How to Choose Different Fats For Cooking

In my column on Fats and Oils, I discussed four characteristics that are important when choosing a particular fat or oil for cooking: flavor, texture, smoke point, and price. The following describes how these apply to specific fats and oils.

Butter: Butter has incomparable flavor and provides texture, richness, and leavening to baked goods. Its primary drawback is its low smoking point, limiting its use in stove top cooking.

To sauté with butter, two adjustments are possible. First, combine the butter with a bland, higher smoke point oil, like canola oil. Otherwise, use clarified butter, (ghee in India). Clarifying butter removes the milk solids, which burn first. A method for clarifying butter is described at the bottom of this column.

Since butter is expensive, purchase the best tasting unsalted butter. Unsalted butter will be fresher; salt acts as a preservative and producers, distributors, and markets move unsalted butter more quickly on and off grocery shelves. Unsalted butter also gives the cook greater control over the amount of salt in the recipe.

When buying unsalted butter, look for butter wrapped in foil. Foil provides a good barrier to slow down rancidity and prevent odor absorption. The best place to store butter is the freezer, where it will keep for up to 6 months. Butter will keep 1 ½ months in the refrigerator.

Margarine: I don't like to use margarine. Margarine was developed to be a lower priced alternative to butter, and, also, was touted as a healthier alternative. Whether margarine is healthier than butter is now questionable, and the price differential doesn't merit settling for significantly less flavor.

Cooking Oils: The best oils for cooking are generally bland in flavor and have high smoke points, making them useful for sautéing and frying. Specific examples include canola (rapeseed in the rest of the world), corn, safflower, soybean, grapeseed, refined peanut oil, and sunflower oils.Peanut oil has the highest smoke point, justifying its use in Oriental wok cooking.

Store these oils in airtight containers, away from heat and light. A generic vegetable oil is a blend designed to be tasteless and to have a high smoke point.

Olive Oil: Worthy of a column in itself, I'll just briefly describe olive oil. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the most flavorful and is used for salad dressings, or as a seasoning or condiment. True extra virgin olive oil is unrefined. It is made without using either heat (i.e.  cold pressed) or by using solvents. Additionally, it must have less than 1% acidity. Its flavor depends on the olive type, harvesting technique, climate, and other elements.

Be careful, the label "extra virgin" can be applied to refined olive oil if the oil is produced, bottled, or labeled in a country that has not agreed to comply with the International Olive Oil Council. The U.S. does not comply with the Council, so a U.S. manufacturer can buy olives in bulk from Italy, produce refined olive oil and still label the oil Extra Virgin. A cheap Extra Virgin Olive Oil should be suspect.

There are, however, good reasons to buy refined olive oils, either virgin olive oil, (1-3% acidity) or pure olive oil. These are the best for cooking, where the flavor will be masked. Also, refined olive oil has a higher smoke point than unrefined.

Unrefined Oils, (other than olive): This category includes walnut, hazelnut, almond, unrefined peanut, and sesame oils (toasted and untoasted). These oils are expensive and become easily rancid, so they should be purchased in small bottles and used for seasoning, condiments, and salad dressings. They have a low smoke point, and are not good for cooking, (or add just at the last minute). Refrigerate these - they may turn solid - and bring to room temperature before using.

Vegetable Shortening: Vegetable shortening is usually used either in pastry as a butter alternative or complement. While tasteless, it is 100% fat, unlike butter  which is around 80% fat. Therefore, shortening stays solid longer at room temperature and creams better.

 In baking, this means that shortening is distributed more effectively through the dough than butter, and is more efficient at coating flour particles, minimizing gluten development, resulting in a more tender product.

Vegetable shortening, unlike butter, can be used in frying as it has a relatively high smoke point. However, you should purchase pure shortening, i.e. shortening made entirely from animal or vegetable fats. If pure is not on the label, there are additives, and the shortening will have a lower smoke point. Once it is opened, shortening can be stored up for a year in a dark, cool space.

Lard: Lard traditionally was used in savory crusts, especially where a slight meat taste was desired. It acts much like vegetable shortening, and produces a tender crust and also has a high smoke point for deep fat frying. Most supermarket lard, however, is not produced by rendering flavorful pork fat and is undistinguishable from vegetable shortening, not justifying its higher cost.

To Clarify Butter:

-Melt 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter in a small pan over low heat.

-Simmer, without stirring, for 20 minutes.

-Skim the foam off the top.

-Pour the liquid into a glass jar or measuring cup, slowly, preferably through cheese cloth or a fine sieve.

-Leave the whey (white stuff) in the bottom of the pan.

-Cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 months.

Alternatively, you can refrigerate the mixture in the pan. When it is cold, the clarified butter will have solidified, and can be lifted out of the container, leaving the semi liquid whey in the bottom.