If fat cannot penetrate water, can fat flavor water? Why yes, it can. Aromatic fats have been used to make perfumes and even flavor alcohol. If that is the case, and aromatic fats can flavor water and water-based mediums like alcohol, then the fat used in cooking matters. The fat may not penetrate what is being cooked in it, but the aromatics of the fat and what is carried in the fat play a larger role than we think. That is why cooking duck legs in a third-generation duck confit fat tastes more duck-like. The fat is not penetrating the meat; its aromatics are. So, then is fat flavor, or perhaps fat is aroma?
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