Fats for cooking
If you need to fry or sear anything a frying pan or saucepan, the temperature is likely to be high.
In particular, I have cooking red meat in mind. In this case, what should fat should we use? And at what temperature?
In particular, I have cooking red meat in mind. In this case, what should fat should we use? And at what temperature?
19 K 5/5 (13 reviews)
Last modified on: January 23th 2018
Fats for cooking
For our red meat, let's imagine we want to fry a tournedos (let's go straight for something top-of-the-range). The same goes for this as for all other fried or seared red meat, and there's no secret: really, really hot; the meat should be seared or flash fried.
So much for the temperature, but what about the fat? For simplicity's sake, let's narrow this down to two possibilities: butter or oil.
Oil: No problem with this; the oil will take being heated to a high temperature. There's a trick to knowing when it is hot enough => it will begin to give off a light smoke. Look out for this and as soon as it happens, put your meat in the pan. Do be careful, though; you need to react quickly and not let it burn and smoke too much.
Butter: This presents more of a problem. Butter will not take high temperatures. To start with, it melts and foams, so we might go ahead and add the meat at that point. But as the temperature continues to rise, the butter will end up burning and give a very unpleasant, bitter flavour.
So, as you can see, if you want to cook at a very high temperature, it is better to use oil, as butter is unsuitable.
That's all very well, but oil doesn't taste the same as butter and doesn't give the same flavour to the meat; generally, butter makes it taste better (yes, taste also matters). So, is there really no way to fry meat in butter?
As it happens, there is – but not with normal butter. We need to use clarified butter, which is butter that has been separated off from the white milk solids, which you can see as the little bits in the photo above. These would end up burning and turning brown during frying. It is fairly simple to make and keeps very well.
There is a third way, using a mixture of the two: a little oil in the bottom and then butter added. This allows the temperature to be raised higher than for ordinary butter alone, but clarified butter is still the better option by far.
To sum up: When cooking red meat, always fry it at high temperature, and for the fat, use oil or clarified butter.
So much for the temperature, but what about the fat? For simplicity's sake, let's narrow this down to two possibilities: butter or oil.
Oil: No problem with this; the oil will take being heated to a high temperature. There's a trick to knowing when it is hot enough => it will begin to give off a light smoke. Look out for this and as soon as it happens, put your meat in the pan. Do be careful, though; you need to react quickly and not let it burn and smoke too much.
Butter: This presents more of a problem. Butter will not take high temperatures. To start with, it melts and foams, so we might go ahead and add the meat at that point. But as the temperature continues to rise, the butter will end up burning and give a very unpleasant, bitter flavour.
So, as you can see, if you want to cook at a very high temperature, it is better to use oil, as butter is unsuitable.
That's all very well, but oil doesn't taste the same as butter and doesn't give the same flavour to the meat; generally, butter makes it taste better (yes, taste also matters). So, is there really no way to fry meat in butter?
As it happens, there is – but not with normal butter. We need to use clarified butter, which is butter that has been separated off from the white milk solids, which you can see as the little bits in the photo above. These would end up burning and turning brown during frying. It is fairly simple to make and keeps very well.
There is a third way, using a mixture of the two: a little oil in the bottom and then butter added. This allows the temperature to be raised higher than for ordinary butter alone, but clarified butter is still the better option by far.
To sum up: When cooking red meat, always fry it at high temperature, and for the fat, use oil or clarified butter.
Lasts posts
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?August 25th 20255945
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20251,1725
Add a bay leaf
Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...July 31th 20251,2575
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?July 28th 20251,346 13
A drizzle of olive oil
Often in a recipe, you have to "baste" vegetables, for example, before sending them to the oven. What the author means by this is that you need to put oil on top of the vegetables to cook them in the oven. Typically, we just quickly drizzle oil over the vegetables, hoping not to miss any, but...July 13th 20251,5405
Other pages you may also like
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20251,1725
The bitterness of endives
As I write these lines, we are entering the endive season, and if you like it, it's time to enjoy it, if possible with your local producers. Endive is good, but the reproach that is often made of it, and children in particular, is: "It's bitter! And it is (somewhat) true of course, endives...February 9th 201912 K4.9
Let's rehabilitate spinach
We are currently (as I write this) in the season of fresh spinach, and it is a delicious vegetable that unfortunately has a bad reputation among a lot of people, children and teenagers in particular. I wonder if this lack of appetite isn't due to what I call, probably unfairly, "school food...May 7th 20215,8854.8
The preservation of bread
Eating fresh bread is always a delight, the crust crumbles deliciously, you take full advantage of the taste of your bread (80% of this taste is in the crust), it is a fleeting moment to enjoy. Who hasn't already eaten the crouton or croutons of his baguette, on the way back from the bakery? ...June 11th 202212 K4.7
The secret of cooking until "done"
This is a real chef's skill: being able to look at a fish fillet cooking and say, "Stop – that's enough, it's cooked". I always admire this ability to see at a glance if something is done. It is what sets the professionals apart from us mere amateurs. And it's true that how fish is cooked is...November 26th 201218 K4.4
Post a comment or question
Follow this page (as 3 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.