The food shortages that resulted from the two World Wars motivated industry to find ways of boosting the sheer quantity of food available in Europe. Nowadays, the situation has changed completely: in European countries the quantity of food is less important than its quality, taste and storage life. Additives are now used in order to optimise production. As a result, an increasing number of consumers cannot remember the real, natural taste of food. Products with a long cultural tradition have been forgotten. However, the foods that stand the test of time and that consumers will continue to enjoy are those with great taste.
One of Europe’s leading producers of natural, edible, animal fats, the German company Unimelt GmbH is celebrating its centenary this year. The company’s uses its vast experience, as well as its technical prowess, to provide a wide range of products of consistently high quality that feature the exact composition required for customers’ production processes. A long tradition, as well as an interest in the chemical properties of its products, has led to a close collaboration with the Chemical Investigation Board of Hagen, Germany, as well as with other accredited laboratories. From this research, the advantages of animal fats for food preparation have been demonstrated. Refined beef dripping has proved to be a superb frying fat with a high frying performance.
A long frying life and excellent deep frying performance
Refined beef dripping not only has a high smoke point of 280°C, but has a very long frying life and so outperforms vegetable oils and fats. The frying performance of fats and oils is variable when these products are subjected to the conditions used for deep frying but can be determined by Rancimat analysis. This test, which measures oxidation stability, creates an artificial ageing process. Fat is fried at 120°C, a lower temperature than that used during deep frying (170-180°C). Eventually the fat molecules are split into volatile organic acids, which are carried in the air stream, and the charged species are detected by electrodes. It can be seen that beef dripping has high oxidative stability compared with vegetable oils [Table 1].
Two other properties of beef dripping make it a good choice for deep frying: the low rate of polar compound formation during frying and the low anisidine value. These properties can be determined experimentally by an ageing process that this time involves the use of normal deep frying temperatures.
A fat becomes rancid as the percentage of polar compounds it contains (such as free fatty acids) increases. Scientists recommend that a fat should contain less than 24% of these compounds. The anisidine value is an indicator of the stability of a fat during deep frying, and describes the amount of oxidation product formed, which includes volatile as well as non-volatile compounds. The amount of these compounds formed over time indicates the rate of deterioration of the fat. The anisidine value is determined by measuring the formation of aldehyde and ketone compounds that react with ansidine using a spectroscopic method. The Chemical Investigation Board of Hagen, Germany has found that refined beef dripping shows less oxidative and thermal degradation during deep frying compared with other tested oils and fats [Figure 1].
Excellent potato chip texture within the shortest time
The frying time needed for cooking depends on the different fatty acids that the oil or fat contains. The Chemical Investigation Board of Hagen, scarried out an analysis to determine the exact frying time that was necessary under defined conditions. The temperature of the oil or fat examined was set at 170°C, and frying continued until the temperature of the centre of a piece of potato measuring 10mm by 10mm by 50mm reached 100°C. The results showed that the use of refined beef dripping allowed shorter cooking times [Table 2].
The benefits
Beef dripping is a traditional way of preparing food with an excellent flavour and using 100% natural and non-allergenic ingredients. The use of beef dripping is a first choice for many fish and chip outlets, and animal fats are a key compound responsible for the excellent taste of the famous Belgian chips. By choosing beef dripping as a frying fat, the taste of potatoes and fried food is improved. The use of beef dripping is also a choice for the eco-friendly: the high CO2 emission resulting from long distance shipping of vegetable oils is avoided.
A cooking fat for generations
Beef dripping is a fat with a long tradition; it is an excellent frying fat that has proved its worth with food producers the world over.
UNIMELT GmbH
Selm, Germany
www.unimelt.de
