The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-12-20
ECONOMICAL CHOICE
OF FATS FOR TABLE
Office Of Home Economies, u. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture, Offers Sugges-
gestions for Selection of
Important Foods.

Hbllts NlltNt Ai aiN A'k"'NNN 80
some when of good quality and practically
the same amount of energy is derived by
the body from each, The housekeeper
therefore must decide usually what she
is willing TO pay for relatively super
fetal properties in the foods. These
facts are pointed out in recent probes.
sional paper OF the L. $. department OF
agriculture bulletin 400, Fats and Their
Economical Use in the Home" prepared
by the Office of home economics OF the
department. In discussing the selection
of fats for special uses the bulletin says;
| In general IL pays always to buy rats
of such good quality that none will have
to be thrown away through spoilage. In
some instances higher priced article
may be more economical in the end, as,
for example. clean. sanitary butter. as
compared to cheaper, but less sanitary
product. In some instances, where taste
or flavor only is involved, less expen-
sive table fat may answer quite satlsiac-
torily the purpose of a more expensive
one. For example, the chief use OF table
oils is as an ingredient of salad dressings
and when a characteristic flavor is not
especially desired, good grades of cotton
seed and peanut oils, having bland fla
vor. NAV be used when these are less ex-
pensive than the corresponding grades OF
olive oil.
Fats used for shortening, that is, in
mixture with doughs, etc. influence the
appearance. flavor, texture, composition,
| keeping quality and cost of the foods IN
which they are Incorporated. In select
| ing shortening fats flavor and odor are
to be considered, but attractive appear
ance and color are OF less Importance,
since in cooking these are usually
masked Other qualities being equal !,
those culinary fats are more economieal
and desirable which possess the best
keeping quality; that is, the least tend
ency to become rancid. Also, for general
use shortening fats give the best results
! if they are neither too hard nor too soft
| to be easily mixed with the other IN
gradients of the dough at ordinary tenn
peratures.
Fats used as a medium for cooking in
such operations as frying should be care
| fully selected, since they influence the
| flavor, appearance and texture OF the
| foods cooked in them as is evident when
one recalls the bad flavor impaired to
| fried foods by burned or rancid fat.
| Preference should be given to fat which
does not scorch too readily at the tenn
perature most commonly used for frying.
Experiments in the laboratory of the OF
flee of home economics indicate that but
ter and lard scorch at a lower tempera-
ture than beef or mutton fats and cot
| tonseed peanut or cocoanut oils. FOR
this reason, therefore, the latter fats are
preferable for deep frying which requires
| high temperature.
Economical Use of Fats.
It is a waste, the bulletin points out,
to use more fat than good recipe calls
for. 1t is well known that too much
butter makes cake soggy, while salad
dressing with too much oil tastes fiat"
The following are additional examples of
WAYS in which economy may be secured.
II is more economical to stir butter into
cooked vegetables just before they are
served rather than while cooking, and
the flavor thus impaired is more pro-
nounced. Furthermore, if added before
cooking much of the butter is lost unless
the water in which the vegetables are
boiled is served with them. Instead OF
adding butter to vegetables many people
cook fat ham, bacon or salt pork with
| them and relish the characteristic flavor
thus impaired.
Saving Fats That Would Be Thrown
Away.
Much fat may be saved by hoRe rem
dering of the trimmings from fat meat.
The following method of rendering fats,
found to be very satisfactory in the
laborat tory of the office OF home econom-
J les, may be applied in the home. The
| fat is cut finely with an ordinary house
hold meat chopper or sausage grinder
and is then heated in double boiler I'M
til completely melted The melted fat
is then strained through rather thick
cloth medium fine huckaback, for in
stance) to remove the finely divided bits
of tissue. The advantage of this method
is that since the material to be rendered
is finely divided the fat separates read
ily from the inclosing tissue at tenn
perature very little above its melting
point. and there is no danger of seorch-
| ing it as in the older openkett meth
cd.
After the fat is rendered ii must
usually be clarified. A fairly successful
household method for clarifying fats is
as follows: Melt the fat with at least an
equal volume of water and heat for
short time at moderate temperature,
with occasional stirring. Let the mix
ture cool. remove the layer of fat and
scrape off any bits of meat and other
material which may adhere to the under
side. Rendering or clarifying fat with
milk gives quite satisfactory results in
modifying odors and iavors. The pro
! cedure is as follows; To two pounds OF
fat finely chopped if unrerdered) add
one half pint of milk preferably sour.
Heat the mixture in a double boiler I'M
til rendered or thoroughly melted, stir
well. and strain through fairly thick
cloth. When cold the fat forms a hard
clean LAYER, and any dark material adj
herring to the under side OF the fat may
be scraped off. Sour milk, being eoagu-
lated. is preferable to sweet milk, since
the curd remains on the cloth through
which the mixture is strained and is
thus more easily separated from the rem.
I dercd fat. which has acquired some OF
the milk flavor and butter fat.
Undesirable odors and favors can be
decreased in intensity or removed, If not
too pronounced. by heating the fats with
good grade of charcoal, and the meth