I was making potatoes for a frittata and husband was quite enthusiastic about the potatoes fried in bacon fat; not something I usually make. He said potatoes roasted in bacon fat was best thing ever; I said duck fat. What say you?
Trying to creat a poll
0 voters
I like a mix of butter and duck fat 
I’d take any of those, but butter, being more common, would be in last place.
I usually do a little bit butter, duck fat and maybe some light EVOO.
I actually prefer roasting my potatoes without the use of any fat.
Parboil, then bake.
Turns out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Like tater tots on steroids.
Interesting. What kind of potato?
For the frittata, I usually steam something like a Yukon gold, then cut up or smash and roast a bit with olive oil before adding the eggs and some cooked onion. I wrote fried but the potatoes were actually roasted.
I voted for vegetable oil (usually sunflower oil as that’s what we have in the cupboard), as there wasnt an “other” category
But, most times we roast potatoes, it’s to accompany roast meat. So, for me, there’s nothing better than roasting the spuds in the same tray that the meat’s roasting. Lamb fat roast spuds, yum.
For roasting, duck fat. But for a frittata, the bacon flavor goes so well with eggs that it’s hard to pass up. Though I add cubed bacon to omelettes and frittatas, not just the fat!
I like duck fat occasionally, but I end up saving it then throwing it out a few months later.
I use half olive oil/ half butter for roast potatoes when I’m not roasting them with chicken, duck or meat.
Chicken schmaltz, left over from roast chicken, is great for potatoes, too.
Any and all kinds.
I’m tempted to vote for duck fat, but I realize I’m swayed by the high price of this luxury. Much like if I raised ducks and never ate bacon, I might vote for bacon fat.
I should also say you didn’t list one of the very best choices: chicken fat.
I most often use olive oil for the ease of it, but duck fat and butter are also up there in terms of favourite. Bacon fat is lovely, as well, but it tends to overpower the flavour of the potatoes. Vegetable oil? Never. It’s too highly processed and some of the chemicals used for extraction and deodorizing are just nasty.
A container of duck fat can last a very long time in the freezer. I soften it slightly on the counter then chip out a little divot of the goodness with my very sturdy, pointy Parmesan cheese knife. Back in the freezer with the rest.
A little goes a long way if you roast cubed potatoes in the stuff until golden brown, which I sometimes do as a treat. Probably less a tablespoon of duck fat per use on potatoes to serve two because the fat melts and distributes so well. Though I don’t measure.
My freezer is full of containers of duck fat and goose fat. The fat goes rancid after a few months. It probably wouldn’t go rancid if it was vacuum-packed but I don’t do that.
It’s hard to get the duck fat and goose fat smell out of plastic storage containers. I’m close to stopping my pattern of making stock and freezing it, keeping duck and goose fat, and freezing egg whites, because I never use them after they are frozen. A third of my freezer space is filled with containers of stock, schmaltz and egg whites.
I’ve kept duck fat in the fridge for at least a year. Rendered, unstrained. Never got rancid.
Yeah, this (mixing butter and duck fat) except I use ghee. I started one time when I was a bit low on duck fat and liked the result. I don’t measure but I think I’m around 1 part ghee to 2 parts duck fat. Double bonus since I like it so much is that ghee is very cheap compared to duck fat.
As between duck/bacon, I’m pretty torn but voted for duck as just barely having an edge. It also depends on how overcooked the bacon fat got. Normally I try to dump the griddle into a pyrex cup every couple of loads but sometimes forget and the bacon fat can get too dark.
Absolute best bacon fat ever was when we used to use the microwave carrel thingie. It would often come out with a bit of salt water as well but just heat to evaporate and we had really really clean bacon grease. Problem is I hated the way the bacon turned out so we chucked the thing.
Last thing:
Blargh. I’m sorry this happened to you. I haven’t experienced the same with the duck fat from my butcher, which comes in a plastic deli container. I do discard mine if it takes on a slight whiff of that stale freezer flavor. Maybe that’s a sign that the fat is starting to turn bad? Have successfully stored containers for a year or more though.
To me it really all comes down to what I am frying/sautéing/roasting.
Duck & chicken fat are great for scrambled eggs, as is bacon. All three work well for roasting potatoes.
I also like to mix olive oil & butter for sautéing, or ghee & bacon fat for popcorn.
Interesting. I’ve found years-old containers of duck fat in the freezer, neither rancid nor that stale smell (which I mostly associate with old, half-eaten ice cream buckets).
Are you guys putting down a layer of plastic film on it? I save the ones that come with ice cream and cut to size and just smoosh them down into it. I think that helps but I could be fooling myself. I know it does help with ice cream; I used to use cling film before the manufacturers started including the white plastic sheet themselves. Maybe also because my fat is not out of the freezer very long, I just jam a steak knife into it to break off the chunks I want, smoosh the film back down (using hand warmth to melt the surface under the film a bit) then back into the freezer.
That shouldn’t happen. Think of a crock of duck confit that isn’t refrigerated and yet lasts months. I keep a very large pot of duck fat in the fridge and it also lasts for months without flavour degredation.
