Chef at Home

What if we treated fat like a stock? Enfleurage is a process by which odorless fats, like lard or suet, are used to extract essential oils and perfumes from flowers. It works because fats readily absorb
flavors and aromas. The newly absorbed essential oils can be used to flavor other ingredients cooked with the fat. If we infused duck fat with cracklings and lime pickle then we would be able
to impart these aromatics to whatever was cooked with the duck fat. Imagine lamb gently
cooked in red pepper oil or goose flavored with rosemary-orange oil. This premise
is a continuation of our fat film approach, as well as a derivative from a
question about how to make duck fat more ducky to impart a richer flavor into
the meat, rather than the meat flavoring the fat. Even infusing the fat for
searing scallops and fish now presents a wide palate of tastes. Instead of adding herbs to the pan at the end and basting, why not infuse the fat with herbs at their peak of freshness and then use that to cook with or even as a finishing accent just before plating? There are lots of ideas to work with here. It’s a relatively simple procedure that produces exponentially beneficial results.

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