To Clarify Fat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Melt the drippings in a clean pan.
Strain the melted fat into the pan.
Clarify
Add 1 pint of boiling water and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda for every 3 pounds of fat.
Boil until the water has completely evaporated.
Skim and strain the fat, and it is ready to use.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Drippings
- Provide the fat that becomes the clarified butter, with milk solids and impurities removed.
- Boiling water
- Boils off to drive out moisture, leaving behind pure fat that is ready to strain.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises acids in the fat, helping impurities separate so the fat clarifies cleanly.
The step that matters
Boil until the water has completely evaporated. Any water left in the fat makes it cloudy and can cause spattering, and it spoils the fat sooner. Boiling off all the water leaves pure fat that stores well.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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