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You are here: Home / Archives for tallow

tallow

Fermentation Friday: Fermented French Fries

March 13, 2011 by KerryAnn 42 Comments

We’ve fallen in love with this recipe and this is the only way I will make fries in the future. My kids inhale these and ask for more, no matter how many I make. They are just like I remember fast food fries to be- crisp on the outside, hot and soft on the inside. And since they’re fried in tallow, I feel good about my kids eating them.

When I developed this recipe, I’d been in a fermenting funk. I was having a hard time coming up with something creative. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sauerkraut and kefirs. But I needed something…. more. Different. Something my kids would love. One of my dear friends, Loztnausten, had a post about making shoestring french fries and one on fermenting fries. I had read it long ago, but I kept on having the ‘too much work’ mantra scroll in my head. Hand-cutting all of those fries…. I wanted a food processor with a blade that could do it for me, but it was out of my budget. If I wanted french fries, I would ask my husband to make them for me as a treat, when I was working a late night and he had some free time and was looking to dote on me by whipping up something special and junky in the kitchen for us to munch on while I slaved away on the computer. Last January my husband made some french fries, using the mandolin slicer I had recently acquired from a friend. He asked me to look up what temp to cook them at, as his last batch had turned out too oil-logged. We knew he needed a higher temperature, so I surfed over to Everything Free Eating to see how LZ does her fries and I again saw the fermented fries post.

A light bulb went off.

The Research

I did a little research. In this paper, fermentation with a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) resulted in a reduction of the acrylamide in french fries by as much as 90% after 15 minutes. Fermenting in an anaerobic environment is the best way to encourage the production of LAB at home so your can achieve this same result without needing a lab coat, a college degree and an industrial process to cook your diner.

Why do we want to reduce the acrylamide? It’s a carcinogen. Anything that browns while it cooks- bread, potatoes, chips, biscuits, pretty much any baked or fried good, forms acrylamide as it browns.

How does LAB fermentation work to reduce the acrylamide? A quote from Science Daily tells us

“Acrylamide is formed as a reaction between the amino acid asparagine and simple sugars such as glucose and fructose. Put simply, the lactic acid bacteria remove these compounds and inhibit the formation of acrylamide.”

If you’d like to read more about how LABs consume these simple sugars, this book is a good place to start studying. The paper mentioned above, Lactic acid fermentation reduces acrylamide formed during production of fried potato products, was published in the journal Aspects of Applied Biology. It says in its summary:

“Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) metabolise simple sugars rapidly, producing lactic acid which lowers pH and reduces the Maillard reactions initiated by heat. This method can be used in industries producing fried potato products to reduce their problems with acrylamide formation. Applying the LAB method to French fries shortly prior to the pre-frying step reduces acrylamide formation as much as 90%. Browning reactions consequently are reduced. Sensory analysis shows loss of colour and burnt smell and taste without affecting quality of final potato sticks. A fermentation time of approximately 15 minutes is needed given a dense LAB culture. The results from large scale industrial- batch as well as continuous experiments – indicate that LAB fermentation provides the best means for acrylamide mitigation in the production of fried potato products.”

The Application

So the research says that LAB thrives best in an anaerobic environment. Anaerobic means that oxygen is not present; aerobic means that oxygen is present. In order to get LABs to proliferate, I needed to provide an anaerobic environment that would encourage their growth while discouraging the growth of all non-beneficial species, especially the aerobic ones.

So, how can be get an anaerobic environment in home fermentation? That can only be accomplished with a seal that prevents oxygen from entering while an airlock allows carbon dioxide to escape. Without an anaerobic environment, the LABs will not flourish and the acrylamides will not greatly diminish. Open air fermentation will not reduce acrylamides to the same extent due to the lack of LABs. As the bacteria produce carbon dioxide and use up the oxygen, it reduces the population of undesirable, aerobic bacteria and allows the LAB to flourish in the oxygenless environment. The Pickl-It provides this type of environment, as it as an airtight seal and an airlock for the growing carbon dioxide to escape. An open bowl provides a continuous supply of oxygen, never increasing the amount of LAB present and giving an environment that is ideal for the undesirable, aerobic bacteria to flourish. A mason jar would not, either, as it has to be burped regularly to allow the building carbon dioxide to escape. Any time you burp a mason jar, it allows oxygen to rush into the vessel, starting the process all over again. Not burping the jar would cause explosions, as I have had happen in the past. An air-tight vessel with an air lock is the only way to see the LABs flourish and therefore reduce the acrylamide in the potatoes.

This makes sense to me. The examples of ancient fermentation crocks I have seen contained wooden lids and were buried while they ferment. A good example is Korean Kimchi. Ditto for the Icelanders and their fermented shark, called Hakarl, which sits in the ground for 6-12 weeks to ferment. You don’t get air circulation under the ground.

You will notice in the study, that the concentration of LABs used to reduce the acrylamide by 90% was a 1% solution. In order to reach a concentration of 1% in your own kitchen, you need your potatoes to be in an environment where oxygen can not enter for 3-6 days, according to the Handbook of Fermented Functional Foods. If you preview this book on Amazon using their Look Inside! feature, you can read about it on page 402 of this wonderful and very detailed book. Other parts of this book are available on Google Books, if you’d like to read the beginning of the book.

The Recipe

Mmmmm… crispy outside, soft inside, and just the right amount of salt!

[Read more…] about Fermentation Friday: Fermented French Fries

Filed Under: Best Of, Blog Carnivals, Casein-Free, Cultured Foods, Egg-Free, Featured Recipe, Fermentation Friday, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Kids, Lactofermentation, Nut-Free, Packaged Replacements, Portable Treats, Recipes, Sanity Savers, Side Dishes, Snacks, Soy-Free, Sweetener-Free, Vegetables Tagged With: bacteria, carnival, fermentation, Fermentation Friday, food, french fries, grain mill, kids, kids favorites, lard, linky, March, mason jar, potatoes, rice, stove-top dishes, tallow

Baby Steps- Transitioning to Traditional Foods

January 6, 2011 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

Last year on the forum, we started a Baby Steps section to help people new to traditional foods.  Each month, I will be posting those baby steps to the blog in case you’re wanting to start your own Traditional Foods journey.

January begins with the most basic steps.

1. Make your own chicken stock from scratch instead of buying canned stock.
2. Switch the type of fat you’re cooking with to a traditional fat- coconut oil, lard, butter, tallow, ghee, palm oil.
3. Eat fruits and vegetables that are in season for this month.
4. Move to consuming the best quality dairy that you can find &/or afford. If you can not locate or afford raw milk, you will not receive any flack from board members. We all understand limits of availability and budget. Instead, let’s discuss ways to make non-raw milk as healthy as possible, such as kefir, yogurt and other cultures.

If you’d like to discuss this with other TFers, you can join in on the thread on the forum.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Baby Steps to TF Tagged With: baby steps, budget, butter, chicken, dairy, fat, fruits, kefir, lard, raw milk, tallow, vegetables, yogurt

Baby Steps- changing to healthier fats

January 31, 2011 by KerryAnn 1 Comment

If you’re wishing to change to a traditional foods diet, one of the first changes to make is the type of fat you are using.

  • Shortening- if you’re new to baking your own goodies, the best substitute for shortening in baked goods is Spectrum’s palm oil shortening.  Butter will also work where the fat is cut into flour in order to create a flaky structure in a baked good.  Make sure the butter is cold before you cut it in.  If you are dairy free and making something with enough substance to hold its own structure, such as biscuits, coconut oil will work.  Again, cut it in cold.  Coconut oil will also work for any baked good cooked in a baking dish, since you don’t need to worry about the spreading issue.  Coconut oil will not work in cookies, as the low melting point makes them spread too thin and merge with each other.  Lard can also work as the fat in some pastries, such as pie crusts, for savory dishes.
  • Liquid oils- liquid oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil or soy oil can be exchanged with butter or coconut oil.  You can also use lard or tallow, depending on the dish.  If the flavor of the dish blends well with those fats, it works great.  Tallow, in particular, has a strong flavor and smell and must be used carefully to disguise it or your kids will likely reject it on smell alone.  The first time I used tallow, my husband walked into the house and exclaimed, “WHAT is that smell?!?”
  • Peanut oil- for frying.  If you’re doing french fries, lard and tallow work great.  Coconut oil also does well to fry foods.
  • Olive oil- olive oil is great in unheated applications.  It’s great for drizzling on finished dishes or for salad dressings.  However, because olive oil has a low smoke point, you should use oils appropriate for heat in cooked applications.  The best two options are coconut oil and butter.  You can also use the Spectrum palm oil shortening in heated applications.
  • Margarine- switch to butter.
  • Bacon fat-  Keep using it.  It’s great to put into vegetable dishes for flavor.  You can not absorb the nutrients in vegetables without some fat with them.  Do your best to source a quality bacon that doesn’t have nitrates and nitrites.  I prefer Applegate Farms when I can’t get a locally produced bacon.
  • Mayonnaise- switch to a quality one made with good oils, or make your own at home.  Wilderness Family Naturals makes a mayo with good oils, and is the one I recommend.  WAPF recommends Delouis Fils.
  • Lard- commercially available lards are preserved with BHT and other chemicals.  If at all possible, get lard from a local farmer who raises their hogs on pasture.  You can also make your own lard at home.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Baby Steps to TF, Fats Tagged With: bacon, baking, butter, dairy, fat, lard, savory, tallow

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I'm KerryAnn Foster, a crazy vibrant Jesus Freak with a heart full of hope. I'm not afraid to love on the least of these or get my hands dirty. This blog is my journey from ineffective, uptight, obese wallflower to a woman on fire for God and living the most vibrant, passionate life possible!

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with my husband, Jeff, and our two teens. I blog about self-confidence, health and home, homeschooling and living a vibrant, wide-open Jesus-centered lifestyle. I have over seventeen years of real food, natural lifestyle and health experience. We have homeschooled our children since birth and both Jeff and I run home-based businesses. We're crazy, we know it, and we love every second of it!

Read about my journey to health through celiac disease, PCOS, food allergies, obesity, adrenal fatigue and heavy metals.

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