but I'm glad you did!
Posted on 12/12/2010 8:45:11 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
You WHAT?!" said my friend, making the most disgusted face I've seen someone make in some time. I rendered some lard over the weekend, I repeated. "WHY on EARTH would you want to do THAT?!" she cried.
I wasn't surprised. North American culture is so fat-phobic we demonize some of the very foods that are best for us, and among those foods is homemade lard. The store stuff isn't worth bothering with; it's hydrogenated to make it shelf-stable. What I'm talking about is lard from the fat of well-raised pigs, not factory farmed pigs. To get it, you're going to have to make it yourself. Luckily, that's not hard.
What you don't know about lard
Not only does lard make the best pie crusts, it's lower in saturated fat than butter--if saturated fat bothers you. It doesn't bother me, in fact, the plaque levels in my heart have actually improved since I've started eating good saturated fats. (They've actually gone and looked, so I feel safe in saying this.)
Technically lard isn't even a saturated fat; it's a monounsaturated fat. And it's one of the best dietary sources of vitamin D. It also contains no trans-fats. If there's fat to be avoided, trans-fats are the ones.
Finding fat
The hardest part of making lard is finding a good source of pork fat. You're going to have to do a little digging, and it's important that you not just use any pork fat you find; you want to make sure the pig was properly cared for and fed right. Your average supermarket "butcher," and I use that term loosely, isn't going to have it; that pork is all factory farmed, and very few supermarket butchers cut whole carcasses any more. You may have more luck at a specialty market like Whole Foods, Wild Oats or the like, but be sure to inquire after the feeding practices.
If there is a farmer's market near you, look around and ask questions. That's how we stumbled onto our farmer, who is really in the goat cheese biz; he raises pigs on the leftover whey. We've bought two (incredibly delicious) pigs from him in as many years, and surprised the butcher by asking for all of the fat--and as much of the offal as we could get, but that's another article. Hey, we were paying for it. If you don't have a farmer's market, try EatWild.com where you can find farmers with good growing practices, and not just for meat.
Making it
Once you've found your fat, decide what you want to use it for. If you want it for pastries, try to find and use only the fat from around the kidneys--what's called "leaf" lard. I don't make much pastry, so I don't care about that.
Chop the fat into at least 1" cubes, taking any meat chunks off in the process. Some folks put it through a meat grinder. In any event, you want small pieces; otherwise you won't get as much fat out.
Heat your oven to 225°F. I use my cast iron dutch oven to render lard in. Put about a quarter-inch of water at the bottom of the pot; this keeps the fat from browning too much at the beginning, and it'll burn off in time. Add your chopped-up fat. Pop it in the oven for at least a couple of hours, stirring now and then. Eventually the chunks won't give up any more fat--it'll become obvious, the chunks will look the same after an hour as they did before.
As you're doing all this there will be a distinct smell. Some people like it, some people don't. It's a little too intense for my comfort, frankly, which is why I try to do a bunch of lard at once. If you can do this outside, or in a canning kitchen if you have one, so much the better.
Let the lard cool to lukewarm; while it's cooling is a good time to gather up your jars and lids and make sure they're clean and ready to go. There are various methods to filter out the bits of meat and unrendered fat--the cracklings--from the lard, but what I use is a paper coffee filter and cone. Ladle the still-liquid lard, skipping the bigger chunks, into the filter.
Refrigerate the lard and use it within a month. If you've made more than you can use in a month, it freezes well.
Using it
Use it anywhere you'd use butter or shortening: To pop popcorn (the best!); to make pie crust; to fry eggs. In some cultures it's even spread on bread, topped with onions and salt, and called a sandwich. As for the leftover bits, the cracklings? Salt them and put them on salads or just munch on them. Josie loves them. We got more cracklings than we could eat, so we fed a lot of them to the chickens and used them as doggie and kitty treats.
> “Science be damned, I suppose.”
.
What you’ve failed to pick up on is the difference between science and propaganda.
Science has shown that Animal fats, coconut oil, and nut oils are the way to prevent Heart disease, not cause it.
The pharma giants know this but do their best to cover it up, with the government’s help.
oh my!
but I'm glad you did!
.
Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, and anethol are what give the fruits their flavor. They’re called esthers.
The rest of that crap, I don’t want to know! (I don’t buy their garbage anyway)
I looked the rest of them up, and except for the last ingredient, they are all fruit flavors that do occur naturally in various fruits.
We used to make it all of the time when I was young and we raised hogs. Grandma would use nothing else for pie crust.
I’m not minding this rain - jus’ hoping the wild winds don’t bring any of the poplars down on the house.
Got my wood stove purring and a couple candles lit in case the power goes out - enough light to get to my kerosene lamps.
I just keeping telling myself: “I’d rather have 2 1/2” of rain than the 2 1/2 feet it would of snow - and high drifts. And it’s sure a lot warmer’n it has been for a bit.”
yep - love my coconut oil - and I won’t have nothing to do with a pork chop without it’s bone IN - AND fat intact.
Love that fat and chewing the bone.
You have to be OLD like me to remember this one, LOL!
Wow! Must have missed that one somewhere along the line. Music Man was my all time favorite, if you are looking to be dated, as in OLD, but that was 1962, and the stage musical was late 1957 so how did I miss “go chicken fat go”?
Thanks, metmom. I was concerned when I saw that post, because I use olive oil when cooking. We also use peanut oil. I’ve gradually weaned Mr. trisham away from canola and corn oil.
“Science be damned, I suppose.”
I am a scientist, ‘flint’, and there is no science behind you arguments.
One more article on coconut oil -
and besides, it tastes good.
Oh yes - lard fries the best chicken, and I use it in savory crusts, like for empanadas. I’ve never tried it in sweet pastry, though. I’ve always used the store stuff, but if this article had come out a couple of months ago, I could have gotten some from my pork guy at the farmer’s market. He’ll be back next year, though, with the same great meat.
I have used coconut oil in the past and bought a 7 lb bucket of organic unrefined oil about a year ago. I will have to buy some more! I had read that it was supposed to help the liver. My main purpose for buying it was to help one of my dogs "Aladden" who has canine epilipsy and has to take phenobarbatal every day to help mitigate his seizures. It does work, but over time it can cause liver problems.
I also make sure he gets Milk Thistle added to his food every day for his liver. The organic unrefined coconut oil is a food grade oil and retains the aroma and flavor of coconut. You can buy coconut oil that does not have the aroma and flavor and it is just as good.
“I’d rather have 2 1/2” of rain than the 2 1/2 feet it would of snow - and high drifts. And it’s sure a lot warmer’n it has been for a bit.”
True, and ditto!
Most of it is over now, got a TON of rain, but at least it’s good for the well!
“I remember my mom telling me they used to eat bread spread with lard during the depression.”
They still do in Italy. They use a seasoned lard.
I remember making head sausage...
***************
I have done the hog killing, lard rendering thing but I quit at making the head sausage. Yuck!
The Chicken Fat Song!
We did the exercises to it in Phys Ed when I was in elementary school! I guess I’m as OLD as you! : )
Chamber pots under the beds were only for use in the winter. If you had to go at night in the spring, summer, or fall, it was the outhouse for you. Kerosene lantern went with you if there wasn't enough moon to see by. Scary place at night.
Granny had a four room house, with a pantry that was turned into a bathroom later when she got plumbing. There was a stove that ran on what granny called fuel oil in the living room and a wood stove in the kitchen. Whatever heat the bedrooms felt came in from the kitchen or living room. Granny would heat bricks on the wood stove and put them under the covers at the end of the bed. Sure made your feet toasty. But if you had to go in the middle of the night in the winter, you dropped your feet on the cold rose linoleum, reached under the bed and pulled out the chamber pot (also with roses on it. My mom say a lady use one just like it at a fancy sit down meal decades later for a gravy boat. Mom said she just couldn't eat any gravy, she just couldn't!) and you would lower your poor bottom onto that cold china.....things were a lot harder then; but in some ways, a lot happier too.
My Dad and his three brothers were raised on a farm. When, as a child, we’d go up to the farm, Grandma Velma would make a huge pot of country gravy. Those of us that came up to the farm from the city watched with huge eyes our uncles cover everything and I mean “everything” in country gravy...meat, potatoes, sliced tomatoes, green beans. My uncle Richard used to put it on Grandma’s chocolate cake. I love the stuff; but that was too much for me!
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