasting your money. It's expensive compared to canola or vegetable oil, but it has the same type of flavor (or lack of flavor).
Infused Oils:
I tend to use these toward the end of cooking as flavor enhancers. Occasionally, when starting a risotto or something similar, I'll use an orange or truffle scented oil. In general, though, I prefer to use plain oils for cooking.
Butter and butterlike objects:
Butter, whether salted or unsalted comes in nice easy sticks with tablespoon measures on them. It is possible to get non-cow's milk butter, but it takes some trouble to find and some people find the taste of goat's or sheep's milk too sour.
The solids in butter give it a low smoke point and hold most of the cholesterol (or so I've been told). Only salted butter will brown, but both kinds will burn.
Drawn butter is made by melting butter over a very low heat and skimming the foam off. Eventually you end up with a yellow oil that resembles the stuff movie theaters put on popcorn, but it tastes much better. Pour it into a clean covered container and keep it in the refrigerator. It will resolidify there, but will return to liquidity at room temperature or just above.
Ghee is slightly different. Melt the unsalted butter over a low heat. Keep it on the low heat for at least 45 minutes. Some of the water will cook out. The solids should sink to the bottom and probably brown slightly. When it's cooled a little, pour it through a fine sieve with a coffee filter or several layers of cheesecloth to catch the solids. Store as you would drawn butter.
Ghee has more flavor than drawn butter, but without the solids also has a lower cholesterol level than regular butter.
Solid margarine should never be used for cooking (baking is a different story and one that I'm not telling). It's partially hydrogenated and generally made out of one of the vegetable oils listed above. Skip the middleman.
Schmaltzes:
The rendered fat of poultry.
Real schmaltz is chicken fat. It's important in kosher cookery because it has texture similar to butter but keeps milk from mixing with the meat.
One of my favorite sins is goosefat. The little clanging noise you hear while eating your tasty egg or piece of potato is your arteries. There are certain French regional dishes that just won't taste right if another fat is substituted.
Duck fat may also be used this way.
Lards:
I count suet, horsefat, and bacon grease in this category as well as real lard which is the rendered fat of a pig.
Suet is from cows. If you can't tell where horsefat comes from, I'm not going to tell you.
Bacon grease is different because it's both salted and smoked. You can always cut your bacon into the pan with the onions to cook them together. Those of you who have had noodle stuffing at Thanksgiving or Christmas with me have tasted this particular alchemy.
Many Belgian recipes use multiple types of fat. Mixing olive oil with butter gives a higher smoke point than butter alone.
So, in your pan you have a fat and chopped onion. You may also have carrots, but they were optional.
Part of me says I should lead us through several variations on a potato side dish. But I could also make waterzooie or puttanesca sauce or curried cabbage (among other things) from this base.
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Date: 2008-05-08 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 03:31 am (UTC)