While I thoroughly enjoyed and savored the immense crab cake at The Olde Bar last week, the stand alone star of the meal was the beef fat fries. And again last night at Pennsylvania 6 as a companion to the buck-a-shuck oysters at Happy Hour I put in an additional order for duck fat fries with lemon truffle aioli.
There's just something about spuds cooked in animal fat that makes them taste so good! Prepared that way they have a much richer flavor than ones cooked in a neutral substance like olive oil. But why do they taste so much better? According to Cook's Illustrated it has to do with the fatty acids that give any fat its particular profile. Here's what they have to say:
"In refined oils such as pure olive oil, many of the volatile fatty acids and aroma compounds have been stripped away to make a neutral tasting oil that will work in a variety of applications. Meanwhile, unrefined oils like extra-virgin olive oil have plenty of flavor, but because some of their volatile fatty acids and aroma compounds evaporate when exposed to heat, they lose most of it after a few minutes of cooking. But when the fatty acids in an unrefined animal fat are exposed to heat, they oxidize to form new flavor compounds that actually improve flavor and make it taste more complex."
And that phenomenon works for more than just fries. Bacon fat is a worthy substitute for butter when spread on the bread used in a grilled cheese sandwich, for example. It can also be used to saute greens like kale or collards, or even Brussels sprouts. Chicken fat can be substituted for the butter you add to rice pilaf to enhance the flavor of that dish, too.
I wonder if the crab fries I will order at the ballgame this afternoon are cooked that way. But don't tell that to my doctor...
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