For several years, a debate has raged (mainly on Twitter, now X) over whether animal fats are actually better for you than industrially processed ‘seed oils’. The debate has become more mainstream thanks to the efforts of the new US Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, who wants to Make America Healthy Again. His strategy involves a back-to-the-land style embrace of animal fats, particularly beef dripping.
The anti-seed oil community use technical-sounding terms like ‘linoleic acids’ to firm up their side of the debate but fundamentally their point is that our bodies have evolved to process animal fats rather than overly processed stuff. J.D. Vance doesn’t cook with seed oils, and last week, RFK congratulated the US chain Steak ’n Shake for switching the frying oil for its chips to beef tallow.
You don’t hear all that much here about beef dripping (as tallow is known) unless you happen to be in Newcastle or Yorkshire. It fell out of fashion for a few reasons: industrial seed oils were cheaper, more people became vegetarian, and BSE didn’t help beef fat’s reputation either. We also started to kid ourselves that we could make deep-fried foods somehow ‘healthier’ if the oil contained fewer calories.
The risk now is that RFK’s endorsement of dripping threatens to make the issue partisan. Are you a beef-fat boy or a seed-oil boy? But let’s put politics aside and focus on the most important matter when it comes to food – taste. The vital point is that food fried in beef dripping tastes better.
I visited Marlow Fish Bar in south London for research, which is one of a handful of London chippies that still uses dripping.
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