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Posted on 12/12/2010 8:45:11 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Can't make Biscochitos (New Mexican Christimas cookies) without it as lard is what gives them their melt in your mouth texture and it's the best thing to season frijolitos pintos (pinto beans) with. When they are done cooking, you make a light roux with lard and flour and add to the beans. It thickens the broth and gives the beans a really good flavor.
When we lived in MN, there were little "mom and pop" meat markets everywhere, so finding good fat was easy. I rendered my own lard and tallow, and used the tallow for soap. The lard was used for cooking. Sometimes, I mixed equal parts of lard and tallow with coconut oil, and made the absolute BEST cooking fat I ever tasted. Unfortunately, this is not so easy to do here in Alaska. :o(
My mother used lard all the time and saved grease in a coffee can on top of the stove. Nobody can cook as good as mom heh.
“I strain and freeze bacon fat, use it for fried potatoes and such.”
My unruly hounds aren’t going to be happy to hear that! They LIVE for the rare day when they get bacon grease on their kibble, LOL! :)
Bacon fat fried chicken....Really!
Try it.
The Chicken Fat Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFofqe26t-4
You have to be OLD like me to remember this one, LOL!
“Go, You Chicken Fat, Go!” :)
It DOES make the best pie crusts.
I saw and read your earlier post and was going to post this on that thread but decided this needed a seperate thread.
Mine too, I share. :^)
“the recipe given in the article is practical”
I have to correct myself. The recipe given in the article on lard making is not practical if you are directed to go out and buy expensive pigs raised only on certain foods and then have them butchered professionally. That makes a $1 worth of lard more expensive than necessary. My grandmother rendered her own fat in her kitchen and my mother bought it in the supermarket. I have used the supermarket kind and it is fine. Just wanted to clarify this.
We rendered lard in culinary school as a demo project.
/johnny
This is from the blog, "Homesick Texan" and anyone that cooks, bakes, cans, should not find it difficult to make.
"But the best thing about lard is that it’s not bad for you. It has less saturated fat (the bad fat) than butter, while it also has more than twice as much monosaturated fat (the good fat) than butter. And it has none of those pesky trans fats—that is, if it hasn’t been hydrogenated to prolong its shelf life.
And that, my friends, is the problem. Most lard you find at the grocery store has been hydrogenated to make it shelf stable indefinitely, which robs it of its good qualities. Some butchers will sell freshly rendered lard that has not been hydrogenated (clue: if it’s not refrigerated than it’s not the good kind of lard), but it’s also quite simple to render it yourself."
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-render-lard.html
When I was young (ie 40 years or so ago), I remember we used to get small cans of lard that was supposedly purified or something; my mother used to make biscuits and pie crusts with it, and used it for cooking...maybe it was the Crisco brand? Can’t remember. I do remember her complaining about using some other product at one time that didn’t work, the biscuits were too crumbly and didn’t hold their shape.
Very interesting. I’ve learned quite a bit since Mr. trisham developed diabetes, most of which is at odds with what I had accepted as healthy during the last twenty to thirty years. The ongoing interest in and promotion of vegetarianism seems to be warding off any attempt to inject some common sense into the debate.
Most of the nation of Italy would disagree with you. As would Deborah Krasner, whose book “The Flavors of Olive Oil” won a James Beard award a few years ago.
I remember my mother and other relatives using ‘saltback’—big hunks of some salty part of the pig, just using regular salt doesn’t give the same flavoring for some reason—when they made pinto beans. Part of me is drooling remembering how good those beans were with some freshly buttered bread on a cold day! Yum! :-)
sorry, bread should be CORNbread!
Olive oil is fine for cooking. You just have to be aware that it has a lower smoke point than most other common cooking oils, and pay attention to what you’re doing and not overheat it.
I remember my grandmother making that. Used it for doing laundry.
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