16 BULLETIN 469, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
When purchasing fats for table use it should be remembered that 
they influence the wholesomeness of the foods with which they are 
served as well as the energy value and cost. The price of table fats 
depends largely upon their flavor and to a less extent on color, and 
in selecting them each housekeeper must decide how much she can 
afford to pay for these properties, since all the edible fats have prac- 
tically the same energy value. In general it pays always to buy fats 
of such good quality that none will have to be thrown away through 
spoilage. In some instances a higher-priced article may be more 
economical in the end as, for example, clean, sanitary butter, as 
compared to a cheaper but less sanitary product. In some instances, 
where taste or flavor only is involved, a less expensive table fat may 
answer quite satisfactorily the purpose of a more expensive one. 
For example, the chief use of table oils is as an ingredient of salad 
dressings, and when a characteristic flavor is not especially desired, 
good grades of cottonseed and peanut oils, having a bland flavor, 
may be used, when these are less expensive than the corresponding 
grades of olive oil. 
Fats used for shortening influence the appearance, flavor, texture, 
composition, keeping quality, and cost of the foods in which they are 
incorporated. In selecting shortening fats flavor and odor are to be 
considered, but attractive appearance and color are of less impor- 
tance, since in cooking these are usually masked. Other qualities 
being equal, those culinary fats are more economical and desirable 
which possess the best keeping quality ; that is, the least tendency to 
become rancid. Also, for general use shortening fats give the best 
results if they are neither too hard nor too soft to be easily mixed 
with the other ingredients of the dough at ordinary temperatures. 
Fats used as a medium for cooking should be carefully selected, 
since they influence the flavor, appearance, and texture of the foods 
cooked in them, as is evident when one recalls the bad flavor im- 
parted to fried foods by burned or rancid fat. Preference should be 
given to a fat which does not scorch too readily at the temperature 
most commonly used for frying. Experiments in the laboratory of 
the Office of Home Economics indicate that butter and lard scorch 
at a lower temperature than beef or mutton fats and cottonseed, pea- 
nut, or coconut oils. For this reason, therefore, the latter fats are 
preferable for deep frying, which requires high temperature. 
Prejudice often exerts an influence on the selection of fats as well 
as other food materials, and these prejudices are often curious. For 
example, some persons who think that lard is not only indigestible, 
but also unwholesome, nevertheless enjoy bacon, which, of course, 
supplies pork fat in a different form. Such prejudices have little 
