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.
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! :-)
ummm, nummy sounding.
I love a big bowl of pinto beans with sauted onions, garlic an green peas. I make a meal of it.
but your “light roux with lard and flour and add to the beans” sounds REALLY good - maybe with bacon fat if you have no lard on hand? or some fried salt pork bits?