Make Your Own Lard (Believe it or not, it's good for you)

The New Homemaker ^ | 2007 | Lynn Siprelle

[blackdog]

I used to farm sheep. After eating lamb stew in the winter, I never needed to apply chapstick to my lips. Granted, we made our stews from cull animals, usually too old to be true "lamb" at that point.

A well fed ewe in the 12 to 24 month range can be very fatty. An ewe at the age of eight to ten (old for a sheep)is not much but wool and bones. They tend to really pack on the fat until they wean off their first set of lambs.

[eartrumpet]

“It is also not exactly practical to make your own lard, especially if it is considered so important to monitor the diet of the pig.

Lard itself is available. This article is touting the merits of lard (debatable to say the least) but also suggesting that for the best lard you need to make your own. That’s just not practical.”

We know every bite our hogs have ever taken. And after we butcher one behind the shed, we render the lard. The original article seems pretty optimistic in the time involved, we usually let it render overnight at least. A large crockpot of roaster oven works even better than the oven. We pour it hot into canning jars, seal, and put it in the basement where it stays cool all year.

[blackdog]

If I recall, in a pinch, Snowcap Lard isn’t bad as a retail grocery store lard. I think Hormel is the packer.

[webstersII]

The original study that ‘proved’ saturated fats cause heart disease was done in the 50’s on rabbits. Not surprising the rabbits didn’t fare well on saturated fat as rabbits are not carnivores. The study was done by a researcher with an agenda (imagine that!) to show that saturated fat causes cardiovascular problems.

Here’s a good summary from webmd stating that there is no conclusive evidence of an association between heart disease and saturated fat:
http://blogs.webmd.com/life-with-diabetes-2/2010/06/is-saturated-fat-a-big-health-problem.html

As far as fat, calories consumed, and their influence on cholesterol levels and heart disease, there is lots of evidence from the long-term Framingham study that show no correlation between saturated fats and cholesterol level and heart disease. But that didn’t stop the lead researcher (again, a researcher with an agenda!) from ignoring his own data and saying he still believed there was a correlation.

See Framingham study:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cardiovascular-disease/framingham-follies/

Heart disease prevention has so much money tied up in it that there will always be people with an agenda. Sorting out the facts takes some extra work. Even the cholesterol-lowering drugs don’t reduce risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol, the drug makers themselves say that reduction comes from the blood thinning aspects of the drugs.

[Red_Devil 232]

It is hydrogenated.

[maine-iac7]

I won my ribbons for pies - I think largely due to my crusts - made with lard,

I grew up on a farm - where we raised the pigs - made the sausage, cured the bacon & hams and rendered the lard. - Well, my grammie & grampa did. don'y know's I'd care for the making sausage bit - ewwww

But I always use lard for pie crusts

[knittnmom]

Sounds worth trying! I also brown ground beef in it.

[bigheadfred]

I can’t believe no one has asked about the carrot pie yet. Maybe carrot pie is already a fav.

[The Great RJ]

If you have never had a lard pie crust you are missing a real treat. There is nothing to compare to the taste or flakiness. Chicken fried in lard is also great. No problem buying lard here in the Midwest its usually refrigerated in the dairy section. However in the Twin Cities the Somali checkout girl in a bhurka may have a problem running it through the scanner

[rockabyebaby]

Olive oil most certainly can be used in cooking, mainly to saute or stir fry meat or veggies, etc. but not for long term deep frying

[maine-iac7]

Obviously, the photo is from the ‘40’s - back before ALL our food was ‘contaminated”

But even today, at least the Brits won't allow GMO’s

[bigheadfred]

don'y know's I'd care for the making sausage bit - ewwww

Who did the the kill, scald and scrape, and gutting? I've seen a pig killing that was kinda bizarre. Made me laugh, though.

[bgill]

I remember my mother and other relatives using ‘saltback’—big hunks of some salty part of the pig

Slice it thin like thick bacon and pan fry it like bacon and yuuuuummmmm! It was a treat when I was young.

[tob2]

I remember very vividly my great-grandmother and grandmother using lard for baking and frying. The pie crusts were oh so flaky and tasty. The family did a lot of self-sustaining activities. Maybe making lard was one of of them. I do remember great-grandmother making her own soap, using lard. We had great looking skin!

[maine-iac7]

We use three fats for cooking...all are healthy. Coconut Oil Lard Butter

Bingo.

Just what I use - I also use grape seed oil - and I make ghee from my butter, making it even healthier - and no need for refrigeration, so spreads easily AND you can do a big batch at a time as it can stay good for 10+ years

[LatinaGOP]

I remember my mother and other relatives using ‘saltback’

My mom used salt pork in beans when it was available. I have a hard time finding it, but you're right. It is excellent in pinto beans. You still need the roux to season the beans at the end though.

[JDoutrider]

Thanks for the Ping RD!

[SunkenCiv]

:’) I figured I’d just barge right in like a, hmm, bull in a china shop.

[ladyjane]

You can’t make baked beans *without* salt pork.

We used to have fried salt pork sometimes too. Always with white gravy and sometimes with succotash. Hated it.

[BuffaloJack]

> Might as well expand the process and make some Lard Soap, waste not want not.

You joke, but the very first commercial soap manufacturing was commissioned by General Robert E Lee. Lee remarked that his troops smelled rather bad, because none of them had their wives around to make them soap. He ordered his chief of commissary to set up a factory in Richmond to make soap for the Southern troops. Making soap was always a task done in the kitchen with lard and other fat drippings by the woman of the house. After the war, the soap factory continued its production. There was small scale soap production by perfumeries and cosmetics houses, but that was a specialty item. If you wanted soap for bathing your family, you made it yourself.