[Sca-cooks] cooking geese

[Avraham haRofeh of Northpass]

> For whatever reason, I'm not sure why, salted fats seem to break down
> more easily than  unsalted types.
>
> Having seen, smelled, and tasted such oil and fat, it seems to become
> rancid more quickly than unsalted fats under otherwise similar
> conditions.

Fats are hydrocarbons, mostly (there's some oxygen involved, but not enough
to really call them "carbohydrates"). Rancidification happens when hydrogen
atoms on the carbon backbone are replaced by metal atoms of various kinds.
Unsaturated fats rancidify faster than saturated fats because the double
bonds in the chain open and accept the metal atoms more readily than
actually popping out a hydrogen atom and replacing it. Nonetheless,
saturated fats will rancidify. Adding salt provides a ready supply of very
chemically active metal atoms (sodium is highly chemically active), which
will allow the fat to rancidify more quickly. I don't know if this is
equally true for unsaturated (i.e. vegetable) fats, but I'd be willing to
bet it is.

Avraham

*******************************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Northpass (soon to be "of Sudentur")
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)
RandomTag: Send Monopoly Money to your Favorite TV Evangelist.



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