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Original poster

Is goose fat really tastier than beef or lamb fat?

49 replies

GoldFrankincenseAndTwiglets · 04/12/2011 21:04

Everyone but everyone goes on about goose fat, but it can't be tastier than potatoes cooked in beef dripping or lamb fat... can it?

OP posts:

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:20

Lemon that's not true. Goose fat has a relatively low burning point (it smokes at about 190 degrees). Beef fat is higher - about 220, but not as high as most vegetable oils which smoke at about 235.

If you want very hot, crispy potatoes then ground-nut oil is the best.

One way round it is to do a mix of goose fat and vegetable oil which raises the smoking point slightly.

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:21

Gravy granules!!!!

faints

makes sign of evil eye and runs away

Original poster

GoldFrankincenseAndTwiglets · 04/12/2011 22:24

I know, I know, it is awful... but I haven't yet figured out a way to do both gravy and potatoes, as you say. What I sometimes do is to put everything - lamb, stock, red wine, potatoes, and veg - into the slow clooker. That gives you gorgeous tasting spuds and gravy but you can't get cripsy potatoes that way. Could do that and then take the potatoes out and crisp them up in the oven, I guess.

OP posts:

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:26

at least you know the error of your ways [stern look]

My last post was supposed to be asterisks, not bold. I forgot the new MN doesn't let you asterisk sentences any more. Grrrrr.

LemonDifficult · 04/12/2011 22:29

TYV - is that right?! I was told that in person by Clarissa Dickson Wright. If I ever see her again, I'll put her straight.

And she wrote a book about Sunday Roasts and all.

Original poster

GoldFrankincenseAndTwiglets · 04/12/2011 22:33

Off topic but just to say that you have my favourite name on MN, Lemon Difficult :)

OP posts:

BertieBotts · 04/12/2011 22:35

How interesting, we've always done potatoes in with the roast and gravy separately, made with the juices.

The way my mum taught me was to put the potatoes in raw, peeled and chopped into roast potato size, all nestled around the chicken in the roasting dish. Lid on. After a certain amount of time (would have to check this, but from memory it's an hour?) take roasting tin out, transfer potatoes to separate roasting tray, pour in some of the fat from the cooking chicken. Doesn't matter if you pour most or all of it in as more will come out during the rest of cooking. Baste chicken and potatoes with the fat, return both to oven for remaining cooking time. We used to have a metal carving plate so she would put the chicken on this when cooked and put back in the oven to crisp up and make the gravy in the roasting dish, on the hob, by adding vegetable cooking water, gravy browning and cornflour (and stock if necessary).

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:35

Well I can't see how it could possibly be right. It's simply not true that goose fat can sustain higher temperatures than vegetable fat. That's why you use vegetable oil in deep-fat fryers - precisely because it CAN get very hot without imparting a burnt taste to the food. In the old days they used beef dripping in chip shops for the same reason.

You show her this and ask her to justify her theory:

www.clovegarden.com/ingred/oilchart.html

I do like cooking roasties with goose fat and they do taste deliciously crispy - but the reason is not that goose fat can take higher temperatures. I think CDW knows not of what she speaketh.

BertieBotts · 04/12/2011 22:36

From raw the potatoes take around as long as the meat, I think, but it's been a LONG time since I've done a roast so prepared to be put straight on this.

LemonDifficult · 04/12/2011 22:39

CDW is really the biggest bullshitter I have ever met. Absolutely. I did think she might have known about tatties, though.

GFAT - Thank you! And you do have the most roast potatoes-tastic anagram of a name. Double Christmas, I salute you.

jasper · 04/12/2011 22:40

Just back from Nick Nairn cook school.
He recommends duck or goose fat

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:44

Bertie that is VERY interesting. Basically it par-boils the potatoes in the dish doesn't it?

I still don't think it would meet my gravy requirements though sadly. The problem is that to get the potatoes crispy enough you have to boil away the juices. Whereas when I cook a chicken there's a good inch of juice at the bottom so you don't need any stock or browning or anything - you just thicken it up a touch, add some mustard and vegetable water, and you're done.

I might try it though - just in the interests of science.

Goose doesn't give you any gravy to speak of anyway though. It's my one gripe against it, as a bird.

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 22:46

Lemon you give CDW a telling off from me when you see her.

LemonDifficult · 04/12/2011 22:54

TYV - I shall do and remind her that she owes me money

Original poster

GoldFrankincenseAndTwiglets · 04/12/2011 23:00

My name is an anagram....?

OP posts:

LemonDifficult · 04/12/2011 23:00

Acronym! Getting late now..

montmartre · 04/12/2011 23:02

Pah, TYV- how can you trust that oils list? They can't even spell 'avocado'

theyoungvisiter · 04/12/2011 23:06

No - nor hazelnut.

But the stuff about goose fat vs peanut oil is right - you can check it elsewhere. I didn't find it out from that list, I just googled that link afterwards to show the stats. I've actually no idea what the Clove Garden is!

spiderslegs · 04/12/2011 23:14

& thus spoke the youngvisitor - & yeah she was right.

Never cook your roasties with your meat - yea will get no graviest.

Veg oil has the highest burning point but tasteth like shite.

& so commeth the goose fat or the dripping.

For they are good.

And all sayeth - blimey - they are good.

And most crispy.

& tasty.

Amen.

BertieBotts · 05/12/2011 00:03

They end up with thicker outsides, as you're basically baking them. I was really surprised though when I realised everyone else parboils potatoes. They still get crispy because you're cooking them in a separate, uncovered dish.

Browning was mainly for colour, it's really hard to find now so I don't think she uses it any more. In fact yes because I remember it being really weird the first time we had pale chicken gravy, but used to it now.

theyoungvisiter · 05/12/2011 10:06

oh I see - ok I misunderstood the method. Maybe this would be a good halfway house [strokes beard]

"And all sayeth - blimey - they are good."

Amen to that Spider

FredFredGeorge · 05/12/2011 13:02

all meat fats make horrible roast potatoes...

For best roast potatoes, very lightly steam them (or parboil it's the same), then put in a pan with a little rapeseed oil (the cheapest oil in the supermarkets with the yellow flours) or ground nut, make some fresh breadcrumbs - with garlic powder and fresh rosemary mixed in, add this on top of the potatoes in the tin and shake it around. You can have the oven temp higher than you would with the meat (it should be out resting by now) and they will crisp up very readily and taste a lot better than over boiled or dripping in meat fat versions.

Get0rf · 05/12/2011 14:44

I really don't agree that cooking potatoes in oil is better than meat fats.

I have done it when I have had no duck fat in the house, and I wish I hadn't bothered. Nothing more disappointing - you may as well cook chips.

ivykaty44 · 05/12/2011 20:33

I don't like chips either - yuk I will stick to goose fat roasties and my dd1's yorkshires.

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