If you are what you eat...

then I want to be fat. No, I don't mean obese. Hell, I have worked my ass (and other body parts) off for a year to shed some twenty-five pounds. I am talking about eating great big globs of glorious, taste enhancing fat.

This country has become so obsessed with weight and cholesterol that the food producers have bred all the taste out of our foods, especially meat products. Not only do our chicken, pork and beef products have no taste, they are also tougher than shoe leather and we are paying a hefty premium for the privilege of tasting nothing.

Did you know that pork generally should be cooked about medium rare? Did you know that in Japan raw chicken sushi is considered a delicacy? Did you know that in many cultures other than ours they don't raise their pigs and chickens in shit. I am not being crude here, I am serious. Their animals don't live in their own filth. Did you know that fat is what gives cows, chickens, and pigs taste and tenderness? Did you know that most often a prime rib roast in this country is at best a choice roast?

So, to America I say, "Get off of your fat asses and exercise to lose weight. Then demand that our country's food producers put fat and taste back into our foods."

If you would like to read more about fat, get this book:


Here are a few comments pulled directly from Amazon:

"I am so tired of fat free everything these days in the grocery store, so it was a real pleasure to read about fat...glorious fat. Maybe my cholesterol is getting jacked to Jesus, but my food has flavor now that I am cooking with fat. I tried McLagan's roasted chicken recipe and it was the best chicken ever...flavorful, juicy...I swoon at the memory. I look forward to trying more of the recipes from the book as soon as I can locate sources for well marbled meats, fatty fowl, and pork bellies. My in-laws are in their eighties and have cooked with lard all their lives. They are happy, healthy, thin, and the food just tastes good. I may croak a few weeks earlier than expected, but I will go out with happy taste buds. I really enjoyed reading about fat."

"I love this book and it could be my cookbook of the year. I have a library and I have been cooking long enough that I do not really need a cookbook unless it is very good. I bought the book primarily for reading about fats and why they could be good for you. However, I have made several recipes including the above mentioned roast chicken, which was fabulous. I slow baked a lamb shoulder by her method of slow cooking. And I saved the fat to make some lamb fritters, (not of this book) frying them in the left over fat. I have baked sweet potatoes in lard inspired by the book. I have rendered lard for myself and my girls. It has all been quite fun. And now that I am having so much fun and the food is so good, I really am not sure I care about the health issues.  Here is one thing I will say, since I have cooked out of this book this week, I am not hungry or craving food."

"You've just gotta love a book that has a big fatty slab of meat on it! And while fat has gotten an unfair bad rap over the past few decades from the low-fat diet apologists, the fact is that fat consumption is an important part of living as healthy a lifestyle as you can. This is something Jennifer McLagan wanted to convey with her book to give people a greater "appreciation" for what is arguably the most flavorful ingredient you could put into a recipe (nope, not salt, not sugar, and not spices of any kind can compete with good old-fashioned FAT!).  From butter to meat fats, McLagan gives you quite a history lesson on the subject of fat (and you can't miss the section on where the ghastly margarine came from!) to whet your appetite for some truly incredible fat-based dishes to make. Not all of them are low in carbohydrates, but they can easily be adapted to just about any diet. Except for a low-fat one. Sorry low-fatties!"