A couple of years ago I made fried potatoes as a side when my sisters and husbands came for supper. My older sister remarked that they tasted just like mom’s even down to the crispy edges. I told her that’s because just like mom I cooked them in lard and finished them off with a little butter to brown them.
Everything tastes better when you use real foods. My mom and aunt always cooled with lard, butter, bacon grease and used whole milk. They lived to be 93 and 97 respectively.
My great great grandmother ( whom no, I did not know, but I did know and ate what her eldest daughter, my great grandmother made ) gave up lard, but she and everyone else who followed her, cooked with all of the other things you mentioned. AND THE FOOD WAS/IS DELICIOUS!
We save our bacon grease. Nothing better for potato pancakes or hash browns.