Chicken Fat

#10

That’s an interesting study, thanks for sharing it. I’ve not had chance to read it properly but skimmed over it, will read it in bed.
My dogs won’t eat kibble/biscuit/dried food, even saturated in fat; they spit it out. I had to deliver fresh meat to the vet on an overnight stay much to his disgust!

(Megan) #11

Lulu (my rottie pup) and Milly (my friend’s staffy mix) would totally mess with those study results. They would both eat absolutely every bit of food available, regardless of macronutrient types! LOL

#12

Chicken fat called schmaltz in Yiddish was and is a favorite of the Hasidic community and the Old World Jews.
Does all fat from cooking, bacon grease, lamb, beef etc need to be refrigerated after it’s collected?

#13

All foodstuffs are vulnerable to ‘going off’, even including water (I work in the potable water industry btw).

Freeze if possble (the fat), or use up in good time if not freezing, and don’t keep reusing old oil/lard/tallow etc. That would be unadvisable.

(Bob M) #14

Probably not, although anything not saturated fat can oxidize over time. And since it’s almost impossible to end up with pure fat, you’d have protein and who knows what else in there, which can entice mold growth. I do have some tallow and palm oil I’ve kept at room temp for years. Having said that, I usually freeze mine.

#15

Yes, fats and oils will degenerate.

#16

Not from me, quote:

'How long can fats be stored?

1-2 years

In general, fats typically have a recommended shelf life of 1-2 years , depending on storage. You want to keep your fats and oils in a cool, dark, dry place, and sealed for as long as possible.1 Oct 2020’

But that is storage only. If you are cooking with it, recycling it if you will…nowhere near that service time.

(Bob M) #17

Oh yeah, cooking with it pretty much ruins it after only a few uses. Even using tallow I make myself from beef suet (so should have a high saturated fat content, low PUFA content), it gets small stuff in it that gets through the fine-mesh strainer we use. So, I usually toss it after only a few uses.

#18

If you mix the hard fat with something like peanuts, makes a great feed for the birds, in winter to help them.

I’ve never done this btw, but I always mean to do! I just throw stuff on the yard for them.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

My mother kept a jar of bacon grease at the back of the stove for decades when I was growing up. It seemed to be fine. Saturated and mono-unsaturated fats tend to be more stable than the polyunsaturates.

(Edith) #20

Chicken fat has a pretty mild taste. I cannot eat dairy, so I will use chicken or duck fat in recipes that call for butter. It does become mostly liquid at room temperature, so I keep it in the frig. It keeps for a very long time in there.

#21

True story:

Years and years ago, back when I was a mobile maintenance spark (electrical engineer), I called into a waste water treatment works for lunch.

The guys were great, welcoming (yes all male btw, I don’t care about wokeness, all welcome though).

I’m not joking, they offered me some fried food.
I looked at (and used the Mark 1 sniffer nose) the pan on the cooker plate, and noticed wee small rodent footprints gradually dissolving as the heat was upped, on the lard.
How long was that lard being recycled and used by the rodents?

Bad enough it being a literal sh*hole…but I thought surely the canteen would be an hygenic oasis.
Nope. I will say this though- apparently those people (working on sewage works) have really elevated immune systems…they don’t get sick.
That is anecdotal.

I’m glad I don’t work ‘in the dort’ as we say, fresh water only.
I made my excuses and left- sandwich at the local filling station.
:slight_smile:

#22

My Irish ex mother in law in Bay Ridge used to keep her bacon grease in the fridge where it would quickly solidify. She used it for all her cooking. At the time I used to think how unhealthy it was…who knew!

(Robin) #23

Every woman in my childhood poured all grease into a little metal container with a pour spout that set on the stove. Never put it in the refrigerator. Used it with everything. And nobody died. LOLOL
I still save it all but it’s in the fridge.

#24

I thought about that too. My rendered fat always have morsels in it (it’s pork though). And it’s so little I use it up in little time. Except when I roasted mutton… That released a surprisingly big amount of fat. The tallow I got always was pretty clean and lasted a long time in the fridge (I know as no one in the family touch it so I kept it for long and eventually fed to the birds and maybe partially to the cats).

#25

I would agree with that… However, I would only do that if the fat was boiled and filtered, then put cling film over the fat, actually making contact with the fat to stop air getting to it. Then still out the lid on.
Then if it is not opened at all, I would keep that indefinitely. But… I would scrape the top and make sure that fat was cooked through again before using. So I wouldn’t add it to a meal to increase the fat content, only for frying.

(Polly) #26

They never died? Robin you may have identified the elixir of … :rofl:

(Robin) #27

That took me a minute. LOLOL.
Yes, they are all dead now. Good point.
If that becomes the standard, we’re all doomed… but we’ll feel good anyway.

#28

Thanks for all the input on this thread, it’s all really helpful.
I’m just cooking for me so don’t think I’ll have much meat fat to save. I’m keeping fat from chicken and pork separately in the fridge and using a spoon of it here and there, I don’t put it back after re-using it.
I remember my granny using saved fat too and wish I’d remembered years ago as it really tastes good and the pan’s are easy to clean!

#29

Do you have a little metal container with a pour spout set on the stove filled with grease?