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.
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.
“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.
If I recall, in a pinch, Snowcap Lard isn’t bad as a retail grocery store lard. I think Hormel is the packer.
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.
It is hydrogenated.
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
Sounds worth trying! I also brown ground beef in it.
I can’t believe no one has asked about the carrot pie yet. Maybe carrot pie is already a fav.
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
But even today, at least the Brits won't allow GMO’s
Who did the the kill, scald and scrape, and gutting? I've seen a pig killing that was kinda bizarre. Made me laugh, though.
Slice it thin like thick bacon and pan fry it like bacon and yuuuuummmmm! It was a treat when I was young.
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!
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
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.
Thanks for the Ping RD!
:’) I figured I’d just barge right in like a, hmm, bull in a china shop.
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.
> 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.
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