[chalkdust]

Interesting BD. Thanks. Always good to hear from you.

How has oil been discredited as a more healthful alternative in pie crusts? I would like to read.

peace

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by chalkdust

Interesting BD. Thanks. Always good to hear from you.

How has oil been discredited as a more healthful alternative in pie crusts?

That's not what I said. I referred to equating "unsaturated" with more healthful -- without further analysis.

I would like to read.

Very well. Here are a few:

Hays, et al, Effect of a High Saturated Fat and No-Starch Diet on Serum Lipid Subfraction sin Patients with Documented Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

Dreon DM, A very-low-fat diet is not associated with improved lipoprotein profiles in men with a predominance of large, low-density lipoproteins Am J Clin Nutr, Mar 1999; 69 (3): 411-418

Dreon, DM et al, Change in dietary saturated fat intake is correlated with change in mass of large low-density-lipoprotein particles in men Am J Clin Nutr 1998, 67(5): 828-36

Krauss RM and Dreon DM Low-density-lipoprotein subclasses and response to a low-fat diet in healthy men Am J Clin Nutr 1995, 62(2): 478S-487S


Enjoy,
BDL

[IngaBakes]

Yes, I use pure butter for my pastry- particulalry french butter as it is higher in cream fat some butters have more water in them. Don't over work the dough and leave some chunky bit of butter not all rubbed through, this will make the pastry more flakier and light.
I do use crisco for white frosting, or 1/2 butter 1/2 crisco for butter frostings. I think if you want a white frosting for wedding cakes in a buttercream, then this may be an instance where crisco is irreplacable.

[rgbatson]

I bought organic African red palm oil online as a dietary supplement, and saw some interesting recipes and health information. The site says:
"Red Palm Oil - 100% natural, certified organic, traditionally processed, virgin, non-GMO red palm oil is our Guarantee. Our red palm oil is not refined, bleached, or deoderized (RBD). No pesticides or fertilizers used. Organic Red Palm Oil Certification under strict European and USDA standards. Our certified organic red palm oil is produced in West Africa from organically certified red palm oil trees."
"Red palm oil is free of cholesterol and trans-fatty acids. Rich source of phytonutrients such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, vitamin E tocotrienols and lycopene, for nutrition and health.These carotenoids are responsible for the striking red colour of the oil."
I paid $19.95 for a quart. Got it at RainforestRedPalmOil.com. They also carry extra virgin coconut oil at the same price.

[rgbatson]

I bought organic African red palm oil ojnline as a dietary supplement and saw some recipes and health information. The site says:
"Red Palm Oil - 100% natural, certified organic, traditionally processed, virgin, non-GMO red palm oil is our Guarantee. Our red palm oil is not refined, bleached, or deoderized (RBD). No pesticides or fertilizers used. Organic Red Palm Oil Certification under strict European and USDA standards. Our certified organic red palm oil is produced in West Africa from organically certified red palm oil trees."
"Red palm oil is free of cholesterol and trans-fatty acids. Rich source of phytonutrients such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, vitamin E tocotrienols and lycopene, for nutrition and health.These carotenoids are responsible for the striking red colour of the oil."
I paid $19.95 for a quart. Got it at rainforestredpalmoil.com. They also have extra virgin coconut oil for same price.

[siduri]

Originally Posted by oldschool1982

As I've learned from living 23 of the last 26 years south of the Mason Dixon line..............Biscuits, frying chicken and Pie crust. Although I do like to use a 50/50 mix of butter and shortening in my pie crust and a mixture of clarified butter, pork lard and rendered cured ham fat for my chickens.

This doesn;t make sense to me. Crisco was invented when? in the 1950s? 1940s? How old is southern cuisine? 1700s? earlier? What did they use before crisco was invented? I believe it must have been lard, (or ?butter? possibly, or lard and butter? I imagine just lard)
Crisco, whatever its use, is always a substitute for something that existed before the industrial production of synthetic ingredients. Healthy or not healthy, (and you can believe they'll probably change their minds another three or four times in our lifetimes as to what is healtny and what is not) it's a synthetic substitute for some real food substance.
Have you ever tried a piecrust with lard? Or lard and butter? Can you ever use crisco again after that?

PS, BDL and others, you might enjoy reading some of Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" articles from the Guardian. He has a website too. One of his favorite targets is "nutritionists" and the food supplement industry.

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by siduri

BDL and others, you might enjoy reading some of Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" articles from the Guardian. He has a website too. One of his favorite targets is "nutritionists" and the food supplement industry.

Thanks Siduri. I'll take a look.

BDL

[mnofdichotomy]

seems to defeat the whole purpose of pastries worrying about this...

[ED BUCHANAN]

Hard to even find a butcher who knows what suet is -- not that it matters anyway since very few butchers get sides of beef anymore. You're certainly not going to get the fat from around the kidneys. The best you can do is develop a relationship with a butcher for fat trimmed from the rib and loin.

Lots o' luck,
BDL

Your so right. Kidneys and other by prods. although all from same animal contaion different amount of fats, and different kinds. You are like me from old school and new . L:ast year I made Stuffed Derma(Kishka) I use BEEF SUET and I believe the Brits still use it in Mince Pies

[OregonYeti]

My first reaction to seeing coconut oil on any list of "healthier" oils was disbelief. I just did a little bit of research and found that there's been a lot of study on its health effects and it's not the demon people thought it was 20 years ago. Just sharing this for any of you who might have had the same reaction as I did.

UC Berkeley does a lot of studies on nutrition, and I went to them as a reference. I found this: Wellness Letter: How Bad are Tropical Oils?

It could be that I'm the only one who wasn't aware

[siduri]

Originally Posted by OregonYeti

It could be that I'm the only one who wasn't aware

Not at all. I still remembered reading "somewhere" that coconut oil and palm oil were bad guys.
I still say, though, that they will say they are bad, then they will say they are good, then they will be bad again, then good, and it's a little like a roulette wheel, what year you happen to be in will determine what is healthy and what is not.
I try t go with what tastes good, and with what is not an industrial product. (I think we must have instincts for the foods that are good for us (or our species would have died out many millennia ago) but we can be fooled by chemical fakers, and so i tend to avoid the fake, ersatz, faux products. They don't actually taste that good anyway.