The deep booty was certainly meant to make the most of the oil. I’d be interested in the oils/fats used throughout wok history. If duck fat was as big as it’s become, imagine the flavor. My elders saved all fats. Some for future cooking, some for fire starting, “lotion”, among other things.
I still save bacon grease and chicken fat.
This is probably my third post nerding out over George Motz’s Burger Scholar Sessions in a week, but here he is recreating Dyer’s deep fried burger in Memphis. Dyer’s has been reusing their oil since 1912. They actually moved their location at one point and had a police escort to move the grease to a new location.
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Did they also buy insurance?
I’ve been trying to find the video of the move. It might be buried in George’s Hamburger America documentary. They transported the grease in two heavy duty locking cylinders covered in yellow police tape. I think the Mayor showed up for some sort of ceremony.
I also save pork fat that I render into lard and duck fat. I collect fat in the freezer until I have enough for a batch.
What does this really mean? If it means they use their fry oil fills for more than one day, lots of places do that. If it means they haven’t discarded any oil since 1912, I think that’s an incorrect advertising ploy.
What it may more reasonably mean is that they add back some old oil whenever they drain and clean the fryers (or skillets). I suppose you could think of that like folks think of sourdough starter–there’s some tiny share of the original starter that gets reintroduced at every feeding.
I enjoyed the video. Thanks.
If I cooked more pork and duck, I’d do that.
Beef tallow, too. In my dad’s slaughterhouse, there was a large (1000-gallon?) rendering tank and boiler. What protein scraps remained in the tank after the hot tallow was drained into drums came out as very tasty cracklins.
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You and me both. Schmaltz has value. Potatoes and schmaltz is the heart of my latest love: Mexican mashed potatoes. Bacon fat is gold.
Gas/induction. I have electric glass. Deal with it. Best wood stove there is, for heat. Wish I could add a water tank.
Yea George’s videos are a lot of fun. I can’t say I’m not a little bit skeptical of the claim about reusing the fat, but I always thought of it as something comparable to a perpetual stew. George heats the oil to 325 degrees F here which is below the smoke point of beef fat. Somewhere in the documentary the owner mentioned they remove the oil from the pans at night and filter it. That’s about everything I’ve been able to piece together on how viable that method would be.
Here’s a wiki post on perpetual stew for anyone interested.
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My last house was built in 1905, intended for a wood/coal stove. So I put one in to remind me of my maternal grandmother’s kitchen. When I removed the casing around the kitchen chimney, I discovered that the piping was there to heat water using the stove and use it in the house’s water taps. There was even a space between cabinets to stand a hot collection tank. That and the stove itself were the only source of heat in the kitchen.
I looked into fitting my stove with the “water jackets” to restore all that. I actually found a source. But since they fit inside the stove’s firebox, your fire can’t be as big, and therefore you end up feeding fuel much more often, and you can’t really bank your fire overnight. Oh, well, nevermind.
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Was a time when I kept a stockpot on the back of my woodstove for days at a time. I think I read somewhere that it can be described as a “continuous kitchen” idea. It worked well for stocks.
I’m a believer in melding flavors over time, e.g., I think soups and stews can be better on Day 2 or 3. But then you get bored, the fire goes out, or your additions don’t fit. I’ve also learned that certain spoilage toxins aren’t killed by reboiling. Thankfully, it need not be a choice between food poisoning or starvation.
Same. Bacon fat or lard are my default cooking fats. Duck fat, schmaltz and beef tallow aren’t far behind. I rarely reach for olive oil as anything other than a finishing oil.
My go-to cooking oil is canola. Like you, I use olive oil mostly for flavor. I find that regular, i.e. not extra virgin, oil is useful as well (I call it SOO, “slut olive oil”). I like the animal fats for the flavor they add. As nearly as I can discern, as long as you avoid processed fats you are probably alright from a health stand point.
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Agreed. I learned long ago (as a low carber of over 20 years) that animal fat is not the enemy. I avoid trans fats entirely and limit my consumption of refined/processed oils to restaurant meals (or other meals over which I have minimal control, like dinner parties) and commercial mayonnaise. I enjoy homemade mayo/aioli, but there is something about Hellman’s extra heavy that I just can’t quit!
Several people by me have the stoves with water tanks. Love the idea. Mine is the mother of basement woodstoves. Big and built. 1962 Super Jack, Warnock Industries… Just wish I could use it for more than heat. It cooks.
Here’s a downside to induction I discovered last night - your clumsy teenager might pull a glass from an upper cabinet and let one fall on top of it.
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Now what do you do?
Anyway, we’ll just note that the better home cooks we know like gas for its analog feedback – they say they know what’s happening and what to do by watching both flame and pan’s contents.
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This is definitely one advatnage of induction, but I am not sure how practical it is in practice (as opposed to in theory).
Do I really need to fry my egg at exactly 323F?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I have a gas stove, this is a 2 burner on the other side of my (small) kitchen that I mostly use for boiling pasta water, making stock and boiling water for coffee. I’m actually in the middle of refining my kitchen remodel plans and didn’t plan to keep this anyway since that counter will be shrinking. I think I will get a single “burner” induction and make that corner the coffee bar area.
