The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

FairyPrincessk

Fuddle, I have a basic understanding.

Lard is rendered pork fat. Dripping is the fat from cooked beef. As I understand it, it has been speculated that eating too much of these things contributes to high blood cholesterol, but the science that used to back this up has recently come under fire.

As for vegetable fats, they are not all created equal. Olive oil and ground nut oil are considered quite healthy, whereas corn and rapeseed oils have questionable reputations these days.

As I see it, I try to eat things in moderation. I'm not going to eat chips every day, so I don't think it is going to have a huge impact on my health one way or another what I cook them in as I'll only be eating it a few times a year. I do prefer to use animal fats to highlyprocessed vegetable fats, by which I mean I prefer butter to marge...but I do have some OS recipes from the depression era for cakes that use veg oil and once in awhile I have a recipe that uses shortening (like trex). I don't really think anyone knows which is the healthiest, so I just try not to eat too much of any of it and don't sweat it when I do.

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE Lard is clarified rendered pork fat, dripping is the fat from beef, sheep fat doesn't have a special name that I know of.

Years ago the animal fat content of the average diet wasn't a problem because everyone was much more active and there were very few aids to housework, washing was by hand, there was no central heating and very few of us had cars. Everything was manual labour and people worked hard and used many more calories in thier work and keeping warm in the cold weather, all housework was elbow grease and scrubbing and getting around was walking or cycling and it all used calories and not many folks were overweight. Contrast that with how we live now and the type of foods we tend to eat and it's no wonder we have problems is it?

OK and now for something naughty but nice!!! Thorntons cafe do a Black Forest Hot Chocolate, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, Mmmmmmmmmm......... now what has this to do with OS I hear you ask? Well when I was in my local Co-op the other day I spotted in the tiny polish food section a bottle of cherry syrup for £1.39p and it occured to me that by using the cheapest instant hot chocolate and a couple of spoons of cherry syrup I might be able to make a look alike? I found some low fat cream in an aerosol tin and I had some Al*i dark chocolate in the cupboard so I made my own version of the Black Forest Choc and it was bloomin lovely - I know they sell sthe syrup in Mr.Ts world foods section too so I thought how nice to give a tin of hot choc, a bottle of syrup, a can of spray cream and a bar of choc with a mug for a christmas present, sounds good??? Nice present at very low prices and would be lovely for teenagers, hope that's useful, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Mrs_Chip

Fuddle

Lard is clarified pork fat, and much more natural than many processed oils, that go through all sorts to get them into a fit state to use.

It is a saturated fat, and these are supposed to be bad for us, so the doctors say, but then other doctors say otherwise... who's to know?

I agree with FP - in moderation, it's not going to kill you. Personally I doubt it would do any harm, I don't subscribe to the theory that saturated fats causes cholesterol (I have done a lot of reading on this, and is only my view!)

Dripping is the fat from beef (or chicken/turkey/pork/lamb) that has been cooked and collected. Often comes with the juices/jelly under, and this, along with a bit of the fat was spread onto bread or toast - we still have chicken/turkey dripping toast after a roast. Sprinkled with salt of course:rotfl:. Beef dripping is wonderful stuff for roasting potatoes in. And cooking fish and chips.

I prefer to use as much natural , un!!!!!!ed about with food, and lard and dripping fit that bill for me.

ETA - beef dripping is made by roasing a joint of beef and collecting the fat and juice from the tin, I use half for the gravy and the rest is put in the fridge for toast. I do the same with chicken, but roast in a bag and get a lot more juice, so that does toast and some jelly to add to soup etc.

RAS

On the fat questions.............

There has been some interesting research on aniimal fats.

It turns out that if you feed cows and sheep on grass, the fat in their bodies have a high propertion of omega 3 oils which are generally good for you. Check out things like Limestone Beef and the Grazing Animal Project.

If you feed the same animal on concentrates (soya etc) they develop with fat containing high proportions of omega 6 oils which are bad for humans and implicated in heart disease etc.

I think it is ditto for chickens, eggs and pigs, although chickens and pigs naturally eat a higher protein diet anyway.

So it looks like our forefathers could eat a diet much higher in fat because the animal that they ate were mainly grass raised with some supplementary feeding of kales and roots over winter and had lower omega 6 content.

Of the vegetable oils I think rapeseed and olive have the higher omega 3 content which may explain why the Mediteranean diet is considered healthier.

shegar

SUNSHINE 4 ....Oh dear me so sorry to ehar that your shoulder op didnt go as planned and that its now re done, not good at all, and dam them shoulders are painful when they arnt working right.....:mad:...
JPSCLOUD.........Well I hope the inhalers work for you, mind you bronchitus takes some shaking off, as ive had that in the past, got it a few year ago when I was on holiday in Tenerife and ended up in hospital for 6 days, and a 6 thousand euro bill......:eek::eek:.......Very ill........
POPS ......I would say that
"the kelp is a help" to you as you appear to always be out somewhere night or day, and if you were that tired you definately wouldnt be able to get out and about..........I was like a slug in reverse before the kelp, really nearly dead at that ...:eek:................I had a job just doing a very small shop with hardly any energy to carry myself , let alone a few groceries......

FUDDLE ....If your getting up a bit earlier than normal now , than what you were it must be the start of the kelp, youve only been taking it for 3 wks so perhaps you dont have a good supply in your system just now, keep taking them and see how it goes......I expect if you stopped taking them you would soon notice it that they are working for you..............

There was someone else on this thread that just reported to us about the kelp, but for the life of me I cant remember recall who it is, like I say the kelp dont help my foggy brain........:eek:.....
Been super duper today, done some odd jobs , and all the usual house work, actually sat on my butt about 3 pm and got some sun on my skin , and did FA.....:eek:...Lamb shanks for tea , looking forward to it....Sheila

fuddle

Thank you all so much. It makes sense, absolutely.

Cost aside... Would chips fry in extra virgin olive oil?

jpscloud

Ras that's really interesting - I hadn't even considered the diet of the animals in the fat equation. Of course we feed them so much weirdness these days and it's bound to affect the animal's chemistry (fortunately I think they stopped feeding cows ground up sheep when BSE reared its ugly head).

Another thing with oldtimers (at least in my grandparents' case) dripping was a treat, and they didn't use butter or spreads at the rate we do - my nana always used to say I put enough butter on my bread to feed an army

alfsmum

MrsLurcherwalker wrote:

OK and now for something naughty but nice!!! Thorntons cafe do a Black Forest Hot Chocolate, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, Mmmmmmmmmm......... now what has this to do with OS I hear you ask? Well when I was in my local Co-op the other day I spotted in the tiny polish food section a bottle of cherry syrup for £1.39p and it occured to me that by using the cheapest instant hot chocolate and a couple of spoons of cherry syrup I might be able to make a look alike? I found some low fat cream in an aerosol tin and I had some Al*i dark chocolate in the cupboard so I made my own version of the Black Forest Choc and it was bloomin lovely - I know they sell sthe syrup in Mr.Ts world foods section too so I thought how nice to give a tin of hot choc, a bottle of syrup, a can of spray cream and a bar of choc with a mug for a christmas present, sounds good??? Nice present at very low prices and would be lovely for teenagers, hope that's useful, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Ooh Lyn, you mentioned the Christmas word and DD1 has been inspired by GBBO to make fruit cake so looks like I'll be stocking up on dried fruit this weekend. Christmas baking here we come! I love the idea of putting a little package of gifts together as a gift, and selecting your own bits and pieces means you can make it more personal and appropriate for the recipient than shop bought and pacKaged goods. Nice treat too for get well present or just when someone needs a little TLC. Could do a doggy version too

On the fat front, so to speak, I can remember my gran having a basin of beef drippingin the larder and spreading it on bread then sprinkling with salt and pepper. It was eaten with gusto.

My MIL used lard to cook just about everything and used it in her welsh cakes. She just didn't get it when I politely refused one and tried to explain that lard wasn't suitable for vegetarians. But then, she did give me sausage rolls as a veggie alternative once.....

I don't use much fat in my cooking because of problems digesting it but I would choose butter over margarine or highly processed and coloured veg fats where possible. But I believe that even the sainted Mary Berry recommend using soft spread rather than butter to make a sponge cake.

jpscloud

shegar wrote: »

JPSCLOUD.........Well I hope the inhalers work for you, mind you bronchitus takes some shaking off, as ive had that in the past, got it a few year ago when I was on holiday in Tenerife and ended up in hospital for 6 days, and a 6 thousand euro bill......:eek::eek:.......Very ill........

Yikes! I just said to mum the other day, thank goodness I hadn't made any plans to go on holiday this year.

I was borderline for being hospitalised at the beginning, but the antibiotics quickly care of the bacterial infection that was causing a fever.

I can still feel tightness on my chest but the tablets/inhalers are definitely working, the wheezing has eased up a lot. I think it'll be another couple of weeks before I am back to normal, at least.

Knit_Witch

fuddle wrote: »

Thank you all so much. It makes sense, absolutely.

Cost aside... Would chips fry in extra virgin olive oil?

A strong NO for this fuddle, olive oil doesn't get hot enough, you will end up with very soggy, fat laden chips (sorry )