20240930 UNDERSTANDING FATS AND OILS
3.1: Understanding Fats and Oils Fats and Oils Fats and oils are organic compounds that, like carbohydrates, are composed of the elements carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) , arranged to form molecules. There are many types of fats and oils and a number of terms and concepts associated with them, which are detailed further here. Lipids In baking, lipids are generally a synonym for fats. Baking books may talk about the “ lipid content of eggs,” for example. Triglycerides Triglycerides is another chemical name for the most common type of fats found in the body , indicating that they are usually made up of three (tri) fatty acids and one molecule of glycerol (glycerine is another name) as shown in Figure 3. (The mono and diglycerides that are used as emulsifiers have one and two fatty acids respectively.) Figure 1 Composition of fats (triglycerides) Fatty Acids Each kind of fat or oil has a different combin...