and behave like saturated fatty acids.
Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may contain substantial amounts of trans fatty acids but, largely because of difficulties in determining their amounts, they are not currently reported separately on food labels.
In your own pursuit of longevity, you will still want to pay attention to the amount of “Total Fat” listed on the label. But to learn whether it is primarily “good fat” or “bad fat,” disregard the exact numbers of grams and pay attention to the relative amounts of saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fat(ty acids). That’s what counts. And remember that at this writing the villainous trans fatty acids are still lurking somewhere off the label. The FDA is considering listing them together with the saturated fatty acids.
Oh, and what about those “zero grams of fat(ty acids)” in my Premium Crackers that mysteriously add up to 2 grams of total fat? Are there some kinds of fat that have no fatty acids attached to them at all? No. Then they wouldn’t be fats. It’s that the FDA permits manufacturers to list “zero grams” of either a fat or a fatty acid when the amount is less than 0.5 gram per serving.
The rules of arithmetic that we learned in first grade are not in jeopardy.
IS THAT PERFECTLY CLEAR?
I have a recipe that calls for clarified butter. How do I do that? And what does clarifying butter accomplish besides, well, making clear butter?
T hat depends on your point of view. Clarifying butter gets rid of everything but that delicious, artery-clogging, highly saturated butterfat. But when we use it in sautéing instead of whole butter, we avoid eating the browned proteins, which could also be unhealthful because of possible carcinogens. Name your poison.
Some people think of butter as a block of fat surrounded by guilt. But guilt or no guilt, it isn’t all fat. It’s a three-part mixture of fat, water, and protein solids. When we clarify butter, we’re separating out the fat and throwing everything else away. Using the pure fat, we can sauté at a higher temperature without any burning or smoking, because the water in whole butter holds the temperature down and the solids do indeed tend to burn and smoke.
When heated in a frying pan, the solid proteins in whole butter begin to turn brown and smoke at around 250ºF. One way to minimize these goings-on is to “protect” the butter in the pan with a little cooking oil, which might have a smoking temperature of around 425ºF. But you’ll still get a little browning of the proteins in the butter.
Or, you can use clarified butter. It’s the pure oil without the proteins, and it won’t set off your smoke alarm until about 350ºF.
Clarified butter will keep much longer than whole butter will, because bacteria can work away at protein, but not at pure oil. In India, where refrigeration can be scarce, they make clarified butter ( usli ghee ) by melting it slowly and then continuing to boil off the water, whereupon its proteins and sugars become slightly burned, producing a pleasant, nutty flavor.
Eventually, clarified butter will turn rancid. But rancidity is only a sour flavor, not bacterial contamination. Tibetans, in fact, prefer their clarified yak butter on the rancid side. Chacun à son goût .
----
To clarify butter, whether salted or unsalted, all you have to do is melt it slowly at the lowest possible temperature, keeping in mind that it scorches easily. The oil, the water, and the solids will separate into three layers: a froth of casein on the top; the clear, yellow oil in the middle; and a watery suspension of milk solids on the bottom. If you’re using salted butter, the salt will be distributed between the top and bottom layers.
Skim off the top froth and pour or ladle off the oil—the clarified butter—into another container, leaving the water and sediment behind. Or use a gravy separator to pour off the watery layer. Better yet, refrigerate the whole mess,
Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may contain substantial amounts of trans fatty acids but, largely because of difficulties in determining their amounts, they are not currently reported separately on food labels.
In your own pursuit of longevity, you will still want to pay attention to the amount of “Total Fat” listed on the label. But to learn whether it is primarily “good fat” or “bad fat,” disregard the exact numbers of grams and pay attention to the relative amounts of saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fat(ty acids). That’s what counts. And remember that at this writing the villainous trans fatty acids are still lurking somewhere off the label. The FDA is considering listing them together with the saturated fatty acids.
Oh, and what about those “zero grams of fat(ty acids)” in my Premium Crackers that mysteriously add up to 2 grams of total fat? Are there some kinds of fat that have no fatty acids attached to them at all? No. Then they wouldn’t be fats. It’s that the FDA permits manufacturers to list “zero grams” of either a fat or a fatty acid when the amount is less than 0.5 gram per serving.
The rules of arithmetic that we learned in first grade are not in jeopardy.
IS THAT PERFECTLY CLEAR?
I have a recipe that calls for clarified butter. How do I do that? And what does clarifying butter accomplish besides, well, making clear butter?
T hat depends on your point of view. Clarifying butter gets rid of everything but that delicious, artery-clogging, highly saturated butterfat. But when we use it in sautéing instead of whole butter, we avoid eating the browned proteins, which could also be unhealthful because of possible carcinogens. Name your poison.
Some people think of butter as a block of fat surrounded by guilt. But guilt or no guilt, it isn’t all fat. It’s a three-part mixture of fat, water, and protein solids. When we clarify butter, we’re separating out the fat and throwing everything else away. Using the pure fat, we can sauté at a higher temperature without any burning or smoking, because the water in whole butter holds the temperature down and the solids do indeed tend to burn and smoke.
When heated in a frying pan, the solid proteins in whole butter begin to turn brown and smoke at around 250ºF. One way to minimize these goings-on is to “protect” the butter in the pan with a little cooking oil, which might have a smoking temperature of around 425ºF. But you’ll still get a little browning of the proteins in the butter.
Or, you can use clarified butter. It’s the pure oil without the proteins, and it won’t set off your smoke alarm until about 350ºF.
Clarified butter will keep much longer than whole butter will, because bacteria can work away at protein, but not at pure oil. In India, where refrigeration can be scarce, they make clarified butter ( usli ghee ) by melting it slowly and then continuing to boil off the water, whereupon its proteins and sugars become slightly burned, producing a pleasant, nutty flavor.
Eventually, clarified butter will turn rancid. But rancidity is only a sour flavor, not bacterial contamination. Tibetans, in fact, prefer their clarified yak butter on the rancid side. Chacun à son goût .
----
To clarify butter, whether salted or unsalted, all you have to do is melt it slowly at the lowest possible temperature, keeping in mind that it scorches easily. The oil, the water, and the solids will separate into three layers: a froth of casein on the top; the clear, yellow oil in the middle; and a watery suspension of milk solids on the bottom. If you’re using salted butter, the salt will be distributed between the top and bottom layers.
Skim off the top froth and pour or ladle off the oil—the clarified butter—into another container, leaving the water and sediment behind. Or use a gravy separator to pour off the watery layer. Better yet, refrigerate the whole mess,
Similar Books
