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What annoys me the most is that sat fat is a huge way that sugary products are made more palatable to people. People love butter. It is every chef's 2nd favorit

What annoys me the most is that sat fat is a huge way that sugary products are made more palatable to people. People love butter. It is every chef's 2nd favorite tool, just after salt.

bluGill 9mo ago
Butter is only a favorite because Lard has been some demonized that no chef would ever use it anymore.
- biophysboy 9mo ago
  Chefs use animal fats all the time. They think about cooking temperature, flavor, etc to make decisions.
- gilrain 9mo ago
  That, and the only readily available form of lard stinks of rancid hog. Approximately nobody has access to high quality leaf lard like the food blogs champion.
- bregma 9mo ago
  Ever spread lard on toast? Do you prefer croissants made with lard? Is everyone's favourite dish these days lard chicken (I mean the Indian dish, not the Soul Food dish, which is of course popular in some locales). Nope. Butter is favoured because it tastes unctuous. Nothing to do with Big Cow or any special interest lobby local to certain valleys in the USA. Except maybe Big Bacon Drippings, because if there's one thing better for a grill cheese than butter it's bacon grease (thick-sliced sourdough bread, sharp Cheddar cheese, a shmear of chili crisp) Now, suet has been demonized to the point that nobody makes suet pudding any more. A shame, really.
  - aziaziazi 9mo ago
    > Butter is favoured because it tastes unctuous Oily stuff tastes unctuous. Butter is favored because most people had it in their youth. Some regions loves Nato and Chicken feet, others cheese and oysters. What's the most delicious? It depends of your own history. I spread olive oil on my toast and prefer the croissants made with that as well. My favorite dish is fried tempeh.
    - ericmcer 9mo ago
      Wouldn't the preferred fat of a culture be spread between countries as they interacted then? Instead it has been fairly one directional with butter being adopted globally but other fats remaining niche (except Olive oil). Is that because of imperialism or is it because it is the best tasting one?
    - antiframe 9mo ago
      Today, I am one of the Ten Thousand [1] that learned you can make croissants with olive oil. Thank you for that! I've always assumed the laminated dough required solid fats, but apparently any layering of fat and flour can make flaky goodness. I am guessing that liquid fats are probably harder to work with, and croissants are already tricky enough to get right: but I must try. [1]: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
      - D-Machine 9mo ago
        Yes, lamination can be done with almost any fat, but the more you laminate (more layers / folds), the more that liquid fats sort of absorb into the dough, and stop having the desired separating effect. So while oil layering works well for e.g. paratha-style roti, scallion pancakes, and things that only really get one or two "layers" or "folds", oil is just fine. But when you get to something like a croissant, or even just a rough puff pastry (e.g. https://www.seriouseats.com/old-fashioned-flaky-pie-dough-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/old-fashioned-flaky-pie-dough-re...), liquid fats are usually a complete non-starter. You might be able to achieve something if you can somehow freeze your olive oil and chill your dough, and work very quickly during lamination, but you should, even with a lot of work and tweaking, still expect to get a noticeably inferior product for something like croissants. Depending on how picky you are/not, you might still be personally happy with the texture and taste, but don't expect to get even remotely close to an actual good butter croissant, by more objective standards. Here in Canada we had a minor problem with the butter texture due to what we feed our cows here ("buttergate"), and this was preventing professional bakers from achieving quality croissants with just the Canadian butter. This should make you highly skeptical that you can get anything good with something as different as olive oil. Still, I do love the idea of an olive oil croissant, it would be delicious.
  - bluGill 9mo ago
    I didn't say lard is always better. Different cooking styles demand different things. Though my grandpa used lard on his bread in the great depression because they couldn't afford butter.
    - yoz-y 9mo ago
      As a kid I had both lard and butter on bread. Bras with lard and onions is amazing. But also that’s roughly the only combination of that works. Butter is way more versatile.
      - bregma 9mo ago
        Perhaps this is a different usage of the word "bra" than I am used to but it sounds uncomfortable.
        yoz-y 9mo ago
        Haha. I’ll blame the iOS keyboard on this one.
- astura 9mo ago
  Excuse me? The trendiest of restaurants around me advertise that they have beef fat fried fries/potatoes.

What annoys me the most is that sat fat is a huge way that sugary products are made more palatable to people. People love butter. It is every chef's 2nd favorite tool, just after salt.

bluGill 9mo ago

Butter is only a favorite because Lard has been some demonized that no chef would ever use it anymore.

biophysboy 9mo ago
Chefs use animal fats all the time. They think about cooking temperature, flavor, etc to make decisions.
gilrain 9mo ago
That, and the only readily available form of lard stinks of rancid hog. Approximately nobody has access to high quality leaf lard like the food blogs champion.
bregma 9mo ago
Ever spread lard on toast? Do you prefer croissants made with lard? Is everyone's favourite dish these days lard chicken (I mean the Indian dish, not the Soul Food dish, which is of course popular in some locales). Nope. Butter is favoured because it tastes unctuous. Nothing to do with Big Cow or any special interest lobby local to certain valleys in the USA. Except maybe Big Bacon Drippings, because if there's one thing better for a grill cheese than butter it's bacon grease (thick-sliced sourdough bread, sharp Cheddar cheese, a shmear of chili crisp) Now, suet has been demonized to the point that nobody makes suet pudding any more. A shame, really.
- aziaziazi 9mo ago
  > Butter is favoured because it tastes unctuous Oily stuff tastes unctuous. Butter is favored because most people had it in their youth. Some regions loves Nato and Chicken feet, others cheese and oysters. What's the most delicious? It depends of your own history. I spread olive oil on my toast and prefer the croissants made with that as well. My favorite dish is fried tempeh.
  - ericmcer 9mo ago
    Wouldn't the preferred fat of a culture be spread between countries as they interacted then? Instead it has been fairly one directional with butter being adopted globally but other fats remaining niche (except Olive oil). Is that because of imperialism or is it because it is the best tasting one?
  - antiframe 9mo ago
    Today, I am one of the Ten Thousand [1] that learned you can make croissants with olive oil. Thank you for that! I've always assumed the laminated dough required solid fats, but apparently any layering of fat and flour can make flaky goodness. I am guessing that liquid fats are probably harder to work with, and croissants are already tricky enough to get right: but I must try. [1]: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
    - D-Machine 9mo ago
      Yes, lamination can be done with almost any fat, but the more you laminate (more layers / folds), the more that liquid fats sort of absorb into the dough, and stop having the desired separating effect. So while oil layering works well for e.g. paratha-style roti, scallion pancakes, and things that only really get one or two "layers" or "folds", oil is just fine. But when you get to something like a croissant, or even just a rough puff pastry (e.g. https://www.seriouseats.com/old-fashioned-flaky-pie-dough-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/old-fashioned-flaky-pie-dough-re...), liquid fats are usually a complete non-starter. You might be able to achieve something if you can somehow freeze your olive oil and chill your dough, and work very quickly during lamination, but you should, even with a lot of work and tweaking, still expect to get a noticeably inferior product for something like croissants. Depending on how picky you are/not, you might still be personally happy with the texture and taste, but don't expect to get even remotely close to an actual good butter croissant, by more objective standards. Here in Canada we had a minor problem with the butter texture due to what we feed our cows here ("buttergate"), and this was preventing professional bakers from achieving quality croissants with just the Canadian butter. This should make you highly skeptical that you can get anything good with something as different as olive oil. Still, I do love the idea of an olive oil croissant, it would be delicious.
- bluGill 9mo ago
  I didn't say lard is always better. Different cooking styles demand different things. Though my grandpa used lard on his bread in the great depression because they couldn't afford butter.
  - yoz-y 9mo ago
    As a kid I had both lard and butter on bread. Bras with lard and onions is amazing. But also that’s roughly the only combination of that works. Butter is way more versatile.
    - bregma 9mo ago
      Perhaps this is a different usage of the word "bra" than I am used to but it sounds uncomfortable.
      - yoz-y 9mo ago
        Haha. I’ll blame the iOS keyboard on this one.
astura 9mo ago
Excuse me? The trendiest of restaurants around me advertise that they have beef fat fried fries/potatoes.