Good Phats Cooking Range Review
Ghee, Beef Tallow & Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Posh Fats for Muddy Folk
If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d be getting excited about cooking fats, I’d have laughed, tipped another glug of bargain-bin vegetable oil into the pan, and cracked on. Cheap, cheerful, and vaguely edible, that was the standard.
But, like tyres, boots and waterproofs, you don’t realise how mediocre your old setup was until you try something better.
Enter Good Phats, with their range of Organic British Grass-Fed Ghee, Organic British Grass-Fed Beef Tallow and Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Now, before I wax lyrical, a bit of honesty. I came across these on a sample table at a food and drink show I attended earlier this year. They weren’t samples specifically given to me for review, and Good Phats certainly weren’t expecting an article. However, I enjoyed using them so much that I decided they deserved one anyway.
Ghee & Beef Tallow – Proper Cooking Fats
I’ve lumped the ghee and beef tallow together because, although they’re different products, they serve a similar purpose in my kitchen: both are fantastic for cooking at higher temperatures and both add considerably more flavour than the anonymous vegetable oil I used to reach for.
Ghee is essentially clarified butter, with the milk solids removed. It melts quickly, has a lovely rich, buttery flavour and is particularly good for frying eggs, meat and pretty much anything else you’d normally throw in a frying pan.
The beef tallow is even more my sort of thing.
There’s something wonderfully old-school about cooking with beef fat. It’s particularly good for steaks, burgers, roast potatoes and anything where you want that deep, savoury flavour and a properly crisp finish.
And chips cooked in beef tallow? Good grief.
Both are also convenient for camping and overlanding because they don’t require the same refrigeration as butter and are easy to scoop, melt and use.
There are downsides, of course. Neither is particularly cheap, and the tallow is solid at room temperature, so you need to give it a moment in the pan before it gets going.
But that’s hardly a hardship.
Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil – The Everyday One
The Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil is probably the most familiar of the three, but it’s a world away from the bland supermarket stuff I’ve used for years.
It actually tastes of something.
There’s a fresh, slightly fruity flavour with a pleasant peppery kick, making it ideal for drizzling over food, dressings and everyday cooking where you don't need seriously high temperatures.
It’s the sort of thing that can make a very ordinary meal feel like you’ve made an effort.
And sometimes that’s all you need.
So, Are They Worth It?
Well, I certainly think so.
This isn’t about turning every camp meal into some sort of Michelin-starred production. When you’ve spent all day driving muddy lanes, wrestling with a tent or generally getting filthy, there’s nothing wrong with throwing a steak in a pan and getting stuck in.
But cooking it in something that actually adds flavour rather than simply preventing it from sticking makes a surprising difference.
Good Phats aren’t the cheapest way of cooking, but they are good-quality products that I’ve genuinely enjoyed using. The beef tallow in particular has become a firm favourite.
And that’s probably the best recommendation I can give them.
Nobody asked me to review these. I just liked them enough to write about them anyway.
Sometimes the best reviews are the ones you weren’t planning to write.
Website: https://goodphats.com/
Breakfast on a tailgate, anyone?
