It’s one of the few three-letter four-letter words, and Jennifer McLagan wants you to embrace it.

Fat. In all its many, wondrous and tasty forms, fat is the subject and title of McLagan’s recent cookbook. But it’s the subtitle that makes it clear where she’s coming from: ‘‘An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes.’’

You’ll need to put down your fat-free frozen yogurt for this one. The book, equal parts science, history and cooking, is divided into four simple chapters — butter, pork fat, poultry fat, and beef and lamb fats.

Each chapter walks the reader through the fat of choice. The butter chapter, for example, includes instructions for making butter and recipes for using it, such as brown butter ice cream and butter-poached scallops.

The pork section even includes an alluring recipe for spiced pork crackling (fried pig skin).

McLagan offers no apologies. As she says in the introduction, ‘‘Fat makes everything taste better, and eating fat is satisfying, so we eat less and our desire to snack is reduced. Enjoying our meals makes us happy and lowers our stress.’’

She almost makes it sound like health food.

BOOK: Jennifer McLagan’s ‘‘Fat,’’ Ten Speed Press, 2008