The Pioneer Couple Renders Lard

As recent meat-eating converts, we believe that using every part of the animal is a pretty good practice to maintain.  It reminds us that the life that was lost was sacred and important and should be fully appreciated. So we are  becoming accustomed to using bones in stock, cooking interesting cuts of meat, and-last weekend's adventure- usefully using animal fat.

Biscuits before the oven. 

Now, this may sound a bit crazy. After all, isn't lard unhealthy? Well, actually, if a fat or oil needs to be used, lard may be a great option. 

Lard has less saturated fat and less cholesterol than butter.  It also contains fat soluble vitamins and lacks any trans fat. It can be less prone to rancidity than oils.  If you source lard from local farms, you are supporting local agriculture, avoiding GMOs in oils like canola, and getting more nutrients for your dollar. 

There's also a huge culinary benefit to lard.  It has a high smoke point and holds a pastry together in a completely different way than butter.  Traditional cuccidati recipes recommend lard with good reason!

It can be a frugal alternative to butter or oil. In this case, we spread out that dollar pretty far! Using lard over an organic oil was inconceivably cheaper! For half the price of a small bottle of decent olive oil, we made a gallon of rendered lard. 

Here's how we did it. 

1. We bought lard from a pig farmer at the market on Saturday. Frozen and just-off-the-pig, it looks like this. 

Not exactly sexy, but less gross than you'd think.

2.  Sometimes it comes ground, but ours was in chunks. We took some time to cut it into pieces of one inch or smaller. And then tossed it in the crock pot on high and waited. We were warned that there would be a strong odor, but our wise farmer insisted this was uncommon in well-cared-for female pigs. 

3.  Slowly, the lard begins to liquify and chunks that look like ground beef seperate from the liquid. These are called cracklings and were very popular in their day. This took several hours, but we were regularly opening it out of curiosity. 

Still not sexy, but also, still not that gross.

4.  Several hours in the crock pot later, we had liquid lard. We strained out our cracklings and poured the liquid into ball jars. It was surprisingly clear. Apparently, this is a time sensitive matter- if you could until JUST liquid, you have a whiter, less pork smelling lard.

Getting there!! 

5.   After it cooled, it turned milky white. The last jar does smell vaguely meaty, but nothing that I think you'd notice if you weren't looking. We used it tonight for whole wheat biscuits. The difference was pretty obvious- a less greasy, more juicy biscuit. 

Call me crazy, but I think THAT is a little sexy. 

So that is a story about the day we made lard. Have you expiremented with shortening alternatives? What have your results been?

Kitten Approved.