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Jennifer McLagan

Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes Hardcover – September 1, 2008

by Jennifer McLagan (Author), Leigh Beisch (Photographer)

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A rich and unapologetic celebration of this luscious food.

For all of history, minus the last thirty years, fat has been at the center of human diets and cultures. When scientists theorized a link between saturated fat and heart disease, industry, media, and government joined forces to label fat a greasy killer, best avoided. But according to Jennifer McLagan, not only is our fat phobia overwrought, it also hasn’t benefited us in any way. Instead it has driven us into the arms of trans fats and refined carbohydrates, and fostered punitive, dreary attitudes toward food–that wellspring of life and pleasure.

In Fat, McLagan sets out with equal parts passion, scholarship, and appetite to win us back to a healthy relationship with animal fats. She starts by defusing fat’s bad rap, both reminding us of what we already know–that fat is fundamental to the flavor of our food–and enlightening us with the many ways fat (yes, even animal fat) is indispensable to our health.

Mostly, though, Fat is about pleasures–the satisfactions of handling good ingredients skillfully, learning the cultural associations of these primal foodstuffs, recollecting and creating personal memories of beloved dishes, and gratifying the palate and the soul with fat’s irreplaceable savor. Fat lavishes the reader with more than 100 recipes from simple to intricate, classic to contemporary, including:

• Butter-Poached Scallops
• Homemade Butter
• Carnitas
• Duck Confit
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Sage Butter
• Steak and Kidney Pie
• Salted Butter Tart

Observing that though we now know everything about olive oil, we may not know what to do with lard or bone marrow, McLagan offers extensive guidance on sourcing, rendering, flavoring, using, and storing animal fats, whether butter or bacon, schmaltz or suet. Stories, lore, quotations, and tips touching on fat’s place in the kitchen and in the larger culture round out this rich and unapologetic celebration of food at its very best.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ten Speed Press
Publication date

September 1, 2008
Dimensions

8.37 x 0.86 x 10.28 inches
ISBN-10

1580089356
ISBN-13

978-1580089357
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jennifer McLagan's Pumpkin and Bacon Soup

Jennifer McLagan is a chef, food stylist, and writer who has worked in London and Paris as well as her native Australia. Her book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes, won the Best Single Subject Cookbook award, as well as Cookbook of the Year, at the 2009 James Beard Awards. Her first book, Bones, was widely acclaimed, winning the James Beard Award for single-subject food writing. She is a regular contributor to Fine Cooking and Food & Drink. She has lived in Toronto for more than 27 years with her sculptor husband, Haralds Gaikis, with whom she escapes to Paris as often as possible. On both sides of the Atlantic, Jennifer maintains friendly relations with her butchers, who put aside their best fat and bones for her.

(Photo © Rob Fiocca)

Pumpkin and Bacon Soup
(Makes 3 quarts/3 l)

Ingredients

1/2 pound/225 g side (slab) bacon
1 large onion, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 large sprig sage
hubbard squash or other firm, dry pumpkin or winter squash (about 3-1/3 pounds/1.5 kg)
8 cups/2 l water
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Remove the rind and any hard, dry skin from the bacon. Cut the bacon into 1/4-inch/6-mm dice.

Place a large saucepan over low heat, add the bacon pieces, and cook gently so they render their fat. When most of their fat is rendered, add the onion, celery, and sage, stirring to coat with the fat. Cook until the vegetables soften slightly, about 7 minutes.

Cut the squash into quarters and remove the seeds. Peel the squash and coarsely chop into smaller, even-sized pieces. Set aside.

Pour 1 cup/250 ml of the water into the pan with the vegetables, increase the heat to high and, using a wooden spoon, deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the remaining 7 cups/1.75 l water, the squash pieces, 1 tablespoon of salt, and some pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until the squash is very soft, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove the sage and let the soup cool slightly.

Purée the soup, in batches, in a blender and pour into a clean saucepan. Taste and adjust the seasoning, and reheat the soup to serve.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Persuasively arguing that the never-ending quest for "health" has gone too far, McLagan's elegant and informed look at this most maligned ingredient is appropriately unctuous. A crucial part of our diets, fat not only provides health benefits but pure pleasure: few ingredients can carry flavor the way fat does. Breaking the topic down into categories (butter, pork, poultry, beef-and-lamb), McLagan carefully chooses recipes that showcase the role of fat in imparting and carrying flavor. Versatile butter adds richness to pastry dough, a sweet nuttiness to Brown Butter Ice Cream, thickens classic sauces and can be used to gently poach scallops. A classic BLT gets a jolt of flavor from bacon-fat mayonnaise, and sliced Yukon Gold potatoes cooked in duck fat are practically ambrosial. While there's a fair number of indulgent dishes (3-inch bone-in ribeyes served with a red wine sauce and roasted bone marrow, a pork-fat laden twist on peanut brittle), McLagan emphasizes flavor and application over decadence. Digressions like those on the history of Crisco, fat as an art medium and a thoughtful look at foie gras are welcome and enlightening. Her mixture of science, cultural anthropology and culinary imagination are intoxicating, making this a crucial work on the topic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Pork, poultry, beef, butter: here is a delicious ode to fat in its many forms and functions. From bacon baklava to beurre blanc, Jennifer McLagan proves that all fat is not created equal, and that eating healthfully should not be an exercise in self-denial.”
–Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Restaurant

“Like cars, we all need lubrication, except ours is ideally taken in the form of pork fat. Fat is where the flavor lies. What a treat this book is–a proper celebration of the good bits.”
–Fergus Henderson, author of The Whole Beast

“I love this book! There are very few cookbooks published today that add something truly new and distinctive to the literature of food and cooking. Jennifer McLagan’s Fat is smart and thoughtful–it ultimately asks us to understand our food better.”
–Michael Ruhlman, coauthor of Charcuterie

“Hurrah! Jennifer McLagan joins the charge to restore honest-to-goodness fat to its rightful place in our kitchens and culture, and she does so intelligently, insightfully, and deliciously. Her new book, Fat, is a must in any serious cook’s library.”
–Molly Stevens, author of All About Braising

Review

"If obsessing over fat and calories is beginning to fall out of fashion, Jennifer McLagan is here to show the way." --NewYorker.com

One of "The 15 Books That Mattered Most in 2008" --Quill & Quire

Review

Book of the Year 2008: "And we think it's refreshing that a book so unabashedly celebrates the one ingredient we have demonized, yet our obesity rate still soars. If we heed McLagan's advice of moderation, perhaps we can delight in what we eat and remain healthy." --Leite's Culinaria

Review

"In Fat, Jennifer McLagan sets out to prove what our ancestors instinctively knew: that fat is good for you (not to mention delicious), and offers some science and history to back it up. But mostly Fat is a celebration of the stuff, with sidebars and recipes for everything from homemade butter to bacon mayonnaise." --New York Magazine

"I love this book! There are very few cookbooks published today that add something truly new and distinctive to the literature of food and cooking. Jennifer McLagan's Fat is a smart, thoughtful book that ultimately asks us to understand our food better."--Michael Ruhlman

Book Description

"There is this new book called quite simply Fat. How irresistible is that? . . . It has more appeal than most, and deliciously follows the current (formerly politically incorrect) trend of revisiting some of those treasured ingredients that have fallen upon hard times."--Mark Bittman

From the Publisher

An appealing exploration of the glories of cooking fat--a component of food that's newly fashionable--with history and recipes. * Jennifer McLagan's Bones won the 2006 James Beard Award in the Single Subject category. * Fat is hot, as public consciousness shifts away from fat-phobia, and foodies embrace high-quality fats like lardo and artisanal butters.

From the Back Cover

"Pork, poultry, beef, butter: here is a delicious ode to fat in its many forms and functions. From bacon baklava to beurre blanc, Jennifer McLagan proves that all fat is not created equal, and that eating healthfully should not be an exercise in self-denial."
--Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant

"Like cars, we all need lubrication, except ours is ideally taken in the form of pork fat. Fat is where the flavor lies. What a treat this book is--a proper celebration of the good bits."
--Fergus Henderson, author of The Whole Beast

"I love this book! There are very few cookbooks published today that add something truly new and distinctive to the literature of food and cooking. Jennifer McLagan's Fat is smart and thoughtful--it ultimately asks us to understand our food better."
--Michael Ruhlman, coauthor of Charcuterie

"Hurrah! Jennifer McLagan joins the charge to restore honest-to-goodness fat to its rightful place in our kitchens and culture, and she does so intelligently, insightfully, and deliciously. Her new book, Fat, is a must in any serious cook's library."
--Molly Stevens, author of All About Braising

About the Author

JENNIFER McLAGAN is a chef and sought-after food stylist and writer who has worked in London and Paris as well as her native Australia. Her first book, Bones (2005), was widely acclaimed, winning the James Beard award for single subject food writing. She is a regular contributor to Fine Cooking and Food & Drink. She has lived in Toronto for more than twenty-seven years with her sculptor husband, Haralds Gaikis, with whom she escapes to Paris as often as possible. On both sides of the Atlantic, Jennifer maintains friendly relations with her butchers, who put aside their best fat and bones for her.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

Butter: Worth It

What could be better than a slice of fresh bread slathered with butter? Rich, buttery shortbread, perhaps? A fish doused in a bath of brown butter and capers? Or simple pan juices enriched with a swirl of butter? In the kitchen, butter is a tasty and very useful fat. Butter melts at just below body temperature, giving it a luscious sensation on the tongue, and it imparts a rich, creamy taste. Just a little butter adds flavor to everything we eat. Butter is also an excellent flavor carrier: spike it with garlic and herbs or sugar and orange and it delivers those flavors to everything it touches.

Butter is unique in the world of fat. Unlike other animal fats, it doesn’t require that we kill an animal to obtain it, and without us it wouldn’t exist. But just what is butter, exactly? The science behind the transformation of liquid milk into a solid fat is not completely understood. Anyone who has been distracted while whipping cream knows how quickly it can turn to butter. Whipped too long, cream changes from a stable foam into a combination of fatty globules and a watery liquid, or buttermilk. Those fatty globules are not pure fat, but an emulsion of butterfat, water, and milk solids. The fat content of butter is naturally about 82 percent–this is the European standard for butter–although it can range up to 86 percent, depending on the cow and its diet. In North America, butter’s minimum fat content is set at 80 percent, so water is often added to lower the butterfat to the legal minimum. What’s in the other 20 percent of butter? Mostly water–around 18 percent, which explains the sizzle when butter hits a hot pan–and the rest is milk solids. Those milk solids will burn in the pan if the butter gets too hot, which is why butter is not the best fat for frying.

Butter is a very complex fat, containing more than 500 fatty acids and 400 volatile compounds, all of which determine its flavor. The breed of cow, its diet, and the season all affect the taste, texture, and look of butter. Most of us have forgotten that butter, like many foods, is seasonal. In spring and early summer, butter is a deeper yellow because the cows eat grass at this time of year, which has a high percentage of orange and yellow carotenes. The pasture is also filled with herbs and flowers, which gives the butter floral and herbal notes. In winter, the cow’s diet is supplemented with silage, so the butter is pale, higher in fat, firmer, and milder in taste. There is a direct link between what the cow eats and the flavor of its butter, but most of us have never tasted herbs or flowers in our butter.

Before the advent of refrigeration, butter shipped to towns and cities was highly salted to preserve it, but it still often went rancid and was sometimes adulterated. Only those who lived in the countryside and churned their own enjoyed the taste of fresh butter. Thankfully, our butter is no longer adulterated, since it is highly regulated and mass-produced, but the same system that guarantees a certain standard also results in a uniformity in both the butter’s color and (lack of) flavor. Our butter is often frozen for long periods of time and may be months old before reaching the store. Butter’s delicate flavor is so easily overwhelmed that most of us don’t know what good, fresh butter from grass-fed cows tastes like.

Good butter is smooth, unctuous, and creamy under the knife and bursts with myriad flavors in the mouth. These flavors, which range from clean, delicate, and sweet to tangy, ripe, and complex, are determined by the taste of the cream and how it is handled and churned. Butter made with fresh cream is milder in flavor, so it is often called “sweet.” It is not sweet like sugar, but it has none of the tang and depth of cultured butter. Cultured butter is made from ripened cream, or cream that has lactic cultures added before churning, giving the butter a more complex taste that is nutty and mildly acidic. These flavors occurred naturally in butter in the past, before pasteurization, but now they must be added back. The longer the cream is ripened, the more developed the butter’s flavor will be. Both sweet and cultured butter can be salted to add taste and to help preserve it. Salt is sometimes also used to mask off tastes. The amount of salt added varies from almost nothing to 3 percent. Salted butter can have a lower fat content than unsalted, and for that reason unsalted butter is often specified in recipes. Higher-fat butters, with their lower water content, are firmer and better for cooking and baking. Using unsalted butter also allows the cook to control the amount of salt added to a recipe. Salted butter is often regarded as inferior, but this is not always true. A small amount of salt, used in what the French call demi-sel, or lightly salted, butter, can enhance the flavor of both the butter and whatever is mixed with it. If you doubt it, try lightly salted butter on toast with jam; the way the salt in the butter intensifies the fruit’s sweetness is a revelation. There is a long tradition of salted butter in Brittany, the only region of France that uses salted butter exclusively, even for baking and desserts. Salted butter is currently enjoying a renaissance elsewhere, too. It’s not just fine sea salt that can be added to butter; large, irregular salt crystals can be folded into the butter at the end of the churning, giving the butter an almost gritty texture. When this butter melts in your mouth or on your fish or potatoes, those salt crystals burst on your tongue, highlighting the butter’s taste.

French butter has long been considered the butter benchmark, and several French butters have achieved AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) status, like many French wines and cheeses. These butters express what the French call terroir, or a unique essence of place, and you can tell them apart by their taste. These AOC butters, which come from the regions of Charentes-Poitou and Normandy, are made using the cream from pasture-fed cows that is ripened for a minimum of twelve hours. The cream is churned slowly in small batches and is often finished by hand, giving the butter a superior flavor and texture. Many gourmets regard Echiré butter, which is still made in wooden churns, as the best butter in the world. The French, however, don’t have a monopoly on good butter, and many small producers in other European countries and the United States are producing high-quality, distinctive, and tasty butter.

Rich, fatty, and full of calories and cholesterol, butter hasn’t received any good press in a long time. Butter is a mainly saturated fat (see below), and unless it is clarified (see page 23), it is less useful for cooking than other mainly saturated fats because of its milk solids. Although those milk solids limit the usefulness of butter for cooking, they are the reason butter is such a flavorful fat. Many of butter’s saturated fatty acids are short- and medium-chain ones, which means our body uses them up quickly rather than storing them on our hips. Many of butter’s fatty acids are also very good for us: lauric and butyric acids boost our immune system, while stearic and palmitic acids lower our LDL cholesterol. Butter contains the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, plus copper, zinc, chromium, selenium, iodine, and lecithin, so butter is actually good for us.

Note: These figures are approximate and vary with the breed and diet of the cow. The numbers don’t total 100, since butter also contains water and milk solids.

To enjoy the benefits of butter you must eat the best you can buy. Good butter not only tastes better, but it is better for you. Butter from pasture-fed cows has omega-3 fatty acids, which we need more of in our diet. Butter has the natural trans fat conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which behaves like omega-3 fatty acid in our body and is reputed to protect against heart disease, cancer, and weight gain. Butter shouldn’t taste only of fat, but also of what the cows ate. We should be able to savor the grass, the herbs, and the flowers. While we are all willing to spend a small fortune on deluxe olive oils, we grab a pound of butter without thinking.

Next time you eat butter, really taste it. Cut a thick slice, smell it, and place it on your tongue. Let it melt in your mouth and savor its taste. Remember how special butter is in the world of fat.

Keeping and Using Butter

Whether salted or not, butter is perishable, and it begins to slowly deteriorate from the moment it is made. Although it is mainly saturated fat, which tends to turn rancid more slowly, those milk solids in butter speed up the process.

Freshly churned butter once had a cachet, and many food lovers went to extreme lengths to make sure they could enjoy it daily. In Normandy, butter was churned very early every morning, then rushed to the breakfast tables of discriminating and no doubt late-rising Parisians. Today, you probably won’t be able to taste truly fresh butter unless you know someone who makes his or her own butter or you churn it yourself (see page 21).

Homemade or not, your butter should be refrigerated and well wrapped to protect it from light and any strong odors. Butter will absorb any odors that are circulating in your refrigerator. If your refrigerator is full of truffles from Périgord, you’ll end up with truffle-flavored butter, which would be great, unless you were planning to bake shortbread. As for using the butter compartment in your refrigerator: don’t. By keeping the butter at a warmer temperature than the rest of the refrigerator and exposing it to oxygen, it just speeds up the butter’s decline. Butter can, however, be frozen.

A History of Butter

Humans have been eating butter for a very long time. The domestication of goats, sheep, and cows began in Mesopotamia and Romania sometime between 9000 and 8000 b.c. Although these animals were initially raised for their meat, those keeping them no doubt quickly learned how to use their milk. The leap from herding animals for meat to milking them is a big one, however, and no one is sure exactly when it happened.

Sumerian temple friezes from 2500 b.c. depict scenes of butter churning, so it has generally been accepted that butter is at least 4,500 years old. However, science has recently proved that butter is even older than that. Traces of butterfat found on pottery fragments have been dated to 4000 b.c., proving humans have been making butter for at least 6,000 years. There is no way to know how butter was first discovered, and its genesis is part of food folklore. A popular legend relates how a traveler carrying milk arrived at his journey’s end not with the thick, creamy milk he’d started with, but a thin, watery liquid full of lumps of fat. His bumpy journey had churned his milk into butter. While butter’s discovery was probably just such a lucky accident, it was also a momentous one. That a liquid could be transformed into a solid bestowed on butter a very special status. From its very beginnings butter was never simply a food; it was also considered a formidable medicine and a useful cosmetic. Many thought it had magical powers and was a worthy sacrifice to the gods.

Although butter keeps longer than milk does, it is still highly perishable, especially in warmer climates. Ever resourceful, humans discovered they could prolong butter’s life by cooking or salting it. In India and the Middle East, butter was heated and the milk solids removed, preventing it from turning rancid. In India, ghee is as important for its role in religious ceremonies as it is as a food. Around the Mediterranean, where other fats and oil were available for cooking, butter was often reserved for external use. In fact, in many cultures the idea of eating butter was ridiculous; it was considered something only a barbarian would do. In his Natural History, Pliny discusses butter’s medicinal properties and refers to it as “the most delicate food among barbarous nations” (though he points out that it is not something a Roman would eat). The majority of people who ate their butter in its solid state lived in the cooler climes of northern Europe and the grasslands of Central Asia, where butter lasted better and the abundant pastures provided food for the animals. The Vikings and Celts who spread butter culture throughout northern Europe also valued butter’s medicinal qualities, and their word for “butter” and “ointment” was the same. Even though butter kept longer in northern Europe, it still went rancid, and there was a continual search for ways to prolong its freshness. By 1000 b.c. the Celts were mining salt in Central Europe and realized that adding salt helped their butter keep, while those living in Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia preserved their butter by burying it in peat bogs (see page 35).

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ten Speed Press; 8.2.2008 edition (September 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1580089356
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1580089357
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.28 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.37 x 0.86 x 10.28 inches

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Jennifer McLagan

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Jennifer McLagan is the author of the widely acclaimed books Bones (2005), Fat (2008), Odd Bits (2011), and Bitter (2014). Her books have won numerous awards from the Beard Foundation, IACP and Gourmand International. Fat was named the James Beard Cookbook of the Year and was also published in German Fett (2012). Jennifer is also published in French Les Os - dix façons de les préparer (2014).

Australian by birth, Jennifer has more than three decades of experience in the food world as a chef, caterer, food stylist and writer. She left behind a degree in economics and politics early on in order to train in the food business, beginning her professional life in the kitchens of the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne. Work as a chef took her from Australia to England, where she practiced her trade at Prue Leith’s highly regarded restaurant in London and then in the kitchens of Winfield House, home of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James.

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James EllsworthTop Contributor: Cooking

Delectable Recipes; Collectible Book

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

Jennifer McLagan is a serious food writer who 'marches to a different drummer' as she takes on an individual classification of what we want to eat. Sure, I was slow to discover her: she doesn't stand out for self-promotion and her works must largely speak for her. I now own three of her major books. None of them speak so eloquently as "Fat."

I have had a life-long interest in cooking, thinking about and researching food and in writing up 'tasty' family heirloom recipes (with the emphasis on my own takes and 'tweaks.') I would have been 'over the moon' if I could have produced a book as iconoclastic and as useful as this one. In Jennifer McLagan, I sense the type of devoted cook who stands at the back of a restaurant (like a sous chef for Megastar Mario Battali)and who watches and learns and who 'makes it all happen.' This cook dares to 'speak truth to power' (well, to mass-market opinion) and she begins her book with the forthright statement: "I love fat, whether it's a slice of foie gras terrine,...soft marrow scooped from the bone,...French butter from Normandy, hot bacon fat..." As an advocate for a misunderstood and oft abused ingredient, our author has gathered together important nutritional information linking fat to mental and other cellular health as well as to its more sensual role in our gastronomy. There is a strong 'slow food', traditional strain to her analysis. She buttresses her remarks in sidebars, including squibs from Shirley O. Corriher, a favorite food scientist for the many television fans of Alton Brown's 'Good Eats'shows and DVDs.

This is an easy-reading, inspirational book, whether you are looking for a recipe for 'Spaghetti with Butter and Sage' (a classic pairing, especially with fresh garden sage); flavored butters, both sweet and savory; butter poached scallops and the famous nouvelle cuisine 'Beurre Blanc' sauce, Ethnic foods like Indian 'Butter Chicken'; buttery desserts like Brown Butter Ice Cream or Caramel sauce; Lard pastry and pork cracklings; Scotch shortbread; Cornish Pastry or Traditional Christmas Pudding. My outstanding favorite recipe in the book is 'Duck Breast with Blackberries,' a dish that anyone can make often who has access to a 'Super Wallmart.' Mid-level home cooks can produce 'high-end' gourmet fare with the aid of this book and their own imagination, taste and experience. Yes, this is a book that still leaves room for you and your vision of a dish! Or, make each dish as written and enjoy!

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lyndell VanMatre

Preaching to the Choir

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

The only unfortunate thing I can think of about this book is that I'm pretty certain people who need to read it won't be reading it. We of the "Choir" have probably been cooking this way all along, viscerally convinced that the low-fat proponents were absolutely Wrong!

For years, I've ordered my fully rendered leaf lard from Dietrich's Meats; always saved all the various fats rendered from whatever I could (I don't keep my bacon grease in a container on the stove, as my parents did. I keep it in the fridge or freezer.).

I suggest a test: Try deep frying Anything in canola oil (or peanut, or whatever oil), and try another batch in any animal fat. Taste is so important to contentment.

One of the reviewers said, "Here is one thing I will say, since I have cooked out of this book this week, I am not hungry or craving food." And that says it all!

Yes, I use some Olive Oil and Grapeseed Oil, but only for the things that need them, like salad dressings. I don't replace the proper animal fats with them.

Again, it's too bad that McLagan is probably "preaching to the choir."

7 people found this helpful

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littia

To die for recipes

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2019

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This author's book series is so freaking amazing! I love her view on nutrition and her recipes are to die for! I'm using them in my culinary classes at the moment.
If you are looking to get back to our primal way of eating the whole animal you have to check these out! Even if you just want to know how to choose prime pieces of meats these books are great! Next I'm going for her boom Bitter, I'll buy anything she puts out. The women is my role model for sure!

Helpful

CissaTop Contributor: Baking

Inspirational!

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

The more research is indicating that refined carbs are more responsible for cholesterol problems than dietary chloresterol, and the more I have grass-fed meats available to me, the more fascinating this book has become.

It's got some great basic instructions, like making one's own salt pork (the purchased stuff always tastes rancid to me), and rendering lard for cooking and baking (a lard/butter crust is probably the ideal piecrust, especially if one uses leaf lard... and commercial lard is chemically hydrogenated so it has trans-fats).

I've focused more on trying out the basics than the fancier recipes thus far, but I'm VERY happy with my results. Next winter i will cook my husband a steak-and-kidney pudding!

it's a gorgeous book, too. And the recipes are very detailed and precise, and the ones I've made have worked perfectly.

6 people found this helpful

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J. F. Sweeney

A wonderful, informative book

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2009

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It's a beautiful book! The layout, presentation, photos, notes on the side, little added histories -- a well-researched, very well written, and glamorous book all by itself. And recipes! What a lot of work -- and what a success!!

The author draws you in from the first page onward. I am convinced! I use butter anyway but am going to get back to bacon grease and other fats instead of olive oil for cooking. I grew up with food made with lard. With beef and pork and chicken that tasted delicious with their fats. The author explains why our food used to taste delicious and was healthy before all the fad diets and so-called experts took it all away.

This book is one you'll enjoy reading from cover to cover. I'm no expert cook but I'm going to cook with more sense and more flavor and fewer fears that "fat is bad for me." Thank you, Jennifer McLagan for your gift to us.

8 people found this helpful

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Steve Jones

things like the melting points of various fats

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2016

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I was expecting a more detailed technical discussion, things like the melting points of various fats. It does have some good and useful information, but it mostly recipes.

Having said that, if you are looking for a collection of fat-centric recipes, it is a solid 5 stars. They all look delicious. The book is very handsome.

9 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Kamila

I started to appreciate fat again thanks to this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2014

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I admit that I was a bit sceptical about the book but I decided to buy it nonetheless.
I think that the author accurately captures the problem of our present-day lives and our diets. After reading this book I realized that it's true. My whole life everyone and everything told me that fat is bad and that IT'S BAD. After 30 years of indoctrination I have problems looking directly at a cube of lard, not mentioning that seeing fat on a meat gives me the chills.
Of course I realize that is a tragedy itself and more I think about it, more I realize how extremely powerful was/is the lobby of vegetable fat and that it practically purged out animal fat from our lives.
I remember that when I was a kid my whole family used animal fat every day. Butter, lard, you name it. Now I'm trying to break my aversion to fat and start using animal fat in my cooking. And the book? You can tell that the author loves food and cooking. The recipes are really good and I can't wait to try them all. Maybe the quantities are not really clear but I believe after a bit of practice anyone will get it right. I proudly can say that I made my first ever (deliberately) churned butter and it was great.

One person found this helpful

hom sap

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2013

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It makes an interesting and very well-informed read. I don't think more than a couple of the recipes will be getting an outing with me, though - they tend to be a bit offbeat or require extravagant or unusual ingredients (for UK supermarkets anyway). If you have a good butcher this might be less of an issue.

5 people found this helpful

K. Rogers

Ex-Library book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2019

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Library book with no indication it has been sold on by library. Salford City check your stock.

Dic Seal

An interesting read and your can see the change when ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

An interesting read and your can see the change when sugar came in in the 60's / 70's. Ironically I've now been veggie for a year now, but this was on ethical grounds. If you enyoy meat then you should read this.

2 people found this helpful

Buy it - if you like meat, butter and lard

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2011

Verified Purchase

This is a great great book. Makes you realise it's better to eat/cook with lard etc than it is with a lot of other things. Educational and informative with great recipes in it too. I recommend highly.

5 people found this helpful

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