Fat is not just a cooking medium — it's a flavor carrier, a texture builder, an emulsifier, and the source of that satisfying, mouth-coating richness that makes food deeply pleasurable. Understanding which fat to use in a given situation — and why — is one of the most fundamentally useful pieces of cooking knowledge you can have. The "low-fat cooking" era actively damaged cooking quality by removing the ingredient that makes food delicious.
Animal Fats
- Butter: The Western kitchen's most versatile fat. Rich, with distinctive dairy flavors. Burns above 150°C/300°F because of milk solids. Use for sautéing at moderate heat, finishing sauces, baking, and as a flavor enhancer at the end of cooking.
- Clarified butter / Ghee: Butter with milk solids removed — higher smoke point (~250°C/485°F), shelf-stable, richer and nuttier. Use for high-heat cooking, Indian cooking, or anywhere you want butter flavor without burning.
- Lard: Rendered pork fat — very high smoke point, mild flavor, exceptional for frying, pie crusts, and confit. Unfairly demonized; it's actually lower in saturated fat than butter and higher in beneficial monounsaturated fats.
- Schmaltz: Rendered chicken fat — substitutes for butter in Jewish cooking where mixing meat and dairy is prohibited. Rich, savory, delicious for sautéing.
- Duck fat: Luxurious fat for roasting potatoes, confit, and sautéing. The best roast potatoes you'll ever eat are cooked in duck fat.
Plant Oils
- Extra-virgin olive oil: Low-to-medium heat (190°C/375°F smoke point). Best used cold in dressings or for gentle sautéing; use as a finishing drizzle where its flavor is appreciated.
- Avocado oil: Very high smoke point (~270°C/520°F), mild flavor — the best all-purpose high-heat cooking oil. Also excellent cold.
- Refined coconut oil: High smoke point, neutral flavor — useful for high-heat frying when you don't want coconut taste.
- Sesame oil (toasted): Finishing oil only — burns almost immediately. Adds essential flavor to Asian dishes used at the end.
The Smoke Point and Why It Matters
When oil exceeds its smoke point, it begins to break down, producing acrolein (an irritating compound) and bitter, acrid flavors. More practically: smoking oil indicates something has gone wrong and the food will taste burnt. Always match fat to the heat level required:
- Very high heat (searing, wok cooking): Ghee, lard, avocado oil, refined coconut oil
- Medium heat (sautéing): Butter (watching carefully), extra-virgin olive oil, neutral oils
- Low heat (confit, gentle sweating): Any fat works
- Cold (dressings, finishing): Good extra-virgin olive oil, sesame oil, walnut oil, other specialty oils
Fat as a Flavor Carrier
One of fat's least-appreciated roles: it carries fat-soluble flavor compounds that water cannot. Spices, aromatic compounds, and many flavor molecules are fat-soluble. This is why blooming spices in fat extracts far more flavor than adding them in water; why finishing a sauce with butter intensifies all the flavors; why fat is irreplaceable in cooking.
💡 Fat in Cooking Tips
- Preheat the pan before adding fat — then add food immediately after the fat heats. This prevents sticking.
- Keep butter from burning: watch the foam. Clear foam = fine. Brown foam = browning butter developing nutty flavor. Dark/smoking = burning, remove from heat.
- For frying: maintain oil temperature. Cold oil produces greasy food; too hot burns the exterior before inside cooks.
- Finishing with a cold knob of butter (monter au beurre) emulsifies and enriches any pan sauce
- Don't fear fat — under-fatted cooking is the primary reason home cooking disappoints