The Skinny on Fat
There’s a nice article on the joys (and benefits) of eating fat over at a site called Table Matters. (h/t Blowhards.)
Lard is also natural. “Tub of lard” is now a derogatory phrase, but I wish I had one. Pork fat, fat back, bacon, lard, and leaf lard (for that flaky pie crust) are all good fats containing approximately 11 percent polyunsaturated fat. Wrap almost anything in bacon and voila — ecstasy. It is not for nothing that pork belly is the cutting-edge chef’s new favorite.
Goose, duck, even chicken fat are also good (with between 11 and 13 percent polyunsaturated fat). What makes a terrine de foie gras transporting? Fat. Pork rillettes? Fat. A duck deprived of its fat would fall flat. Cook potatoes in duck or goose fat and you’ll never want them any other way.
However, the article disappointingly ends with this old canard:
… in the end, it’s calories that make you fat. Too many in and not enough expended. We may be a nation of fatties, but it is not because of an overindulgence in glorious gorgeous fat: It’s overindulgence in general. Eat a little less; eat much better.
What Nonsense!
