Fat is Flavour

I don’t have a sweet tooth, I have a fat tooth.
Even my pregnancy cravings were for cream.

Surely fat is good for you, isn’t it? Look at the Mediterranean Diet, full of olive oil; and that book ‘Why French Women aren’t Fat’ while they’re swimming in butter and croissants!

The T.V. show Master Chef has been criticized for the amount of butter they use in their recipes, but they have the right idea-Fat Is Flavour! Of course, these types of recipes are Sometimes foods, not Always foods. Foods perhaps for special occasions, not weekday dinners.

Fat coats your palate and extends flavours- they last longer, they spread further. But... a little goes a long way. You don’t need to eat gobs of the stuff to get the best effect. According to an article in the Canberra Times this week, ‘there is speculation that fat should be added as another taste to the other five (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami)’ Hmmm... Interesting.

Less can be more. I much prefer a good quality chocolate with a higher cocoa fat content, like Lindt, than a sweeter, less fat chocolate like Cadbury. The satisfaction factor is higher and I don’t need very much to satisfy me.... Unless my husband is annoying me, or there's a sad movie on, or I'm feeling hormotional,...I digress...

Most comfort foods have a decent amount of fat in them. Think about what your favourite childhood dish was. Even the good old roast dinner was cooked in, and exuded, fat. And don’t even get me started on Wagu Beef. The fat marbling is even graded! Most of course is rendered out during cooking, but again, the fantastic flavour remains.

Anyway, for Mothers Day this year I received a jar of Duck Fat. (Also 85% dark Lindt chocolate, also Chocolate Covered Wild Figs, also Mango infused Honey- see a pattern emerging?) We have huge tubs of duck fat at work to use for confitting duck marylands, but I have never had it on its own without its original poultry owners. So, good friend that I am, I decided I would bite the bullet and experiment with it to save you the financial and waistline expense.
I know how much you will appreciate it.

I ratted through the pantry for vegetables and some things to roast. I really need to think things out before I just jump in... I came up with: Jerusalem Artichokes, Baby Taro, Kipfler Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin and a Chicken. Great! Now, I know that my choice of veggies was not the best for roasting. A floury potato would have been a much better option, but I went with what was on hand.

Step 1: Prepare veggies. As the veggies are peeled they need to be placed into acidulated water (fancy way of saying water with a squeeze of lemon) to stop the surface browning.

Step 2: Preheat oven to a good high heat, at least 200*

Step 3: Dry veggies and rub with duck fat- duck fat is such a rich, meaty scented and flavoured vehicle for roasting, I really wanted to see the difference it made to the veggies and chicken compared to the vegetable or rice bran oil I normally use.

Step 4: Roast those babies! I baked the veggies until they were golden brown, soft inside and slightly crispy outside.


They smelt fantastic!
They tasted fantastic!

The rich meatiness of the fat came through amazingly. I roasted the veggies separately from the chicken so there would be no flavour contamination to skew my amazingly scientific experiment, but you would swear they had been baked together. The chicken was also the best flavoured I’d cooked. Surprisingly, it was like chicken.... but more so. The duckiness is not at all obvious, it just oomphs up the natural taste of the chookie.
I don’t think the fat content was too high at all. By roasting at a high enough temperature, the veggies crisp on the outside without it soaking in, and by placing the chicken on a rack to cook, it not only crisps underneath but all the excess fat drips off too.
The amount of fat I used was only a couple of tablespoons all up, and nearly all of that was left in the tray at the end of cooking. A pretty good result I think.

So Readers, in this particular case, I definitely feel that I have undeniably, scientifically, once-and-for-all, proven beyond reasonable doubt, that Fat is indeed, Flavour!

Wouldn't you agree?