Monday, January 18, 2010
Foods / Retail Reader in Search of Exotic Lipid
Posted by Nicki Wood on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:59 AM
For the third time since I started writing about food, a reader is asking where to find caul fat, the uniquely textured lipid from around animal kidneys.
click to enlarge
The lacy texture is ideal for holding together lean ground meat mixtures like meatballs or meat and rice fillings. A Persian meatball was exactly what the first requester was making when she called in the early 1990s. A local Southern girl, she was newly married to a Middle Easterner, and wanted to prepare a special dish. I didn't know where to send her -- even custom butchers didn't have caul fat. I don't expect she found it.
This week's caul request comes from the infrequent Bites commenter manintheyellowhat. Manintheyellowhat wants to make some multi-day, multi-step European thing that calls for pork caul fat, but beef will do. I saw caul fat recently -- I believe at the halal butcher shop in the strip where Elysian Fields meets Nolensville Road. But it may also have been at the Mexican-owned market on Charlotte, or the halal butcher on Thompson Lane near St. Edwards.
Anyone have a confirmed sighting of caul fat, beef or pork?
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