Okay ... I'd still love an article on practical paleo frying.

I have done a spot more reading and looked at some deep fat fryers this evening. I think the best I can do is a smaller fryer which has a removable inner skin where the dripping can be taken out of the main body of the fryer, or simple poured out into a smaller dish ... left to cool and then put into the fridge. Space is at a premium in my fridge!

Looking at the amounts I fry, a smaller fryer would suffice ... until it comes to fish and here is where I can do just that in a larger fryer (with oil! Urgh!) and do the paleo thing.

Traditionally, the fish was coated with a flour batter to protect the fish from the extreme heat of the frying fat without tainting it. Traditionally, the batter would then be cracked and the fish released; the batter discarded.

I reckon I could cook the chips/fries in dripping in the smaller frier, while cooking a flour battered fish in oil or even in the dripping afterwards while the chips are drained and distributed ... I can discard the batter, my wife might well eat it.

Now ... onto the other traditional accompaniment - mushy peas. That's marrowfat peas. They are boiled and then cooked to a near pulp. Not paleo, but tolerable?

J. Stanton said:

Chris:

Bodybuilding isn't about health: your body really doesn't want to be at 4% bodyfat.  Fat is our energy reserve against hunger, and Paleolithic humans were selected for surviving without food far more often than they were selected for ripped abs.  Furthermore, bodybuilders train for bulk, not for real-world strength: you won't find any hunter-foragers who look like Jay Cutler.  

So if you want to "get ripped", you're going to have to do some unnatural things to your diet.

(Yes, there are some people who are genetically gifted and look like an anatomy chart on any diet, just like there are some women who are natural E cups.)

JS

JS:

For sure - I was partly musing on a thought process that I went through during my trials (hell after doing it once my body refuses to do it again! Sort of.). It's not doubt unnatural. But that does beg to question. How low is unnatural? 6%? 8%? 10%? 15%? The "gold standard" 12%? I'd be curious to see what the results might be. Looking at "non Westernized" people, especially those who have had minimal contact with "us" - from their pictures I might estimate 10% or less for most of them. Perhaps. And then, while I'm musing a bit (stay with me), even though certain culture idealized the "big brawny" look and even iconicized it, like the Greeks, was there really the ability to big that strong, big, and bulky as Hecules, and others were described? (Ignoring the relativity of poorer classes, etc being rail thin). It's an interesting brain exercise - and I'm not even sure there's an answer to be honest.

As always, your thoughts are welcome, and always provoke me to think on the next level!

Paul Halliday said:

Thanks Chris - to be abolsutely honest, I've not been interested in potatoes so I have not made chips yet. I have found a really neat small fryer which has a 1 litre capacity (so 500ml fat) to do small portions. I can pour out the fat while it is warm into a container to store in the fridge between use.