Originally, fats were strictly products
To improve its Cake margarine: This has special
of animal origin but the
development of technology now
allows food processors to convert
vegetable oils into solid fats. This
is done by a process known as
hydrogenation. During this
process, hydrogen gas is pumped
into heated oil and the hydrogen
atoms become attached to some
fatty acids, changing them from
unsaturated fatty acids to saturated
fatty acids. Upon cooling, the oil
solidifies. Generally, the more
saturated fatty acids a fat contains,
the more solid it is.
Fats and oils used in cooking
Butter
Butter is made from the cream of milk.
To make this product, the cream is
pasteurized, churned to bring
together fat globules, then washed,
salted, and homogenized. This
process blends the water and fat
globules to make an even texture.
The marketed product contains
85% fat. The other 15% consists of
water, salt, and the protein
caseinogen. If sweet or unsalted
butter is desired, the salt is omitted.
Butter has a delicious flavor. However,
because of its cost, it is used more
as a spread than as an ingredient in
food preparation.
spreadability and volume, some creaming properties.
food processors whip air into their
Pastry margarine: This is very plastic
product and call it whipped butter.
and has a high melting point.
Ghee
Whipped margarine: This has the
Ghee is clarified milk fat. It is free of same qualities as whipped butter.
water and the water-soluble protein
Soft margarine: This is margarine that
found in butter. For this reason,
has been hydrogenated to a lesser
Ghee does not go rancid as easily
degree than regular margarine. It is
as butter. In Guyana, ghee is used
softer, easier to blend, and more
primarily for making roti.
plastic, even when just taken out of
Margarine the refrigerator.
Margarine was invented in 1870, as a Soft diet margarine: This contains
substitute for butter. It was about half the amount of fat which
originally made from a has the same volume as regular
combination of meat fats and margarine and a higher percentage
cream. Today, it may be made from of air and moisture.
a mixture of vegetable oils only, or
a mixture of vegetable oils, animal
fat, butter, or skimmed milk. These Cooking fats or vegetable shortenings
mixtures are partially hydrogenated
These products are also made from
and then fortified with Vitamins A
blends of partially hardened oils
and D to simulate butter.
but they bear no resemblance to
Margarines which have been
butter. They are bland in flavor and
flavored with milk or butter are
are plasticized to give a soft
considered table-grade.
creamy consistency. Some cooking
Types of margarine fats have emulsifiers added to them
to facilitate easy blending with
Within recent years, food technologists
non-fat ingredients.
have experimented with and
produced several varieties of
margarine. Some varieties
available on the market are:
Lard Cooking oils
This is the purified fat of pigs. The Cooking oils are prepared from the
best quality is leaf lard. This lard is seeds or fruits of plants such as
much firmer than bulk lard. It is corn, cotton seed, coconut, peanut,
produced from the high-quality fat soya bean, and oil palm. In their
that lines the abdominal walls and natural form, these oils have a
surrounds the internal organs of the strong smell and taste.
animal. Like vegetable shortening,
Olive oil
lard is white but lard can be
distinguished by its characteristic Olive oil is oil that has been pressed
flavor, low melting point, and soft from fully ripe black olives. The
consistency. first pressing is marketed as olive
oil. Additional pressings must be
Suet
filtered to remove impurities and
Suet is the hard fat found around the are marketed as refined olive oil.
internal organs of cows and sheep.
Beef suet is less hard than that of
mutton and the flavour is usually
preferred. In some countries, this
fat may be bought chopped, flaked,
or rendered. Rendered beef suet is
known as tallow. Unlike other fats,
suet needs thorough cooking to
make it digestible.
Dripping
Strictly speaking, dripping is the fat
collected during the roasting of
meat. Unclarified dripping bears a
distinctive meaty flavor, while
clarified dripping is bland.
Chief uses of fats in cooking
Fats are used for:
 Frying
 Basting
 Greasing of cooking vessels
 Shortening flour mixtures
 Incorporating air into cakes
 Improving flavor
 Improving the energy value of
foods
Suitable fats for frying
The following fats are suitable for
frying:
 Cooking fats and frying oils that
contain no groundnut oil.
 Good quality lard.
 Bulk lard and clarified dripping.
These fats are suitable for frying
because they:
 -  are tasteless or pleasantly
flavored even at high
temperatures.
 -  are free of water salt and non-fat
solids. When salt and water are
present in frying fats and oils, they
cause bubbling and spurting. Non-
fat solids burn and adhere to the
surface of food giving an ugly
speckled appearance. These solids
also lower the breakdown point of
fats.
Suitable fats for creaming
 Butter
 Margarine
 Cooking fats A foam of air and fat
is desired in creamed cakes. This
is best achieved when plastic fat is
used. Some manufacturers
improve the creaming quality of
their products by adding water and
air.
Some chemical reactions in fats
and oils-
Saponification This is the process
whereby alkalis break down fats into
glycerol and alkali salts or fatty acids.
The latter is a soap and cannot be
absorbed by the body. In some
abnormal states of health, the body
produces soaps in the intestines. Such
persons find difficulty digesting fats.
Soaps are also formed when too much
soda or baking powder is used in flour
mixtures. The flavor of such mixtures
is distinctly acid and they may have
brown speckles throughout.