I think that almost everyone knows that margarine is bad for you, though most people probably don’t know just how bad.  In the kosher kitchen, women often feel that whether it’s healthy or not, they don’t know what else they can use for baking.  Others argue that the cheapness of margarine justifies its use, but I don’t agree. It is cheap – and I’m always up for a good deal – but it’s a false economy. By shopping carefully for the bulk of your groceries, you’ll be able to create room in your budget for the expensive high quality ingredients you can’t get cheaply.  We got rid of margarine and all so called healthy substitutes (eg. Earth Balance spread) a long time ago. The fun part is that it’s really easy and the healthy alternatives work just as well but taste better.

We use butter for dairy meals (I stock up when it’s $2 lb), and coconut oil for baking for meat meals. We buy two kinds of coconut oil – a) extra virgin raw, which still has coconut flavor – because of the flavor it is harder to use in cooking/baking; b) organic but with the coconut flavor removed – I use this for all baking, except challah, when I fall back on regular vegetable oil. I buy it by the five gallon bucket, and it’s not cheap (though it’s lots cheaper than by the little containers in the store), but I think it’s worth the price for our health – it’s a major factor of why I can now consider the baked goods we eat to be in the ‘good for us’ category.  It seems we keep going through this faster and faster all the time. 

We use extra virgin olive oil for salads, not much else. When I roast a chicken, I save the gravy in a container in the fridge, and the fat at the top that congeals is shmaltz – great for frying veggies for a meat dish, and the gravy that congeals below the fat is a delicious addition to grains or stews. I do the same thing with lamb and beef, but I use those less often.

Several months ago, an email friend who follows similar nutritional guidelines that I do recommended another high quality oil to me – palm oil.   I started to look into it, discovered that there are actually two kinds of palm oil – palm kernel oil, and palm fruit oil.  The palm fruit oil has a stronger flavor and color, and I was looking for something that would be a good substitute for the regular coconut oil – specifically, with a bland flavor for baking.  Palm kernel oil was the solution.  I began researching buying it in bulk quantity (it seemed pretty expensive to me to buy in the 24 oz tubs in the health food store) but didn’t see it through – the company that had it certified kosher didn’t answer their phones, and the emails I received in response to my pricing queries weren’t clear.  So I put it on the back burner.

But then I finished my bucket of regular coconut oil, and was dismayed to find a huge price increase when I went to place my order.  So when I went to the health food store (somewhere I rarely go into), I bought several containers of palm oil.  If I hadn’t been tipped off about this by my friend, I would have walked right by it, because of the way it’s labeled.  It’s made by Spectrum, and marked as Organic All Vegetable Shortening – and to me, shortening is a word with only negative nutritional connotations.  But in spite of that, it really is just pure palm oil.   It’s pure white and flavorless, so it’s perfect for non dairy baking.  I went to the health food store on their 10% discount day, so it was a little under $7 for a 24 oz container.

Some of you may be reading and cringing at the thought of all that saturated fat.  Doesn’t everyone know that saturated fat bad for you?  Actually, it’s not.  If you want to start learning more about fats, what’s good, what’s not, and why, start with this link: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html.  It’s very helpful in dispelling a lot of the nutritional miseducation out there surrounding fats.

Avivah