Knowledge Base > Barton Seaver - Fat and Flavor

Fat and Flavor

Barton Seaver - Fat and Flavor

This event was on Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Barton Seaver to discuss the wide world of cooking and finishing oils (and butter, of course!). We’ll discuss strategies for making the most of this culinary staple and exp… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Is clarified butter better for you? Some people believe it has less cholesterol..could that be true?

— Hermela A Teferra

Answer:

So cholesterol is a type of fat. I'm just going to kind of talk my way through this because I don't actually know the answer here. So I'm just gonna give you my thinking which might lead us to it it true answer but I'm sure it's more nuanced than I know about but cholesterol is a type of fat and clarified butter is when you have the butter fat. Is what's clarified from the water the milk proteins and the way solids so I would say that clarified butter would still have all that same. Fat components to it how the body responds to it in terms of like whole butter versus clarified butter. That's where I don't know. But ultimately Sort of again getting back to the point. I made at the outset. Yeah, I don't know where where you are in your life. If there are any specific health concerns that you're dealing with Etc. But again, it's sort of getting back to the idea of what are we demonizing the ingredient or the or the the larger, you know ecosystem of the diet itself? I think it also don't know where you're joining us from in the world or what Cuisine is is yours. Or sort of diet is is yours. But in the western diet, it is the overarching sort of the the Omni on. Omnipresence of these fats in our diet that is the problem that leads to higher cholesterol Etc. But you know, in fact fats are vital to our being our well-being. So I think if the clarified butter is what gets that fluffed couscous with a bean Ragu with broccoli and spicy chilies cooked down in a Sofrito of carrots and celery and onions and all these delicious things that are all good for us and in the end are so helpful. I think that's a good use of butter or clarified butter or whatnot. So to me, you know fat is something that helps us to enjoy. The foods that we should be eating as part of a delicious holistic way of looking at food. So I know that wasn't exactly to the point of your question, but there's my thinking on it wish you well one other resource that I would I would point you to and Patrick my colleague at Rouxbe if you could pull this up, so if you go to the nutrition source What you should eat fats and cholesterol you type that in you'll come up. And again, I have this this wonderful sort of guide, but the nutrition Source created by Harvard School of Public Health is I found the best nutrition source for information the most up-to-date rigorously studied information around this stuff and it's communicated in very simple layman's terms that that are really meant for the public to know pun intended digest.

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Barton Seaver

Barton Seaver

Chef, Educator, Author

bartonseaver.com