FATS AND THEIR ECONOMICAL USE IN THE HOME. 11 
frying. Rendered beef suet has no general use in this country as a 
table fat, but in Europe people with small incomes often eat so-called 
drippings on their bread in place of butter. These drippings are 
sometimes obtained from roasting or broiling beef, but in many cases 
are simply rendered suet. 
MUTTON FAT. 
Mutton fat, called also mutton tallow or suet, contains a relatively 
large amount of stearin and is, therefore, classed commercially as a 
hard fat. It is used in the manufacture of stearin for soap making, 
and small quantities of the more highly refined grades are used in the 
manufacture of toilet creams and other cosmetics. Edible mutton fat 
is now prepared in considerable quantities, the mutton tallow and 
mutton stearin being used as ingredients of lard substitutes and the 
mutton oil as an ingredient of the lower grades of oleomargarine. 
Mutton fat is eaten to some extent in most homes as a constituent of 
fat mutton or lamb and in gravies served with such meats. Mixed 
with softer fats it is occasionally used in the home for shortening and 
frying, but much less so than pork and beef fats. This, no doubt, 
has been due to the characteristic mutton flavor, which is unpleasant 
to many people, to the hardness of the fat, and in some degree to the 
smaller available supply. 
POULTRY FATS. 
Poultry fats resemble butter and lard in consistency, and recent in- 
vestigations show them to be as thoroughly digested as other fats of 
the same degree of hardness. That they are wholesome and pala- 
table is indicated by the fact that they are very frequently eaten as 
a constituent of gravies, broths, and soups. Many housekeepers con- 
sider poultry fat very useful and desirable in cookery, but the total 
quantity of poultry fats used in this manner is relatively small, owing 
to the limited supply. In the household small quantities are obtained 
in dressing and cooking fat poultry, but the only available commer- 
cial supply is that obtained from very fat birds drawn at the market 
for those who do not desire the excess fat. Chicken fat is the poultry 
fat most used for cooking purposes in the United States, as is 
natural, since chickens are the commonest table poultry. Goose fat, 
so well known in Europe, is used in this country chiefly by families 
of foreign birth or descent who keep to old food customs. 
OLEOMARGARTNE. 
A discussion of animal fats would not be complete without some 
mention of oleomargarine, called " margarin " in Europe. The term 
margarin was at first used to designate a mixture of fats, composed 
of such proportions of palmitin and stearin that it closely resembled 
