Dripping then and now

"Earlier this year, [2014] butcher James Whelan of Nenagh, in County Tipperary, Ireland, won a prestigious Great Taste Award for his Angus and Hereford beef dripping, seeing off 10,000 other great "tastes", in what is widely regarded as the Oscars of the food world. A fatty by-product winning out over raisin scones and cappuccino marshmallows? Rendered cow rump better than porchetta and chilli bacon jam? Is dripping finally coming back?" Gareth May - The Independent

I think the picture above is of one of these new gourmet drippings that you seem to be able to get in England. It actually doesn't look that tasty to me. But anyway there seem to be a lot of Michelin starred and celebrity chefs embracing dripping. For example Rick Stein apparently cooks his chips in his Padstow restaurants, in dripping - as do many gourmet chip makers.

And although it may be back in fashion, and although the scientists may have decided that fat is good for you - as opposed to sugar and carbohydrate that is - nevertheless you shouldn't have too much. As in all things and as my grandmother used to say - "a little bit of what you fancy does you good." But only a little bit - it has more calories than butter for example.

My mother used to make dripping all the time, and we used to have it on toast - it was very yummy.

So what is dripping? Well I thought it was what my mother made, though

I suspect it might be more mucky fat, which is what they call dripping in Yorkshire. She had a little dish on which she would put all the little bits of fat that she had cut off from the meat before cooking, or, which remained after we had demolished the Sunday roast. This was put in a slow oven - or just left in the bottom of the oven when she was cooking something else. I think it had to be a slow oven. And the fat would melt. It would then be poured into a crock which was kept in our big stone larder. (We only had a tiny fridge). And we called that dripping. (And did you know 'larder' the word comes from lard - about which more later). Some of the fat never melted down - well it probably wasn't fat - bits of meat and gristle left on it I guess. This was eventually thrown out.

"rendering fat separates it from connective tissue and meat, processing it into a clear liquid, free of protein and impurities. It's essentially turning a waste material into useful – and incredibly tasty – produce. Not that taste was the main reason people had dripping sandwiches during the First World War, of course." Shaun Searley

(I think he means the second world war.). Apparently it was a dish of the poor and of wartime rationing when butter and oil was unavailable. And shortly after the war, fatty things became an absolute no/no. Caused you to put on masses of weight and drop dead of a heart attack they said. Which, is indeed, partly true. But we do need fat to process various vitamins and no doubt all sorts of other things - and dripping is not one of those evil transfats or even polyunsaturated.

But when I started looking into this and found that it was on the way back I found that what I thought was dripping was not dripping at all. Dripping is purely beef fat rendered down. Only beef - and the gourmet variety as shown at the top and on your local supermarket shelves (in England) is pure white in colour. Our dripping was brownish with little bits in it - which, I'm guessing, gave it it's great taste.

Pork dripping is not dripping at all - it's lard - and all the other kinds of animal fats - lamb, chicken, turkey ... are heaven knows what. Duck fat and goose fat are real gourmet delights of course, and I have to say that there is an awful lot of fat in a duck. But as I said, my mother - and I'm sure most housewives of the time - just mixed them all together. And any of them separately or together, just make the best roast potatoes. Maybe that's why mine aren't so good anymore.

And I sort of carry on the tradition. I don't render down the fat that I cut off the meat before cooking (maybe I should), but I do pour off surplus fat from things I'm cooking into a pyrex dish that I keep in the fridge. Mostly it's olive oil based but sometimes there are touches of other things - sausage fat, surplus fat from roast meat, etc. And yes I know you're not supposed to reuse olive oil, but I do. As my son says - "there I said it."

And the other useful thing about it is that when you pour off this fat there are often other savoury juices as well and as the fat solidifies in the fridge it separates out from the juices and so you end up with fat that can be used and also a tasty bit of jus that can be added to other things.

I don't think the French, or anyone else really does dripping. Just the British. They do use duck and goose fat though. And maybe they use it in terrines, rillettes and patés. And I don't think the Australians are into it in spite of the British heritage. But when I looked - Coles does have Angus Beef dripping from a company called York. It will set you back almost $5.00 for 250g - so not really an austerity product. Obviously these days it's the quality of the meat that matters - so no doubt there will be wagyu dripping before long.

I really think it's still not good for you though. Just an indulgence every now and then or when you are next making unhealthy chips or roast potatoes.