The Healthy Fats Coalition interviews Andrea Chesman, a prolific cookbook author and editor known for her expertise in seasonal cooking, pickling, and gardening, including her celebrated work that showcases cooking with animal fats in "The Fat Kitchen."
HFC: In your view, are animal fats misunderstood? If so, why might that be? Is fat's reputation changing? If so, how and why?
Andrea: Animal fats are blamed for causing high cholesterol in Americans, but the science behind the blame is faulty. For an excellent analysis of the research, read The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. Every once in a while, new research appears retracting the ill effects of animal fats, but it doesn't seem to have much impact.
HFC: With a wealth of experience authoring over 20 cookbooks, what inspired you to write The Fat Kitchen: How to Render, Cure, and Cook with Lard, Tallow, and Poultry Fat?
Andrea: It's an important component of nose-to-tail eating and there wasn't good information on how to take advantage of the animal fats good local farms are producing.
HFC: How was the reception to authoring a cookbook centered around animal fats?
Andrea: The book received excellent reviews, but the myth of blaming animal fats for ill health effects has persisted, and sales have not been robust.
HFC: What are your favorite and most popular lard uses/applications and recipes?
Andrea: Lard is great for frying and tenderizing some baked goods. It is great in pie crust, resulting in a flakey, tender crust. When baking a lard crust blind (a single pie crust), there is far less shrinkage because lard does not contain water like butter does.
HFC: Could you share your insights on the advantages of cooking with animal fats compared to seed (vegetable) oils?
Andrea: Unquestionably, fried foods turn out crispier when fried in animal fat. Beyond that, it really is a question of health. Cold-pressed seed oils are fine, but industrially processed oils have all kinds of ill health consequences. When dieticians talk about ultra-processed foods, they should make it clear that they are talking about industrially produced seed oils, as well as the usual "junk" foods.
HFC: Do you avoid industrial fats and oils in your kitchen? If so, why?
Andrea: I always have rendered chicken fat in my kitchen because that is what I have access to. I render it in big batches, pack it into pint canning jars, and freeze it to keep it fresh. Then, I defrost as needed. It meets all my general cooking needs – and adds great flavor. I also stock cold-pressed virgin olive oil, which I use for salads and Italian dishes that call for that specific flavor. If a recipe for a baked good calls for seed oil, I swap in melted butter or melted chicken fat.
About Andrea Chesman
I write cookbooks and I also edit them. In fact, I'll do anything at all related to cookbooks and gardening books, including rewriting, ghostwriting, editing, indexing, proofreading, and Americanizing. Working as a freelancer gives me the freedom to work in the garden (and gives me the excuse to neglect the garden, too!!!)
Over the years, I've written quite a few cookbooks, and many are still in print. Two of my older titles, 101 One-Dish Dinners, and The Roasted Vegetable got an update with photos. Speaking of photos, The Fat Kitchen, which was published by Storey in 2018, is loaded with beautiful photos to showcase cooking with animal fats.
The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How came out in August 2015, and it has been fun teaching classes and giving demos supporting the book. Sometimes, I bring to these events some sourdough starter to share that has a pedigree dating back to the Yukon Gold Rush of 1896 -- and there are some great sourdough recipes in the book, as well as all the harvesting, preserving, handling information you might need if you grow your own food or shop from a farmers' market. It's like taking me home with you in book form!
The Pickled Pantry was the book before that, a big expansion of my very first cookbook, which was about pickling. I teach about making pickles, especially fermented pickles. I often write about seasonal cooking, and Serving Up the Harvest and Recipes from the Root Cellar are both very dear to my heart and contain many family favorites.
I took a break from vegetables to write 250 Treasured Country Desserts with my co-author, Fran Raboff, which came out in 2009. The book is an updated and expanded version of Mom's Best Desserts, which was an updated and expanded version of The Great American Dessert Cookbook. The collection contains everyone's favorite home desserts—lots of cookies, brownies, layer cakes, pies, old-fashioned fruit desserts, ice cream, and more.
The New Vegetarian Grill is an updated and expanded version of an earlier book about vegetarian grilling. I've also written about roasting vegetables (The Roasted Vegetable) and healthy eating (366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains). Then there are Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers, Mom's Best Crowd-Pleasers, and a few more that are now out of print.
My work has appeared in Mother Earth News, Edible Green Mountains, Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Organic Gardening, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine, Natural Health, and several other magazines and newspapers. I was a contributing editor for Vermont Life for twelve years.
I live in an old farmhouse in Ripton, Vermont, a very small town where early and late frosts make gardening challenging. The poet Robert Frost used to rent a cottage across the street and take his meals in our house, in what we now call "the Robert Frost Memorial Dining Room." I am married to Richard Ruane, a marvelous musician and recipe taster. Our kids, Rory and Sam, are also excellent cooks and enthusiastic recipe tasters. They serve as great inspiration for me.