Butter Is Back by Bittman

[elleng]

Julia Child, goddess of fat, is beaming somewhere. Butter is back, and when you’re looking for a few chunks of pork for a stew, you can resume searching for the best pieces — the ones with the most fat. Eventually, your friends will stop glaring at you as if you’re trying to kill them.

That the worm is turning became increasingly evident a couple of weeks ago, when a meta-analysis published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that there’s just no evidence to support the notion that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease. (In fact, there’s some evidence that a lack of saturated fat may be damaging.) The researchers looked at 72 different studies and, as usual, said more work — including more clinical studies — is needed. For sure. But the days of skinless chicken breasts and tubs of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! may finally be drawing to a close.

The tip of this iceberg has been visible for years, and we’re finally beginning to see the base. Of course, no study is perfect and few are definitive. But the real villains in our diet — sugar and ultra-processed foods — are becoming increasingly apparent. You can go back to eating butter, if you haven’t already.

This doesn’t mean you abandon fruit for beef and cheese; you just abandon fake food for real food, and in that category of real food you can include good meat and dairy. I would argue, however, that you might not include most industrially produced animal products; stand by.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/opinion/bittman-butter-is-back.html?hp&rref=opinion

[Warpy]

1. I wish my health food store would get the message

It's hard to find chicken pieces with the skin on these days and I need that damned skin to make soup out of!

I suppose I'll be dead and gone by the time nutritional piety goes in a different direction.

[elleng]

2. I buy chicken at the grocery store, Warpy,

not the health food store, so its available with or without the skin. AND for chicken soup, I use leftover grocery rotisserie chicken, so skin (and fat) are available.

Nutritional piety has not touched me, tho my doc suggested I return to a low-dose statin after a while without (and somewhat elevated numbers.) My close friend, who has had a heart attack, thinks he's being pious, and tries to avoid 'fat,' which, according to him, means even avoiding the olive oil which I use to saute whatever (if/when I cook.) HE hasn't seen a doctor in years!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. I wish I could find a piece of beef with some fat on it.

Some of the best beef fat comes from the suet surrounding the kidneys. Of course, I cannot find kidneys at the meat counter, with or without fat.

[spinbaby]

4. Never mind beef, I want pork fat!

Time was that a pork chop would come with a at least a half-inch rim of fat, which you could trim off and fry in the pan to make a nice pork-fat base to cook your chops in. Nowadays I have to add extra fat to the pan because the pork chops don't have enough fat to fry themselves in. The pork is tougher, too.

[japple]

5. I know! That's why I've got a jar of coconut oil on the counter next to the stove. I have to use

it in order to brown meat in my cast iron skillet before putting it in the oven. You can fry up a pound of bacon and save the fat in the fridge or freezer. It will give a bit of extra flavor to your chops. My mother (along with everyone else in the South) always had a (covered) can of bacon grease sitting on top of the stove.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

6. I have two half-liter containers with oil next to the stove

One has canola oil, the other olive oil.

For a number of reasons, while I do the cooking, my wife does the grocery shopping. She insists on getting the leanest meat she can, even when I tell her that I have to add fat of some sort to it to make it flavorful. Some time ago, we were in the grocery store together, and I said that I would like to make a pot roast. She said that sounded good, and picked up the leanest piece of bottom round in the case. I put it back and took a piece of chuck roast with plenty of fat. I told her that this is what one uses for pot roast, not something that is more properly dry roasted.

[The empressof all]

7. The Asian Stores have the best meat...

If you are lucky enough like me to live near an Asian supermarket their meat selection is far more varied than what you can get at the local Krogers. My store always has turkey wings for jook, beautifully sliced beef with or without marbling and even fresh duck. Just one more reason to love the PNW! Oh and you can even buy pork fat...with or without meat!

[hobbit709]

8. I never gave up flavor over so-called health benefits

If I wanted to eat bland, tasteless, soggy cardboard instead of food, I would.