The Citadel of the Foe has Fallen!

[ecosophia]

Well, kind of. 

Sara and I ran an assortment of errands in Providence yesterday, and one of the places we stopped was the local Expensive Yuppie Grocery, which is the only place locally we can get certain useful foods for her. (Long explanation about celiac disease and serious food allergies deleted.) So there we were in one of the aisles, picking up bags of the one really edible brand of rice pasta and some other items of the same kind, when Sara turned and her mouth fell open in utter astonishment. She pointed at a shelf, and I turned to look.

There, in an expensive yuppie grocery, the kind of place that's crammed with certified vegan products and the kind of allegedly healthy foods that you couldn't feed to prisoners of war without violating the terms for humane treatment included in the Geneva Convention, were jars of clarified pork fat, duck fat, and beef tallow. 

There's actually more going on in its appearance than a tacit admission that many kinds of food cooked in animal fat really are tastier than their vegetable-oil cousins, although that's part of it. There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of evil in the world. There's the kind that's motivated by greed and lust, and the kind that's motivated by pride and envy, and one of the things that makes life entertaining here in the world of manifestation is that each of them tends to point at the other and say, "That's evil, and therefore I'm good." 

To use the labels Rudolf Steiner gave them, Ahrimanic evil is the kind that's driven by greed and lust. It's all about plunging into sensation and materiality, who cares about the consequences to me or anyone else, I want it, Mac -- got it? Luciferic evil is the kind that's driven by pride and envy, and it's all about being better than other people, the world is not good enough for me and neither are you, you lowlife scum! Each has its habits, including dietary habits, and compulsive veganism is one of the common expressions of Luciferic evil in today's society.

That's not to say that all vegans are evil, far from if -- there are people who simply thrive better on a diet without animal products, and if you're one of those, enjoy your Tofurkey later this month.  Most of us, though, have encountered a great many examples of the sort of vegan for whom abstension from animal foods is a fondly regarded proof of their personal sainthood and a license to hurl abuse at those of us who don't share their diet. (Yes, I've tried a vegan diet -- I was into macrobiotics back in the day -- and I don't thrive on it. Yes, I've had perfect strangers melt down and start screaming at me because they saw meat in my grocery cart.) 

I'm entirely in favor of vegan products being available in groceries, for that matter. It's the tendency on the part of influential sectors of society to exalt one set of dietary choices as good for everybody and to tacitly or explicitly denigrate all others that bears watching, especially when it swings hard in a Luciferic or Ahrimanic direction. When everyone in a society is supposed to eat diets have so few calories that they're only suitable for office workers whose most significant physical exercise in the course of a day consists of the walk from the parking garage to the elevator, you know that something has gone wrong, just as much as if everyone in a society was supposed to gobble down an entire turducken every day. 

So the appearance of animal fats in the Expensive Yuppie Grocery struck me as a good sign. Now of course I didn't buy any of it -- like so many products in the Expensive Yuppie Grocery, it's overpriced -- but I was glad to see it. And, dear reader, if you want to enjoy the benefits of tasty animal fat without spending a lot of money, get some bacon, fry it up nicely in a skillet, drain the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a heatproof container, and keep it in the fridge.  Fry some cabbage or other vegetables in that for a change; you'll be glad you did. 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That brand is actually quite good. I have their beef and bison tallow in the fridge. Of course, I also have a jar of bacon fat, which only cost the price of the bacon plus the amount of time necessary to pour it into the jar.

Funny enough, our local overpriced health food store carried those products for a while. Then they discontinued them. Twice I went looking for them, and asked employees about them. Both times, the employees in question gave me a look that said "You disgusting peasant" when I described what I was looking for.

[ecosophia]

I bet there's quite a quarrel between the defenders of Luciferic vanity and the forces of Ahrimanic craving right now, in a great many expensive yuppie groceries, about whether to carry it or not. If you get that reaction from another store employee, you can always smile and say, "You know, I can always take my business elsewhere if you're going to be that judgmental," and watch their reaction.

[temporaryreality]

I got that same incredulity when searching for salt pork once. I didn't return to that store for years afterward. Their loss

[(Anonymous)]

I stopped using vegetable oil quite some time ago as I found stuff like popcorn just tasted way better when popped in ghee. The vegetable oil (in this case canola oil) seemed to leave me with a faint stomach ache afterwards which ghee and butter doesn't do. So I threw caution to the wind and went as you put it Ahrimanic. Our local food coop which often carries locally produced food has carried both beef tallow and more frequently duck fat. I'm sure pig lard is lurking around somewhere (I didn't look at the prices so am not sure how expensive they were).

I wish you hadn't mentioned bacon. There are several packages of locally produced bacon being quietly hoarded in my freezer for winter. I'm restraining myself with some difficulty.

JLfromNH

[ecosophia]

I've read that bacon is usually what causes people to give up vegan diets, for what it's worth!

lard

[ritaer]

most regular grocery stores carry lard in the meat section--usually in square cardboard packages of 1 lb.. It probably won't be organic. Any grocery in a Latino neighborhood is likely to carry lard, possibly in larger packages

The new appearance of these fats in health food stores is due to the popularity of paleo or keto diets, both ow which shun most vegetable oils except coconut oil and occasionally canola (since it is almost impossible to eat out if you don't accept some canola oil).

Gourmet groceries sometimes have duck fat, duck comfit is yummy and the fat can be strained and frozen for reuse.

Rita

now you've made me feeling hungry

[chaosadventurer]

or more like feeling the lack of a goose fat sandwich that I haven't had in ages, just because not enough around me like goose. (about a millimeter or so of goose fat on Rye, with finely diced onion spread on it)
Frying in bacon fat is our normal, and yummier way of it.

on allergies, been there, done and dealing with that with my wife as well (and celiac friends). An interesting adventurer all on its own. Yes it would be great to compare notes, not sure about this as the venue. For related out of ordinary, Allergy music for dealing with the emotional negatives of allergies by Kyle Dine. Targeted at kids but my adult onset wife uses them when she is feeling down about the allergies and the challenges.

Re: now you've made me feeling hungry

[ecosophia]

Sometime soon I'll put up a Dreamwidth post talking about the allergy/celiac diet dance, and we can have that conversation there. My readership being what it is, I bet the comments will be worth reading!

Yummy bacon fat

[(Anonymous)]

John Michael, if only I ate enough bacon to keep me in enough pork fat for all the things I like to flavor with it. Jowl bacon is my favorite and renders the sweetest fat too.

Whenever I order a quarter cow or half pig from the local Amish, I also take the lard they always offer with it. It never lasts long enough! How many people reject that offered treasure due to media brainwashing? How have meat eaters gotten convinced that lean meat is the only healthy kind, as though the gods made a mistake making pigs so deliciously fatty.

The Amish butter and raw milk are also so flavorful it is hard to go back to the supermarket version when I run out of the real thing. And the Mennonite's eggs – goodness, I am getting so hungry writing this.

So now the urban office fauna have taken to buying overpriced little jars of lard. Well, good on 'em! I can only imagine the price – it must have given you quite a chuckle.

The jars are so pretty they can display them out on the counter for all to appreciate their foodie bona fides, right next to their chicly labeled, overpriced bone broth. OK, now I'm just getting snarky. Must be time to go eat something fatty!

Christophe

Re: Yummy bacon fat

[ecosophia]

The jars I saw were a little under $8 for 10 ounces. Sounds to me as though it's time for farmers to start cashing in! As for "bone broth," yeah, that was right across the aisle. Sara and I make "bone broth" aka ordinary soup stock for free -- peelings and trimmings from suitable vegetables go into a tub in the freezer, so do bones from an assortment of tasty animals we cook, throw 'em in the pot with a blade of kelp (for minerals and taste) and plenty of water and simmer for a couple of hours, and you've got a gallon of soup stock better than anything that ever came in a tetra pak.

Bacon, Ahriman-Lucifer, Fortress has fallen, Astrology

[(Anonymous)]

This will be a very disjointed posting...or maybe not.

Yes, bacon´s real good!

Your interpretation of "Ahrimanic" and "Luciferic" is the best I´ve seen so far.

Is it just me or *has* something dramatic changed in the Matrix recently? There seem to be many fallen fortresses.

In Sweden, the previously liberal interventionist tabloid Expressen published an article arguing that most Syrians support Bashar Assad and that there are no "moderate" rebels. Imagine if the Washington Post suddenly would write this. It´s that yuge...and nobody pretends to notice. Except an neo-Nazi group who probably couldn´t believe their luck reading this in a "Zionist" rag.

In the Stockholm metro, somebody is running ads for Huawei Android phones with messages like "This is for people who like to search for stuff like this on the web: WHY BUY GREENLAND?" That´s of course an ironic reference to Donald Trump. Maybe its a subtle criticism but something tells me even this would be out of question just two years ago. Trump has been promoted from Literally Hitler to Supreme Sh**lord Commander - a place he rather enjoys.

These are two examples from the top of my head. There may be many others. Is the "Fourth Turning" arriving? Or is it just my subjective feeling (it started to grow stronger in late October, for whatever reason - the month of Scorpio?)

Tidlösa

Re: Bacon, Ahriman-Lucifer, Fortress has fallen, Astrology

[ecosophia]

I think you're right that something is shifting. I'm not yet sure what it is, but in the immortal words of Ghan-buri-Ghan, "wind is changing!"

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, where were you when the stranger yelled at you about your groceries? That doesn’t happen around here even at the hipster grocery.

[ecosophia]

That was when I was in Seattle. It happened once in the food co-op on Capitol Hill, once in the Rainbow Organic Grocery in the same neighborhood, and once in the PCC food co-op in Montlake.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! Today's fine dinner: Home-grown potatoes fried in fat of smoked bacon. And fried smoked bacon, of course. (I'm unsure... if you say bacon in English, do you automatically refer to the smoked product?)

Those two concepts of evil seem to make up very good containers for many things we can observe in our current times...

Nachtgurke

[ecosophia]

Yum! Yes, in American English, "bacon" means the smoked and cured product. The usual term for the unsmoked stuff is "salt pork," and that's usually used in baked beans and similar foods.

Lard vs olive oil

[(Anonymous)]

I met an Italian man in his early 60s who told me that when he was a boy in Italy, the main fat they used for cooking was lard. Even in Italy, where olives have been grown for thousands of years, most people used lard for day to day cooking.

The widespread use of vegetable fat seems to be quite a modern thing.

Re: Lard vs olive oil

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Interesting. Olive oil's a little dicey to cook with, though it's great in salads and many other uses, so this doesn't surprise me.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes change is afoot.
Over the last 2 or 3 years I have met a few Vegans who are NOT furl of self-righteous fury.!

[ecosophia]

I've actually known quite a few of them, which is why I always make sure to put in a caveat when talking about the obnoxious ones. If somebody prefers to eat a diet with no animal products, I have zero trouble with that -- in fact, I've happily cooked and served vegan dinners for friends who don't do animal products. (I learned Japanese cooking from my stepmother, Sara grew up eating rice and beans and similar things, so vegan foods actually make up a noticeable part of our diet -- I challenge anyone to dine on my agedashi tofu with eggplant and go away feeling poorly fed!) It's purely the ones who treat their diet as an excuse to shriek abuse at other people who I won't tolerate.

[(Anonymous)]

My husband always wonders why green beans taste better when I sauté them than when he does (although he is a better cook than I am), and it's the bacon fat.

--Maria

[ecosophia]

Don't tell him!

[(Anonymous)]

I recently purchased a jar of that exact tallow from Grocery Outlet, which takes things that overpriced stores can't sell, and sells for a small fraction of the cost. It's amusing that these products, as well as things like marrow bones, oxtail, etc. used to be dirt cheap garbage products that poor people could make delicious food from, and now they're all ridiculously overpriced luxuries now that the upper classes ave realized how wonderful they taste. The young Romans imitating the Germanic fashions, I suppose.

Kyle

[ecosophia]

Or maybe they just finally got bored of insanely bland yuppie chow...

Fat, fat, fat

[(Anonymous)]

A while back, my partner's cousin stayed with us and bought a large piece of beef with a thick layer of fat, so he could try the cob oven in the garden. It was gorgeous and the fat remaining on the meat was nicely smoked. I cut the removed fat up and gently rendered it in water, then poured it into jars. It was lovely stuff, that fat.

Also, thick (British) chips cooked in dripping. Oh my.

Miranda

Re: Fat, fat, fat

[ecosophia]

Yum!

[avalterra]

We buy fat from a local farmer pretty cheap and render our own tallow. Here is a post I did about the process on my wife's blog.

https://www.catintheflock.com/2019/07/how-to-render-fat.html

AV

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this!

The F-word

[(Anonymous)]

France.
Or maybe it's faux hippies.
French ingredients, techniques, and cooking terms are back in fashion these days due to the proliferation of cable cooking channels, even if actual haute cuisine isn't. Hipster cuisine 24/7/365.
Go into any high-end foodie bistro these days and you can have a grass-fed bison Gruyere burger garnished with duck confit, and paired with a nice Chianti, all organic, all locally-sourced. For $50.00 a pop.
I kid you not, JMG, I went into my favorite used bookstore just yesterday to locate a book on campfire Dutch oven cooking techniques. The only camp cooking book I found had a recipe for "fire-licked kale with vinagrete dressing".

Re: The F-word

[ecosophia]

"Fire-licked kale"? Okay, that's pretentious even for a yuppie recipe.

Beef Tallow

[(Anonymous)]

If you buy the cheap (i.e. not lean) ground beef, you end up with oodles of tallow that you can drain out of the pan into a jar or custard cup and stick in the fridge. It makes delightful greasy potatoes.

Re: Beef Tallow

[ecosophia]

True enough!

[(Anonymous)]

Fat is flavour!!!

Ode to Fat

[(Anonymous)]

Guide me, O muse! Of fat I sing:
The richest or finest part of anything.

Maker of crisp,
Of smooth, of supple,
of so much roasted succulence.

Fatwood: resin-rich,
Fat coal: good fire food.
Medulla terrae: fat of the land,
heart and marrow of what matters most.
Fertile, productive, not lean, not slight,
but large, important, greatly desired:
a fat role, a fat part.

Chocolate’s meat,
bread’s boon:
Buttered toast,
Buttered muffins,
Pancakes, biscuits,
Croissants, scones,
Greeted with drooling,
Orgasmic moans–
Doughnuts floating on hot fat,
Slabs of cheese
Sandwiched and grilled,
Thrice fatted delight.

What is not better
slathered with butter,
with mayo,
with cream?
Who does not deem
Hot loaves
Green salads
Fruit pies
Iced cakes
Friendly to fat?
Pigs are fed,
Potatoes baked
Solely for that.

Come chew the fat:
peanut butter and crackers,
Dickon’s bread and bacon,
Chicago’s yards of lard,
Fat juicy olives,
Coconut oil,
A big fat raise,
fat laugh, fat soil.

Open, O Sesame!
Yield us your hidden treasures
let us praise
the pleasures
of tahini,
Beloved halva,
honeyed baklava,
amorous almond, O!

Bountiful bride price,
cattle culture,
clarified ghee:
freedom from toil and poverty.

Jolly saints and merry kings
Roly-poly and giving good things:
Fat Santa, ample fellow,
Chuckling Buddha’s
Big, satisfied belly.
and, way before that,
Venus of Willendorf’s
Round, mounded
Rolls of richest fertile fat.

Materia materna:
Fatty matrix of intelligence,
Nutrient of neocortex
Birth mother of big, bright brains!

cooking lessons

[sebzefrog]

Didn't have to wait long for the cooking lesson ;-)

Seb
PS: Just in case you don't have lots of room in your fridge... I keep this kind of fat in a clay jar with a lid by the side of my stove. First hand experience shows that expiration date is larger than one month.

[(Anonymous)]

I enjoyed this post and comments. In no particular order I have a few questions and thoughts. What do you find dicey about cooking with olive oil? Several folks have commented about ghee and I agree that it's delicious, and very nice for cooking with. It's super easy to make your own for a fraction of the cost found at upscale markets...fun, elementary kitchen chemistry!

I imagine the huge proliferation of various inexpensive cooking oils only began as the era of mechanized, industrial farming got underway...corn oil might have been the first to become common. There are probably many health and allergy issues with all the modern, industrially produced oils.

Prior to the 20th century, animal fats ruled the day. My parents lived in Germany from 1945-49 and I vividly remember their stories about how desperately poor and devastated many ordinary Germans were and how an extremely common meal was a thick slice of pumpernickel smeared with lard and topped with sliced raw garlic and salt.

The extensive commentary about bacon is pretty typical of the wild enthusiasm most people seem to have for the sublime stuff. Most of the Jewish people I know are crazy about it. When I was growing up there was always a frozen oj container in the fridge where the bacon fat would be saved. Fried eggs meant eggs fried in bacon fat. Yum!

I'm guessing the bougie grocery store you visit might be the one sometimes referred to as Whole Paycheck. I lived in Brookline MA in the mid 70s when the very first Bread & Circus (as it was originally named) opened...a far, far cry from the slick, corporate enterprise it's become. Now I avoid it at all costs.

I look forward to further postings from you on food and diet issues. Thanks!

Jim W

[(Anonymous)]

Not JMG, but an experienced cook (sometime professional). I've found that olive oil is awkward to fry, braise, or saute with; it turns into a sticky, gummy layer on the bottom of a stainless steel pan, and sometimes partway up the sides as well. It also smokes at a not terribly high temperature.

On the plus side, it makes wonderful salad dressings and marinades for pickled vegetables, and it's good in some baked goods. (Try making cornbread or brownies with olive oil instead of melted butter or another oil).

So if you don't cook much with a frying pan, it's fine for cooking, but if you fry a lot, other fats (butter, bacon grease, grapeseed oil) are a better bet.

veggie oil

[(Anonymous)]

Here is a good synopsis of veggie oil by a biochemist

https://roguehealthandfitness.com/vegetable-oils-are-dangerous-to-health/

[(Anonymous)]

I remember my mom making "Czech toast": rye bread spread with bacon grease, pan-fried and salted. Yum!

I see a few people asking which vegetable oils are "good for you." My rule: if a hydraulic press was necessary to get the oil out of the vegetable, you probably don't want to use the resulting product.

-RPC-