The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Next question: What’s the best fat to use? People often
tout the awesomeness of duck fat with potatoes, and for
good reason: it tastes awesome. Duck fat has a distinct
richness and aroma that gets absorbed very easily into
the surface of a spud. On top of that, it’s got plenty of
saturated fat and a high smoke point, which makes it an
ideal medium for crisping up fried or roasted foods. (In
general, the higher the saturated fat content of an oil, the
more efficiently it’ll crisp foods.) Can’t get duck fat?
Well, turkey fat or chicken fat collected from roasted
birds will do just fine.