Good Cooking Fats, Part II

If you missed Good Cooking Fats, Part I, it was about ghee. Go read it.

Now we bring you:

Rendered duck fat (left) and pork fat (right)

These are great cooking fats. Make sure they’re sourced from pastured animals! I got the duck fat at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market from Salmon Creek Farm ($8 for the jar) and the pork fat (a.k.a. lard) from Marin Sun Farms at the Marin Farmers Market ($4 for the tub). The duck fat is rich and flavorful, great for eggs, vegetables, and meat, and is classically used to make confit. The pork fat I find to be quite flavorless, and has been perfect to brown and saute small pieces of meat, like chicken, in a skillet, adding whatever seasoning and herbs I wish. Anyone have recipes or other suggestions for their use?

Read “The Skinny on Fats” from the Weston A Price Foundation to understand more about why these high quality saturated fats are actually good for you, and how the modern fats (canola and soy oils, any hydrogenated oils, margarine, etc.) – touted as the solution to high heart disease rates- are actually bad stuff. Go. Read it now. Then go to the Know Your Fats article index and geek out on any of the other articles you find.

Thoughts? Questions? Post to comments.