Fat

Question 1

four elemental building blocks of foods

Answer 1

water, fat, protein, carbohydrates

Question 2

fat’s three cooking roles

Answer 2

as a main ingredient, as a cooking medium, and as seasoning

Question 3

what is fat

Answer 3

a crucial backup energy source, a way to store energy for future use, it plays a role in nutrient absorption and essential metabolic functions

Question 4

when choosing a fat

Answer 4

identify the primary role it will play in a dish

Question 5

fat as a main ingredient

Answer 5

can bind various ingredients together, play a textural role (flaky, creamy, light, and sometimes tender textures), if it’s added at the outset as a flavor role

Question 6

butter and flour

Answer 6

butter inhibits the proteins in flour from developing, yielding tender and flaky textures in a pastry

Question 7

fat as a cooking medium

Answer 7

can be heated to extreme temperatures, crisping the outsides of food (crisp texture). Any fat heated to cook food is a medium

Question 8

fat as seasoning

Answer 8

used to adjust flavor or enrich the texture at the end of cooking of a dish, just before serving

Question 9

fat’s effect on flavor

Answer 9

Fat coats the tongue, allowing various aromatic compounds to stay in contact with our taste buds for longer periods of time, intensifying and prolonging our experience of various flavors. This is why it’s good to add aromatics directly into the cooking fat.

Question 10

fat and browning

Answer 10

Fat facilitates surface browning, which requires minimum temperatures of 230 F. Browning introduces entirely new flavors like nuttiness, sweetness, meatiness, earthiness, and umami.

Question 11

olive oil cuisines

Answer 11

Mediterranean: Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, North African, Middle Eastern

Question 12

rancid olive oil

Answer 12

Olive oil goes bad 12-14 months after pressing. tastes: bitter, overwhelmingly spicy, dirty, rancid. Smells: box of crayons, candle wax, the oil on old peanut butter

Question 13

When buying olive oil

Answer 13

Look for pressing date, want 100% Californian or Italian olives

Question 14

Three types of olive oil

Answer 14

Everyday (general cookery), finishing (applied where the flavor stands out, like in salad dressings, spooned over food, etc), and flavored

Question 15

agrumato

Answer 15

A flavored olive oil made by the traditional technique of milling whole citrus fruit with the olives as the time of the first press.

Question 16

Recommended olive oil brands

Answer 16

Sea Hills, Katz, California Olive Ranch, Kirkland Signature Organic extra virgin oil

Question 17

How to store olive oil

Answer 17

away from temperature fluctuations or direct sunlight. Cool and dark storage.

Question 18

Butter cuisines

Answer 18

Regions with climates that support pasture for grazing cows: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Western Europe (and northern Italy), Russia, Morocco, India

Question 19

Three types of butter

Answer 19

unsalted, salted, cultured

Question 20

cultured butter

Answer 20

tangy butter as seasoning, on bread or with hors d’eourves

Question 21

Butter

Answer 21

Unlike oil, it is not pure fat, containing water, milk protein, and whey solids, which provide much of its flavor

Question 22

brown butter

Answer 22

gently heated unsalted butter until browned. It’s nutty and sweet, a classic flavor in French and northern Italian cooking.

Question 23

clarified butter

Answer 23

unsalted butter that has been gently melted over sustained low heat. The whey proteins rise to the top of the clear, yellow fat, and other milk proteins fall to the bottom. The water will evaporate, leaving behind 100% fat. The whey solids are skimmed off and the proteins are left at the bottom of the pot. The rest of the butter is strained through cheesecloth. This clarified butter is excellent for high-heat cooking; with the solids removed, it doesn’t burn.

Question 24

Indian ghee

Answer 24

Clarified butter that’s been cooked at a higher temperature, allowing the milk solids to brown and lending the finished fat a sweeter flavor.

Question 25

Smen

Answer 25

Moroccan clarified butter that's been aged underground up to seven years to develop a cheesy taste.

Question 26

seed and nut oils

Answer 26

peanut, expeller-pressed canola oil, and grapeseed oil are neutral-tasting, coconut oil adds tropical flavor, vibrantly flavored sesame oil and toasted hazelnut oil can be used as seasonings

Question 27

where aromatic molecules are found in meat

Answer 27

Since they're mostly repelled by water, they're predominantly found in an animal's fat, which will taste more distinctly of the animal than its lean meat.

Question 28

beef fat

Answer 28

When solid, suet, when liquid, tallow. It's a crucial component in hamburgers etc, lending beefy flavor and enhancing moistness.

Question 29

pork fat

Answer 29

called that when it's solid, lard when it's liquid. With it's high smoke point, lard is a great cooking medium and is commonly used in Mexico, the American south, southern Italy, and the northern Philippines, and it can also be used in savory dough.

Question 30

barding

Answer 30

To cover lean meat with slices of pork belly to protect it from the dry heat of roasting and add richness and flavor

Question 31

larding

Answer 31

to thread pieces of fat through a lean piece of meat with a long, thick needle to add richness and flavor

Question 32

schmaltz

Answer 32

rendered chicken fat, a traditional ingredient in the Jewish kitchen

Question 33

lamb fat

Answer 33

also called suet

Question 34

textures fat can be used to make

Answer 34

crisp, creamy, flaky, tender, light

Question 35

to crisp food...

Answer 35

the water trapped in the food's cells must evaporate, so the surface temperature of the ingredient must climb beyond 212°. To get this on the entire surface of the food, it needs to be in direct, even contact with a heat source; since cooking fats can be heated to 350° and beyond before smoking, they're the ideal method.

Question 36

Cooking methods where fat is heated to achieve crispness

Answer 36

searing, sautéing, pan-, shallow-, deep-frying.

Question 37

After frying food

Answer 37

drain/dab excess oil off the food before serving

Question 38

As oil is heated...

Answer 38

it breaks down, leading to flavor degradation and the release of toxic chemicals, so add the oil to a preheated pan and give it time to heat up before adding the ingredients.

Question 39

Before adding oil, the pan should be...

Answer 39

hot enough so that oil immediately ripples and shimmers when added. Test with a drop of water, and if it crackles and evaporates, then the pan is ready. The food should sizzle upon adding.

Question 40

exception to the preheating rule

Answer 40

butter and garlic. Both will burn if the pan is too hot, so they must be heated gently.

Question 41

rendering fat

Answer 41

to cook fat in a minimal amount of water over gentle heat until all the water has evaporated. This process transforms solid fat into a liquid that can be used as a cooking medium.

Question 42

rendering fat to transform meat's texture

Answer 42

Fat can prevent meat from crisping, so cooking it at gentler heat for longer can help the fat to render and so allow the meat to get crisper. (Bacon in the oven v bacon in the pan)

Question 43

animal fat burn temperature

Answer 43

about 350°

Question 44

smoke point of fat

Answer 44

The temperature at which is decomposes and transforms into a visible, noxious gas. Pure refined vegetable oils begin to smoke around 400°, olive oil and butter burn around 350°

Question 45

The goal with all cooking

Answer 45

is to achieve your desired result on the outside and inside of an ingredient at the same time.

Question 46

Once crispness has been achieved...

Answer 46

retain it by not covering or piling up crisp foods while they are still hot. Doing that entraps steam and makes it soggy.

Question 47

emulsion

Answer 47

When two liquids that normally don't like to mix together or dissolve give up and join together. In the kitchen, it's like a temporary treaty between fat and water, the result being tiny droplets of one liquid dispersed in another, resulting in a creamy mixture that's neither one or the other. Butter, ice cream, mayo, chocolate.

Question 48

emulsifier

Answer 48

An emulsifier attracts and connects the two hostile liquids, by coating the oil and allowing it to exist among the vinegar droplets; mustard in vinaigrette, egg yolk in mayo

Question 49

Using emulsions

Answer 49

They are efficient tools for enriching plain foods

Question 50

Familiar emulsions

Answer 50

mayo and hollandaise, vinaigrettes (often temporary), butter, cream, milk, peanut butter, tahini, Chocolate, crema

Question 51

mayonnaise

Answer 51

is an oil-in-water emulsion made by slowly whisking tiny droplets of oil into an egg yolk, which itself is a natural emulsion of fat and water. Lecithin in the yolk, is an emulsifier with one end that likes fat and another that likes water. With vigorous whisking, lecithin connects the minuscule amount of water innate to a yolk to the oil droplets and surrounds tiny air bubbles, integrating them into a rich, unified sauce.

Question 52

breaking an emulsion

Answer 52

When the emulsion separates into the hostile groups of oil and water again

Question 53

emulsion temperatures

Answer 53

most emulsions are stable in a narrow range of temperatures, some needed to remain cold and others warm

Question 54

butter temperatures

Answer 54

butter retains its solid form from freezing (32°) to melting (90°). Butter sweats on a hot day, the water separating from the fat as it melts, as it does when cooked. Melted butter is a broken emulsion, hardening as it cools, never to return to its former state.

Question 55

gluten

Answer 55

comprised of two proteins in wheat, glutenin and gliadin. When wheat flour and liquid are combined, the proteins link up with one another into long chains. As dough is kneaded or batter is mixed, the chains develop into strong, extensive webs, the gluten network. The expansion of these webs is called gluten development and it's what makes a dough chewy and elastic.

Question 56

To make chewy dough

Answer 56

High protein flours are used and kneaded for long periods of time. Salt also preserves the strength of the gluten network.

Question 57

Why limit gluten development?

Answer 57

To get tender, flaky, and moist textures

Question 58

What discourages gluten development?

Answer 58

Low protein flours, avoiding over kneading, sugar and acids like buttermilk or yogurt, fat

Question 59

Fat and gluten

Answer 59

Too much fat can inhibit gluten networks from forming by coating individual gluten strands and preventing them from sticking to one another and lengthening. The origin of the term shortening, because the gluten strands remain short.

Question 60

Four variables to determine the texture of a baked good

Answer 60

fat, water, yeast, and kneading/mixing/folding/stirring

Question 61

short dough

Answer 61

Tender, crumbly, melt in your mouth. Flour and fat are blended together intimately, resulting in smooth, homogeneous dough, often calling for soft or even melted butter, in order to encourage the fluid fat to quickly coat individual flour particles, preventing gluten webs from forming.

Question 62

flaky dough

Answer 62

Break into flakes instead of crumbs, sturdy enough to hold fillings but delicate enough to produce thin, uneven flakes when sliced (pies). To create that strength, some of the fat is worked into the flour to develop a minimal amount of gluten. The fat must be very cold so that some of it can remain in distinct pieces. When in the hot oven, the cold pieces of butter, entrapped air, and steam from the water released by the butter, all push apart the layers of dough to create flakes.

Question 63

laminated dough

Answer 63

Flakey dough like puff pastry, which breaks into glassy shards. Dough is wrapped around a slab of cold butter, then folded back upon itself in a process called a turn, resulting in hundreds of layers of dough and butter. Each distinct layer of butter durns to steam in the oven, creating the layers of flakes.

Question 64

Yeasted laminated dough

Answer 64

Yeasted doughs, kneaded to develop gluten, can be laminated for chewy flakiness, like croissants and Danishes

Question 65

to achieve tender baked good (shortbread)

Answer 65

Use any soft or liquid fat or oil to coat flour

Question 66

to achieve flakey dough

Answer 66

keep temperatures cold when making dough, to prevent the butter from melting, and either mixing too well and coating the gluten strands, or having the water in the butter separate and over-build the gluten strands. Chilling the diced butter, flour, and tools in the freezer before starting and allowing the dough time to chill in the fridge between steps helps. Get the chilled, assembled pie into the pre-heated oven as quickly as possible to avoid soggy dough.

Question 67

Fat and leavening

Answer 67

Fat can entrap air when whipped, which allows it to act as a leaving (raising) agent in cakes, such as pound cake

Question 68

folding

Answer 68

The technique of gently combining aerated ingredients into non aerated ingredients

Question 69

creaming

Answer 69

aerating fat by whipping butter with sugar to trap air bubbles for leavening. Cool room-temperature butter is beaten together with sugar slowly for 4-7 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy, the outer entrapping millions of tiny air bubbles throughout the mixture

Question 70

oil v butter cakes

Answer 70

oil cakes have oil efficiently coat flour proteins and prevent strong gluten networks from forming, and from absorbing water, making a tender, moister cake. Butter cakes have rich flavor and drier/denser texture.

Question 71

layering fat

Answer 71

Most dishes benefit from more than one kind. Consider cultural appropriateness of a fat, and whether it will harmonize with the other ingredients in flavor, or if it will help achieve different textures in a single dish.

Question 72

balancing fat

Answer 72

Correct overly fatty food by rebalancing the dish: add more food to increase total volume; add more acid; water it down; add starchy or dense ingredients; chill the dish and skim the fat off the surface; dab the food on a clean towel. Foods that are too dry can be corrected with olive oil or another creaming ingredient to improve the texture and get the flavor right.