Congrats to economyrice, natalie, raspberrypicker, mochihead, and Mizbee. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's Cook the Book!...
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This week's Cook the Book selection is all about fat, but I want to start off by talking about bread. More specifically, the best bread basket I've ever had. It was at Del Posto, the elegant (if somewhat imposing) Italian restaurant co-owned by Mario Batali and Joe and Lidia Bastianich. Overflowing with crunchy breadsticks, oven-fresh focaccia, and an assortment of rolls, the basket comes not only with butter but also with a small tureen of whipped lardo. That's right. Pork fat. It's surprisingly light, incredibly flavorful, and absolutely delicious. While the basket would still be very good without it, the whipped lardo adds an extraspecial element that raises the once-humble offering of bread to luxurious new heights. Ed Levine agrees...
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In Salon's interview with Jennifer McLagan, author of the recently released Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, learn more about the controversial ingredient that is fundamental to flavor and to our health. She answers questions about animal fat and its relation to obesity, America's bad relationship with fat, and how animal fat lost the popularity contest to vegetable-based man-made fats. But most importantly, why is it better to eat and cook with animal fat than vegetable fat? Unlike vegetable oils, animal fats are very stable and don't turn rancid easily. This makes them ideal for cooking, which involves heating the fat. And they have no trans fats.Animal fats have lots of good fatty acids that fight disease,...
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The above illustration comes from a 1944 pamphlet by Otto F. Fleiss titled White Art in the Meat Food Business: A Practical Handbook for Butcher, Pork Stores, Restaurants, Hotels and Delicatessens on How to Make Lasting and Transferable White Art Decorations out of Bacon Fat Back for Window Displays, Ornaments on Meat Food Cold Buffets and for Exhibits and Advertising Purposes. Enrich yourself with Personal Knowledge. [via Boing Boing]...
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Photograph from Kathy Chan on Flickr Here's something you don't see every day (I hope): buckets of fat in your home refrigerator. Not just run-of-the-mill fat, but "jowl fat" and "bacon jus." It's the fridge of your dreams! Previously: Photo of the Day: Bacon Mat Photo of the Day: Just A Humongous Bucket Of Eggs And Meat Photo of the Day: Lechon Behold the Bacon Pig In Videos: How It's Made—Bacon...
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America's fat problem: "I say unto you: Fat is good! Fat is necessary. Ask any chef. Fat does not make you fat, eating too much makes you fat! We aren’t filling our bodies with sodium because of the box of kosher salt we use to season our food, we’re doing it with all the processed food that’s loaded with hidden salt. And American cooks and American diners need to understand the differences."...
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In today's New York Times Chairman Bruni confirms in hilarious fashion what most Serious Eaters already know and love about food in restaurants these days, namely, that fat rules. Though he did hit many of the fat-centric highlights in New York eating, like Resto, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and the Spotted Pig, he failed to mention a few of my favorites (both classic and new) listed after the jump. What are your favorite fatty dishes?...
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Fran McCollough, who wrote the book on the subject (The Good Fat Cookbook), has a persuasive letter in today's Times urging a return to sanity on the whole butter-transfat uproar. Her coup de grace: "These ignorant food police mandates will soon lead us to ban mother's milk, loaded as it is with "bad" things: cholesterol, saturated fat, sugar and trans fat." Previously: Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim...
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Chicken Fat Spill Shuts Down La. Highway [via torrez del.icio.us]...
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