The Kind of Fat to use.
Olive oil would be the best liquid to use if the matter of expense were not to be considered. Any pure, clear fat that is free of strong odor will answer. Many folk use mutton and ham fat, and say that they do not find the flavor of the meat in the articles fried; but others would discover the taste at once, and consider it disagreeable.
But the housekeeper will select the material she will use according to her taste and means; and attention may as well be turned now to the conditions which will insure satisfactory and comparatively wholesome fried food. In the first place, the fat must be perfectly clarified. Even the purest and sweetest butter must go through this process before being used for frying. Oil and lard, when pure, already are clarified. When the fat to be clarified is that which has been skimmed from gravies, soups, or the water in which corned beef has been boiled, it will contain water and other impurities. While there is water in fat the latter cannot be heated to a temperature suitable for frying purposes; and if there be other foreign substances present, such as particles of meat, gravy, flour, or starch, they will burn at as high a temperature as 345°, blackening the fat and making it unfit for frying articles of food.