For years we have been told that vegetable oils are the healthy way to cook, but those of us who follow a LCHF/Keto/Paleo way of eating know this is wrong.

A lot of people stick with Olive Oil as it is something they know but that, though it imparts good flavour, still isn’t perfect.

Others use the new oils such as Coconut Oil and Avocado Oil. These are great and have loads of extra benefits nutrition wise but coconut oil does tend to make EVERYTHING taste of coconut, not everyone’s favourite flavour. I must admit I have not used avocado oil but that is mainly down to the cost in the UK.

Recently I have been looking back to my childhood and remember my mother and grandmother using Lard or even better Dripping. So for frying things I bought some lard and realise why they used it… things taste better. A fried egg done in lard has more flavour and does not have that oily residue around it. Lard can withstand high temperatures without burning. It’s great and, even better, it’s cheap. Also for those wanting to add extra fat, it’s pure fat.

I also remember them making pastry and always using 1/2 butter and 1/2 lard making the most amazing shortcrust pastry, so a few experiments in that department will be taking place in my kitchen.

Then I thought back to the jar my mother and grandmother had in the pantry/fridge that was filled every Sunday from the pan of whatever meat we had for Sunday Roast… the dripping jar. This fat is combined with the juices from the meat and is full of natural flavour and goodness, I remember my dad giving me dripping on toast for breakfast occasionally, the fat and the jelly spread over the toast with lashings of pepper…YUM! The flavours from that jar were amazing and it was used during the week to cook nearly everything we ate.

So today I’m going on Amazon to search for a dripping jar and I’m going back to how things were cooked, Olive Oil is out.