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

The New Homemaker ^ | 2007 | Lynn Siprelle

[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.

[Red_Devil 232]

Same road with a fork in it!

The German potato salad recipe sounds good especially if there are stops for a beer included!

[TASMANIANRED]

Either a fork or a spoon, just so it gets betwixt the lips.

[Red_Devil 232]

Wow did not know there was a Kitchen Ping! Please add me to it.

Who could ever have gussed a Thread on Lard would have over 200 posts!

[editor-surveyor]

> “It uses mayo instead of oil”

.
Mayo is egg whites and oil.

Cheap mayo uses canola oil. (ugh!)

If you want something unique and healthy try using extra virgin coconut oil. It is a bit pricey, but really good for you, because its a high ketone oil.

[editor-surveyor]

.
> “Excuse me, you guys down here hear about the ongoing cholesterol problem in the country?”

.
Its mostly imaginary, and the myth was created by those that benefit therefrom: Pharmaceutical companies, and ruthless greedy doctors.
.

[editor-surveyor]

> “I strain and freeze bacon fat, use it for fried potatoes and such.”

.
There is one danger there: some bacon has nitrites added for a preservative.
.

[ladyvet]

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll check from now on.

[djf]

Never made my own lard, but always save my bacon fat!

On Thanksgiving day, I didn’t have a dinner. I had a thanksgiving breakfast, I had bought some pretty high-end bacon the day before, it was about 6 bucks a pound.

And worth it!!
Thing is, the fat, even in the fridge, is near liquid. Excellent for frying anything... mix a little bit in with a green salad... the possibilities are endless.

[Red_Devil 232]

Yum! Bacon drippings are just good with every thing. I like to use some when cooking green beens. Nice flavor and tasty.

[seekthetruth]

Lard in biscuits makes the very best biscuits! I have not made my own lard, but will be thinking about it now.

[mylife]

Sounds like a proper recipe!

[Joya]

Thanks.

[Joya]

Interesting.

[DJlaysitup]

My Grandpa once told me that during the depression his wife would make him Lard sandwiches for lunch. Yep, a slice of homemade bread, a slathering of lard, another slice of bread.

He lived to be a hundred.

[tubebender]

Who could ever have gussed a Thread on Lard would have over 200 posts!

Don't you mean GUSHED?

[BunnySlippers]

I use lard. It adds a lot of flavor to food.

[tubebender]

So What?

Did you know that.....

a typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake,
contains the following ingredients:

amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate,
benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil,
diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate,
ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin,
hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate,
lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate,
methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil,
nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

[Red_Devil 232]

Nitrates are in all plants, especially celery, beets, eggplant, lettuce, radish, spinach, and collard and turnip greens. They turn to nitrites when we digest them.

when these nitrate-rich vegetables are cooked and left to stand at room temperature, bacterial enzyme action (and perhaps some enzymes in the plants) convert the nitrates to nitrites at a much faster rate than normal. These higher-nitrite foods may be hazardous for infants; several cases of "spinach poisoning" have been reported among children who ate cooked spinach that had been left standing at room temperature.

You have to wonder how much they consumed. No wonder sweet pea was a strange child.

[editor-surveyor]

> “I’m allergic to wool”

.
Everyone is; its a foreign protein.

Some just react more than others.

[Ellendra]

We also tried store-bought lard for a while, but it had a weird aftertaste. Haven’t had the ambition to try and render it myself, yet :p