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Dick Margulis

Alan wrote:
>>
> Remember that it is only in the last century that there was
> any substitute for naturally occurring fats. Lard was the
> only pure fat available to most people.

And suet. And just to add a little fat to the fire, so to speak, I
should explain a few things for those who are unfamiliar with using
animal fats in cooking. Lard is available in two grades. "Leaf lard" is
the highest grade. Wikipedia says, "Lard may be rendered from the fatty
tissue just above the tenderloin or under the skin of the pig. The
highest grade of lard, known as "leaf lard", is obtained from the leaf
fat that surrounds the kidneys. The lowest grade is obtained from around
the small intestines." Leaf lard is the first choice for piecrust, if
you can find it.

Similarly, kidney fat is the highest grade of suet from a beef carcass.
Rendered beef or mutton fat is tallow, used mostly for soap and various
industrial applications.

I suppose mutton fat is used for cooking in places where there are lots
of sheep. Anyone want to comment on that? I think of it as too strongly
scented for general cooking use, though.

> And butter was the
> only, er, butter that was available to most people.

Not really. We've used the verb _to butter_, meaning to spread stuff on
a surface, for a long time. So even though the word butter originally
referred to dairy butter, people have used other butters (apple, peanut,
etc.) for a long time; masons butter bricks with mortar (and then butt
them, but that's from another root, I think); caterers butter sandwiches
with mayonnaise; etc. However, your point is taken--there was no margarine.

>
> Farmers always used lard and butter because that's all there
> was. And they were sold in cities for the same reason.

And suet. And goose fat, duck fat, and chicken fat.

>
> Margarine only began to be popular after/during WW II, and
> faced lots of resistance from the dairy lobby. I remember
> that, for example, you couldn't sell margarine that was
> colored yellow. You got a transparent pouch of white
> margarine, with a little yellow "pill" of yellow dye that
> you could break, and then knead through the margarine to
> make it yellow!

That varied from state to state. I know that by the 1950s that was not
true in Ohio (the margarine in the store was yellow), but it was still
true in Wisconsin. I don't know that it was ever true at the federal level.

>
> Vegetable fats are a fairly recent invention, but in the few
> generations that they have been used, most people have
> forgotten (or never learned about) lard.

In the US, pig farming fifty years ago was associated with rural poverty
(maybe not in reality but at least in the minds of upwardly mobile
suburban types). Crisco was therefore "cleaner" in their minds. How much
of this was cynical marketing hype and how much was a social meme I
wouldn't venture to guess.

>
> It is a classic truth that pastries made with lard are the
> flakiest and tenderest of all. Considering that this would
> only make up a small part of a person's fat intake, perhaps
> we should return to using lard -- it is probably healthier
> than trans fats, and it certainly makes better pastries!

Lard has to be a lot better for you (certainly better tasting) than the
"Danish pastry shortening" used by bakers, which is made from tropical
fats (palm, coconut). That's the stuff that leaves a film clinging to
the roof of your mouth after you eat a commercial Danish pastry.

Dick