Posted on 12/12/2010 8:45:11 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Any FReepers using lard in cooking or baking?
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Makes the best pie crusts. For those carrot pies.
Can’t make refried beans or biscuits without it.
There are a lot of comments and advice in the comments sction below the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard
As you can see, while lard has lower saturated fat than butter, it has higher saturated fat than every other comparable substance. 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.
That picture is why I went and looked up info on Lard. LOL!
All the time... Again in pie crusts it’s fantastic.
I think they imported the models. Surely they are not Britons.
We use three fats for cooking...all are healthy.
Coconut Oil
Lard
Butter
Coconut Oil is very healthy. We use it for most everything in cooking. We use lard for pie crusts...makes the best and is healthy. Butter is good, a little mixed with coconut oil when frying eggs adds health taste. Butter itself is healthy.
The polyunsaturated fats, vegetable fats from corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil etc should never be used for anything.
Olive oil should not be used for cooking...it is ok for salads, or for dipping bread in.
“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.
Might as well expand the process and make some Lard Soap, waste not want not.
I strain and freeze bacon fat, use it for fried potatoes and such.
It’s actually impressive how you managed to fit so much disinformation into one small space.
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.
I use rendered duck fat quite a bit. It’s pricey, but you can pick it up at specialty stores and it lasts for quite a long time.
Makes excellent hash browns.
I lost fifteen pounds when I added naturally occurring fats back into my diet and got rid of “low-fat” and “FAT-FREE!!!” products.
My brother has a relationship with an excellent butcher, we might be able to try this.
Thanks Red_Devil 232! Lard makes the best pie crusts, is not hydrogenated, and is at least as good for a body as butter.
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