If you’re lucky enough to still have your parents or grandparents around, ask them the first thing that comes to mind when you say the word “dripping” and you can bet that most of the time, the first thing they’ll do is smile.
A typical afternoon tea throughout the 40’s and 50’s (for the average family that is) was homemade bread spread with beef dripping. It was delicious, filling
and cheap. Every home had a dripping pot that was added to with each roast dinner.
Then in the 70’s a (now all but debunked) paper was written telling everyone that saturated fats were bad and we should all start eating margarine and processed oils if we wanted to be healthy. Governments got on board with this message and the low fat movement took the world by storm.
Fast Forward to the last 2-3 years and we’re finally able to see the effects this horrible way of eating has had on our society. Heart disease and diabetes are running ramped and the western world has become the most overfed and undernourished they’ve been in history. Seeing this trend, more and more people are going back traditional styles of cooking using real, nutrient rich ingredients that are minimally processed and as close to nature intended as possible.
Love of cooking and cooking skills are often passed down through families, so the knowledge and skill of how to cook using traditional oils has been another victim of the low fat movement. We’re hoping to change that by giving you some basic tips, tricks and ideas to get you started in the hope that you’ll pass them onto your children and the tradition will continue.
The Basics
When it comes to using dripping the perfect place to start is in the oven. Use it to roast your vegetables and enjoy not just an incredible aroma that will get your mouth watering, but the result will be crispy and delicious veg that you just can’t replicate with synthetic oils. Simply add a couple of tablespoons to the bottom of a baking tray and place in the oven while you’re preheating it. When liquid and hot there should be enough to generously cover the bottom of the pan. Just pop in your prepared potatoes and give a gentle swirl to coat and bake, turning once or twice for about an hour or until crisp and cooked.
The other place that dripping shines is in the frypan. Use a small amount to grease your pan before cooking a steak. Use a little more to coat the pan before cooking a frittata and enjoy the extra flavour boost that enhances rather than overpowers what you’re cooking.
Take it up a notch
We came across this delicious recipe for Panna cotta with roasted rhubarb and dripping cake on the BBC website that we had to share with you. Impress your family or guests with this rich, sweet cake paired with a light panna cotta.
We recently added some great new videos to our website, including some yummy recipes using our beef dripping. You can check them out HERE.
