“I have never used lard in cooking”
Lard absolutely makes the best pie crusts. My grandmother was an excellent baker whose pie crusts were extraordinarily flaky and light. She used only lard in the recipe. Lard has gotten a bad rap for a long time, and I would think that is because when solid shortening people came along, like Crisco, they wanted to make it seem like lard was old fashioned and inconvenient. My grandmother also made her own lard and kept it in a can under the sink. To this day, I pour bacon grease into a coffee can and place it under my sink, but for no apparent reason other than habit! My grandmother used the grease to fry with, but then again that generation was far more active than my own and a little bacon grease did not hurt you.However, solidified bacon grease does not make good lard because of the smoky taste and all the additives that go into bacon making. You could save that kind of grease in the refrigerator to use in frying. In making pot roast , browning the meat in a little bacon fat makes a tasty dish. But lard is a different matter and the recipe given in the article is practical. A good piece of advice I heard was this: Do not eat anything that you would not find in your great grandmother’s kitchen. Lard would qualify as acceptable.
We filter and save the bacon grease, but keep it in the refrigerator. We mostly use it for scrambling or frying eggs, although sometimes we use it on popcorn.
“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.
When my market has pork fat for sale I buy it and render the lard. And boy the crunchies taste so good.