Safe places to eat fries

kraggy

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Used to work there, they definitely don't. One of the owners sons is a veggie and eats the chips all the time.

Chippers use two types of oil: vegetable shortening and vegetable oil.(both are a nightmare for heart health btw.)

I have been looking for a place that fries in animal fat in Galway and there are none bar one cafe that does duck-fat fries. Animal fat is more than 5 times the price of veg fat and places that go to the extra expense usually will advertise as it is so rare and seen as 'gourmet'.

McDonagh's on Quay Street and Harry Fitz's on Shop Street both use animal fat.

I know this for a fact. They told me. Not sure which animal fat McDonagh's use (I seem to recall that it's pig lard) but Harry Fitz uses beef fat.

They both told me this. In person.

perfectisthe

kraggy wrote: »

McDonagh's on Quay Street and Harry Fitz's on Shop Street both use animal fat.

I know this for a fact. They told me. Not sure which animal fat McDonagh's use (I seem to recall that it's pig lard) but Harry Fitz uses beef fat.

They both told me this. In person.

I know the Mc Donagh family quite well, that's totally correct, it's lard.

El_Dangeroso

kraggy wrote: »

McDonagh's on Quay Street and Harry Fitz's on Shop Street both use animal fat.

I know this for a fact. They told me. Not sure which animal fat McDonagh's use (I seem to recall that it's pig lard) but Harry Fitz uses beef fat.

They both told me this. In person.

Wow! I hope that's true.

rubadub

This 'animal fat in chips' topic came up in another thread. Current musgraves takeaway flyer has only 2 items, batter flour and beef dripping.
http://www.musgravecashandcarry.ie/files/r113/r113-fastfood.pdf

so somewhere must be using it.

Raminahobbin

Don't suppose anyone knows if Charlies chips are okay? Usually end up there at 3 or 4am after a night out, and I always just sit minus food when my friends are chowing down...it would be night to be able to settle the alcohol with a clear conscience!! Don't wanna ask them in the place thronging with drunk people when they're rushed off their feet!

CWone

Went to Harry Ramsdon when it opened years ago on the Naas Rd and the girl working there told me that the chips were cooked in animal fat because I had asked if they had anything veggie on the menu. Also know that many chippers use beef fat to fry the chips and usually have 2 pans so they fry fish and burgers etc in one pan so as not to blacken the grease in the chip pan. Think a lot of chippers get their lard delivered so many probably use the same kind of lard bought from the same company.

CWone

Went to Harry Ramsdon when it opened years ago on the Naas Rd and the girl working there told me that the chips were cooked in animal fat because I had asked if they had anything veggie on the menu. Also know that many chippers use beef fat to fry the chips and usually have 2 pans so they fry fish and burgers etc in one pan so as not to blacken the grease in the chip pan. Think a lot of chippers get their lard delivered so many probably use the same kind of lard bought from the same company.

Peanut

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Chippers use two types of oil: vegetable shortening and vegetable oil.(both are a nightmare for heart health btw.)

Vegetable shortening with a lot of saturated or hydrogenated fat, sure, but I don't think it's fair to label something like rapeseed/sunflower/sesame oil as a health hazard when it's consumed in normal quantities. (It's thought that Hempseed oil is one of the best in terms of Omega 3/6/9 balance, a bit expensive though.)

Although I think you might be referring to commonly used palm oil which does have a lot of saturated fat.

El_Dangeroso

Peanut wrote: »

Vegetable shortening with a lot of saturated or hydrogenated fat, sure, but I don't think it's fair to label something like rapeseed/sunflower/sesame oil as a health hazard when it's consumed in normal quantities. (It's thought that Hempseed oil is one of the best in terms of Omega 3/6/9 balance, a bit expensive though.)

Although I think you might be referring to commonly used palm oil which does have a lot of saturated fat.

All liquid veg oil that is high in omega 6 (hemp is 55% omega 6) is bad for you and we have no history of consuming it before the 21st century so I'm not too sure what you mean when you say 'normal' quantities.

Having said that anything that's deep fried is bad for you given the high sustained temperatures which would damage any fat, but omega 6 is particularly vulnerable to oxidisation.

Peanut

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

All liquid veg oil that is high in omega 6 (hemp is 55% omega 6) is bad for you and we have no history of consuming it before the 21st century so I'm not too sure what you mean when you say 'normal' quantities.

Ok don't want to derail the thread but you originally generalised to "vegetable oil", not just those high in Omega 6. Sesame oil is a useful oil for frying and has been in use since antiquity. Rapeseed/Canola oil has a lower Omega 6 ratio and is in common use.

I know that excess Omega 6 is associated with negative health consequences, however it's not quite fair to give the impression that it's somehow more dangerous than saturated fats. The question is likely to be more complex considering the contradictory results from studies. (wiki entry)

McDonald's Ireland claim that the oil they currently use is a high-monounsature blend of sunflower and rapeseed oil. I know a lot of those places used to have large blocks of hydrogenated oil that they'd use instead.

http://www.mcdonalds.ie/our-food/oil.aspx

(On topic, their oil page says "And because we only use 100 per cent vegetable oil to cook our food, vegetarians and vegans can enjoy a tasty McDonald’s treat too!", but the small print in their nutrition chart says "No products are certified as vegetarian." lol....)

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Having said that anything that's deep fried is bad for you given the high sustained temperatures which would damage any fat, but omega 6 is particularly vulnerable to oxidisation.

Agreed that overused, overheated smoky oil is never good.

El_Dangeroso

Too late.. thread derailed.:p

Sesame is not really traditionally a cooking oil (possibly with the exception of parts of india, but even then more often used as lamp oil traditionally) more of a condiment, where the natural vitamin e present is more than adequate to protect the delicate fats when used cold.

In any case I was more referring to industrially extracted seed oil that uses hexane gas in the manufacture as being particularly troublesome.

BTW saturated fat is far healthier than polyunsaturated, but explaining why would require de-constructing about 40 large cohort studies and about a 40 page back and forth thread which I'm a bit too tired to do at the moment so take my word for it.. or not.

Peanut

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

In any case I was more referring to industrially extracted seed oil that uses hexane gas in the manufacture as being particularly troublesome.

Yeah, it's a shame that unrefined seed oils are not a bit cheaper/more easily available.
They usually taste far better too.

This stuff seems pretty good, also the unrefined sesame oil from Meridian is nice for stir fries/falafel.

El_Dangeroso

I wouldn't be crazy about canola tbh, even pressing it causes a large amount of heat and considering that it's 20% polyunsaturated fat, that means a considerable amount of oxidisation is induced by pressing. Never mind that it's GMO crop developed by Monsanto, but that's a matter of personal bias rather than hard evidence.;)

Peanut

Slightly off-topic again but this Spanish study may be of interest:

Fried food 'fine for heart' if cooked with olive oil

...None of the adults had any sign of heart disease at the start of the 11-year study, but by the end of it 606 heart disease events and 1,134 deaths had occurred.

When the researchers looked at these heart events in detail, they could find no link with fried food in the diet.

This, they believe, is down to the type of oil the food is cooked in.

Doesn't quite exonerate highly processed polyunsatured oils as El_Dangeroso points out, however it's nice to know that there are perfectly good alternatives to hard blocks of lard :pac:

El_Dangeroso

Peanut wrote: »

Slightly off-topic again but this Spanish study may be of interest:

Fried food 'fine for heart' if cooked with olive oil



Doesn't quite exonerate highly processed polyunsatured oils as El_Dangeroso points out, however it's nice to know that there are perfectly good alternatives to hard blocks of lard :pac:

Oh god that study is junk science at it's best. They did a food frequency questionnaire first of all which are notoriously inaccurate. Secondly they found no association with any type of fried food so that doesn't indict lard and it's hilarious the mental gymnastics they go through to justify these things.

Also don't forget that the Spanish are not at all afraid of saturated fat, hence the Spanish paradox.

rubadub

What would be the best practical way to go about making chips. I was thinking coconut oil. I know repeated high heating is not advised. I have a fryer which can heat to low temps starts around 60C. I know some chefs recommend heating in oil at only about 100C, then let them cool and put them back in at a higher heat.

I was thinking I could cook at 100C in my coconut oil, take them out and then just bake them, they will probably have taken on enough oil. I am guessing this would not effect the coconut oil as much (i.e. the oil in the fryer being repeatedly heated/cooled), and it will probably look a bit cleaner as there will be no burnt bits. Coconut oil is fairly expensive so I do not want to be wasting it. I could also make potato slices, and after being in the fryer just pan fry them rather than bake.

Sweet potatoes might work OK too.

Peanut

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Oh god that study is junk science at it's best. They did a food frequency questionnaire first of all which are notoriously inaccurate. Secondly they found no association with any type of fried food so that doesn't indict lard and it's hilarious the mental gymnastics they go through to justify these things.

Sure - I wasn't suggesting it implicated saturated fat - merely that it didn't suggest anything significantly problematic with frying in vegetable oil. The whole point of the study was not to demonise saturated fat, but to look at health concerns with frying in general. I'm not sure why you think they would have some sort of vendetta in terms of going to lengths to do this, apart from the fact that olive oil was the primary frying oil surveyed.

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Also don't forget that the Spanish are not at all afraid of saturated fat, hence the Spanish paradox.

"Paradoxical" because the assumption is that increased saturated fat consumption over this period would have increased risk of coronary heart disease. Their explanation suggests that this risk had been offset by other positive factors - they don't suggest that there wasn't a risk from increased saturated fat consumption:

This paradoxical situation can be explained by expanded access to clinical care, increased consumption of fruit and fish, improved control of hypertension, and a reduction in cigarette smoking.

El_Dangeroso

Ah yeah, I wasn't citing that paper as proof of anything, more than Spanish people like their animal fat is all! You did mention that sunflower would be better than a block of lard in a prev post.. just sayin!