Does anyone cook with lard any more? Lard was sort of ever-present when I was a kid, but I was raised by my grandparents so I don't know what aspects were really out-of-date, which were normal, and which were just, well, poverty.
I can tell you that my grandmother's idea of a curry would have most folk recoiling...
@astronomerritt I have sometimes cooked with lard, tallow, schmaltz, and duck fat (the last of which has lately been popular among American chefs, for no particular reason).
But using pork or beef fat in a curry always seems wrong.
@michael_w_busch Yeah, it seems like suddenly everything is cooked in duck fat these days. Which is fine, nothing wrong with duck fat, but it seems weird for it to be so... advertised? I usually only cook with it when I am roasting a duck, because damn there's a lot of fat in a duck.
I've never cooked with tallow! What is it good for?
@astronomerritt There were some claims of duck fat having lower saturated fat content than other animal fats being a good thing; but the evidence on that is pretty limited.
Re. tallow: I've mostly used it in shortening for pastry and for frying things. If we extend that to include beef pan drippings, the list of possibilities is longer.
@michael_w_busch Interesting, thank you! Beef drippings were a staple of my childhood. I kind of want to roast some beef just for dripping. The nostalgia would be insane.
"Know what was for my tea last night? Beef dripping sandwiches!”
This did not have the expected response from the two bachelors.
“Cor!” said Nobby.
“Real beef dripping?” said Carrot. “The kind with the little crunchy bits on top? And shiny blobs of fat? The best bit is when you stick the knife in and crack the fat and all the browny gold stuff bubbles up...”
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