Praise the lard

We made lard Tuesday night.

It's the natural thing to do. When you have a pig processed, there is leftover fat. Render it, and you get lard. (Actually, the raw stuff is called lard, too, so I'm not sure how one distinguishes the two.) Over the years, lard has gotten a really bad rap as a horrific, artery clogging, heart attack waiting to happen. 

But, as with pretty much every other food that's been reviled for a time, it's back in fashion. An article in Food and Wine, "Lard: The New Health Food?" gives an entertaining defense of why lard deserves a comeback. I couldn't agree more.

In it the author, Pete Wells, talks about what food writer Corby Kummer had to say: "Lard, he cheerfully reported, contains just 40 percent saturated fat (compared with nearly 60 percent for butter). Its level of monounsaturated fat (the 'good' fat) is 'a very respectable 45 percent,' he noted, 'double butter's paltry 23 or so percent.'" 

Keep in mind, however, that REAL lard is what you want, not the processed stuff you get at the supermarket, which gets hydrogenated vegetable oils and sometimes other preservatives to make it shelf stable.

So, for anyone who (a) likes good food and (b) isn't clutching a can of chemical, highly processed yet nonetheless nonfat cooking spray to their chest just reading this, here's how you make lard:

1. Get some good pork fat from a butcher:

2. Find a strapping husband or other willing accomplice to cut it up small:

3. Put it in a roasting pan in an oven and cook for many hours or try a tip you read about in the Encylopedia of Country Living and microwave some in a bowl for 12 minutes:

4. Strain out the "cracklings," or bits of meat that remain after rendering, and pour the hot liquid lard through cheesecloth into clean jars:

5. Seal the jars:

6. Cool:

Easy. You have to read the article to learn about how fluffy lard makes biscuits, how flaky lard makes pie crusts, and how crunchy and light it makes fried food (in moderation, of course).

Or just come to my house and have a taste.

In other news, the goats are driving me crazy, although shortly after this picture was taken I managed to limit their free ranging somewhat. Until they outsmart me again.

The next best thing to lard in a jar is beer in a bottle. Batch number 2 is almost ready to drink:

I'm counting down the days. Next up: a honey wheat ale for the summer. My neighbor has already given me two pounds of honey from his own hives.

And, in between weeding and planting and hoeing the gardens and raised beds and cleaning out the goat house -- we finally had a non-rainy weekend, I had to make the most of it -- I also managed to update A Piece of Vermont Yarn and Fiber with some extra-fine merino top:

I named them after the seven heavenly virtues because the seven deadly sins seemed kind of harsh ("Sloth" is not a good name for spinning fiber) and because the Seven Dwarves didn't lend themselves to fiber as much as I thought. Who wants to spin "Doc"?

There are actually eight varieties in the picture, but I kept the one on the top left for myself. I'm almost done, but the color isn't right in this picture:

Now, I have to confess, as beautiful as the commercial merino top is, I'm partial to less-processed fiber. The closer to the sheep, the better. Which is why I picked up this yearling Romney fleece from a friend last weekend:

This one looks pretty special to me. Super-super soft. And the crimp seems especially fine for Romney:

Not that I'm complaining.

I just have no idea how scouring a fleece, brewing beer and continuing to make the most of the weather are going to fit into my short-term future. Especially with that job thing.

Which I need to go to right now.

 

 

Comments

[Bea]

yummm, lard, i want to try samosas or empanadas fried in lard... i love homemade beer, we have a friend here in AR that makes their own beer, it's so good, but it left me extra hungover the next day :)

[christina]

We've done the oven rendering before -- with a toddler, I found it easier to throw it in there and walk away for a few hours -- but not the microwave. I've also read about boiling it on the stovetop. Whatever way, man oh man does it make tasty pie crust!

[BeckyinVT]

For anyone interested I'm pretty sure most butchers have extra pig fat lying around...

It is the busy time of year! May and June are always craziest for me. These days I have multiple things each weekend, I have no idea how I manage to get the garden in and clean the chicken coop every year. Never mind all those other animals you have!

[Cynthia]

Jessie, do you need to process the jars? Or just put on the lids and close them up? And can it be stored at room temperature?

[martha in mobile]

We get beef fat from the grocery store and then render it overnight in a crockpot (in the garage). The whole place smells like "What-A-Burger." Ick. My husband uses it to make suet for the wild birds.

[alke]

Try FSM as I did last year. It's environmentally friendly and does not take much work, just time:
This one has a lot of great info in it.

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/fiber-prep/1092857/1-25

This one is a really long thread

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/fiber-prep/685730/1-25

This thread is about certain type of fleece but has FSV pictures click the underlined links they are not blue so just look for the underlines

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/raw-w...984765/1-25#19

[Meredith]

I have a black and white photo taken when I was perhaps not quite three years old...me staring in wonder at a huge black cauldron on a wood fire. In that cauldron was pig fat, being rendered down to lard. Every so often an uncle or great uncle would sieve out some cracklings and when they had cooled enough, pass them out to the waiting children (my older cousins, mostly. I refused to eat cracklings). In the late afternoon, Uncle Henry Gieseking would make sausage...about a ton of it, trying out seasoning with ground pork in a skillet on the scary old kerosene range until he was happy, then copying the proportions for the whole huge batch. By the time we kids went to bed, the kitchen was festooned with casings full of sausage. I'm glad people still do things like this, even if the proportions and the methods have changed a bit. (big smile!)

[Mommagail]

I grew up on lard. My maternal Hungarian grandmother used lard for everything. I didn't know that anything else could be used to fry in until I was in my late teens. But it's sooooo good in pie crusts. If I actually started using it now, my husband would throw a fit. Maybe I'll make it by asking the butcher if he has any extra pig fat. Unfortunately, or fortunately in this case, my husband lost his sense of smell so unless he comes into the kitchen to see he won't know what I'm making. But you brought back great memories. And your goats are a hoot. They remind me of our chickens who come to the back door if they're hungry for a treat.

[jessie]

I'm loving how many people were raised eating lard. (And that was before the "obesity epidemic.")
As for the goats, they are kind of a hoot, kind of a groan, depending on the day. But I forgot to mention in my post that when we propped the storm door open so we could bring many boxes of pork into the kitchen, two hens and a rooster followed us in. They know where the treats are. :-)

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnIrYT34PkbtyTx8GLe6vFfwUEVzhGv7Oc]

Homemade Lard! I love it. It sounds like it might not be too hard, but if you have any extra? I think it is the best in piecrust and it is rhubarb season.
I agree with you about the joy of a home processed raw fleece, but there is something nice about those snack sized home-dyed commercial rovings. I think of it as "take out" for my fiber obsession. I'm off to check those out!

[Abby]

Oh, yeah, that job thing sure gets in the way. I did not know those lard vs. butter facts. Must add "make lard" to my to-do list.

[Sylvia]

I've rendered chicken fat to make dish soap and soft soap for a pump dispenser, pig fat to make lard and lard-lye bar soap, and bear fat for the most ethereal pie crusts. Never was happy with the deer fat lard -- too variable. Always did it on the wood stove when making other things, the whole passive/extra heat method. Used potato peels to remove the animal/cracklings flavor after rendering. Sure do miss farm life...

Been playing with coconut oil lately, making a coconut-curry-cumin roux. It's one of the few fats DH can still have. Prefer lard!

[Andrea]

Uh oh, Jessie. My roommate will kill me if I start making lard in the house, but I'm so tempted now. It's the thought of lard piecrust that's getting me.

Also, re: work, I say we devote the entirety of one issue to food and drink, with maybe a little yarn thrown in for good measure :)

[Paul]

All this talk about pie crusts and not one person mentions the guns on your assistant! WTF!!!

[Erin N.]

In think thisnmay be the best blog post in of the internet. Lard. Goats. Beer. Yarn. For what more could one ask?

[noricum]

Lard is the only thing I use for pie crusts, but I must admit that I go to the grocery store. (Brand: Tenderflake.)

I plan on attempting to make soap some time (preferably before my stock of my favourite, discontinued soap gets too low), and I think some of the recipes for that call for lard too. I need to source the lye.

[noricum]

Oh, and the goats are just coming to say they love you. :)

[Liza Perrin]

Just ate your rhubarb pie with homemade lard crust! DELICIOUS!!!

[jessie]

A day of food, wine and yarn? I'm in.

[jessie]

Thanks for noticing. I'm kind of partial to them myself!

[jessie]

What can I say? I'm living the dream. :-)

[jessie]

If you can find a butcher, you might have some luck. But I hear pastured or at least farm raised pigs have better lard than factory raised. And more of it, at least in our case!

[jessie]

Thank you. Your timing was impeccable!

[Norma]

Your house must smell like a dream! Cooking porkfat, fresh sheepswool and brewing beer! I am salivating.
(I WILL NOT mention the buff hubby working in the kitchen in that list...I WILL NOT....:))
Great post. The colours of your fibre is delicious. I would rather spin DOC than SNEEZY, I think.

[Norma]

I grew up in the anti-lard camp, and I only had my first (that I knew of) lard piecrust maybe two years ago. IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST BITE. And yours would be clean and organic and beautiful and real. I too have the question about storage. Does it go rancid, do you maybe freeze it, or can it just sit at room temp?

[lynne s of oz]

Holy cow, DH is looking good! Look at those muscles 8-D
I read the same lardy article and found lard, 100% pig fat, in the local supermarket, right next to the beef dripping :-) It has a very different texture to pretty much any other sort of stuff I've ever used, including duck fat (mmm, potatoes in duck fat... drool)

[Sara]

I definitely want to know how sealed lard keeps too. At my house, we keep large emergency food stores, buying staples in half year quantities. Keeping fats, even oils, long term is always a problem without a cold room.

[Helen]

I always knew lard would turn out to be good for you. My great-grandfather was a butcher and cattle-dealer and lived to be 95: would have lived longer if his wife hadn't died. He must have eaten enough fat to stop a train. My great-granny had many children and always had wet-nurses, had no time for women who disapproved: I often think how happy someone must have been to get a job as a cattle-dealer's wet-nurse, all the beef and fat and cream she could eat :)

I had pork pies last Xmas made with Italian lard, just bliss. The pastry was better than the filling.

I hope you don't throw away the cracklings.

[haley]

Growing up, my mom always saved bacon grease in the same way. After she made bacon, she strained through a cheesecloth into a jar and voila. Extra flavoring for foods. Very yum.

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