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To Clarify Fats

A method for clarifying animal fat by rendering it with water and removing impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,148 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Clarify Fats

Ingredients

Directions

Render the fat

  1. Cut the fat into small pieces.

  2. Cover the pieces with cold water.

  3. Cook over low heat until the fat melts and most of the water evaporates.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Press the fat from the scraps.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

  7. Remove the hard fat cake.

  8. Scrape the bottom with a knife.

  9. If there is sediment, add a little cold water.

  10. Stir the mixture.

  11. Pour off the water.

Finish and store

  1. Melt the fat in a pan.

  2. Add the sliced raw potatoes.

  3. Let it sit on the stove until the fat stops bubbling and the potatoes are brown and crisp.

  4. Strain through cheesecloth into a jar.

  5. Store in a cool place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Uncooked fat (suet, chicken fat, beef fat)
Is the source of the rendered fat itself; melting it out gives the finished cooking fat.
Cold water
Sits under the melting fat and carries off sediment, so the fat can be separated cleanly.
2 raw potatoes
Release moisture as they fry, then brown and crisp, which leaves residue and flavour in the fat.

The step that matters

Cooking the fat over low heat. Low heat melts the fat slowly without scorching the protein bits, which would brown, darken and sour the fat. Gentle heat also lets water evaporate fully so the fat keeps well.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, beef):

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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