How to render lard

Lard. I have to admit that for most of mylife that I’ve been terrified of the stuff. Be it schoolyard tauntsthat used the word, or the absence of it at both the grocery store andin my childhood home—I believed that it was bad news and something tobe avoided.

A few years ago, I embarked on a quest to teachmyself how to make flour tortillas. The first recipe I found listedlard as a key ingredient. I was scared at first, but I sought out apound of it as my love for flour tortillas triumphed over my fear ofpig fat. And while that initial foray into flour tortillas provedfutile, I did discover that lard isn’t so bad, in fact, often it’s mypreferred fat of choice.

People think that cooking with lardwill make everything taste of pork, but this is not true; its flavor isneutral. What it does, however, is create incredible texture andstructure. With lard, you’ll fry chicken that is both moist and crisp.With lard, you’ll make a tender pie crust that flakes. With lard,you’ll make airy French fries that crunch. With lard, you’ll cookrefried beans that caress your mouth like velvet. With lard, you’llsteam tamales that are soft and fluffy. And with lard, you’ll bakeginger cookies that snap.

Butthe best thing about lard is that it’s not bad for you. It has lesssaturated fat (the bad fat) than butter, while it also has more thantwice as much monosaturated fat (the good fat) than butter. And it hasnone of those pesky trans fats—that is, if it hasn’t been hydrogenatedto prolong its shelf life.

And that, my friends, is the problem.Most lard you find at the grocery store has been hydrogenated to makeit shelf stable indefinitely, which robs it of its good qualities. Somebutchers will sell freshly rendered lard that has not been hydrogenated(clue: if it’s not refrigerated than it’s not the good kind of lard),but it’s also quite simple to render it yourself.

Foryears, I heard stories about how difficult and malodorous thelard-rendering process was. My opinion changed, however, after a visitto my grandparents’ farm last August. As we were looking through oldfamily albums, I found a fantastic photo of my great-grandfatherstanding outside stirring a large cauldron with a long stick. Thecaption? “Dad rendering lard. Dec. 1940.” It seems that lard was thefat of choice for both my grandparents growing up, and when I lookedthrough some old family recipes, I saw that indeed many of them calledfor that fat.

When I returned to New York I decided it was timeto render my own lard. And after a visit to the Union SquareGreenmarket to pick up some pig fat, I was well on my way to being inhog heaven.

If you’ve never rendered lard before, trust me, it’svery, very easy. And the best thing is that when you’re done you canlook at your supply of white, luscious fat and have a blast dreaming ofthe culinary possibilities each jar contains.


How to Render Lard
What you need:
Apound or so of pig fat, either leaf lard or fat back. Leaf lard is thebest grade of lard and is preferred for pastry, while fat back is thenext-best grade of lard and is appropriate for frying. Each pound offat will yield about a pint of lard.
A big pot
A lard stick (though a wooden spoon will suffice)
Some water
Some containers—Mason jars work nicely.

What to do:
1. Open your kitchen window.
2. After buying your fat, preferably from a farmer or butcher that treats its hogs humanely, chop it up into little pieces.
3. In a Dutch oven or heavy, large pot, add about a half of a cup of water to the pot, and then add the cubed fat.
4. On the stove, heat the pot on medium low, stirring occasionally (every 10 minutes).
5.After the fat starts melting (about an hour), you’ll hear some veryloud pops. Do not be alarmed—that is just the last gasp of air andmoisture leaving what will soon become cracklings (little fried piecesof pork). Now is the time to start stirring more often.
6. Soonafter, the cracklings will start floating on the surface. Keep stirringfrequently, but be careful—you don’t want the fat popping out of thepot and burning you.
7. When the cracklings sink to the bottom, the lard has been rendered.
8.Let it cool, and then pour it into containers through a colander orstrainer lined with cheesecloth. The cracklings will be left behind inthe cheesecloth and these make for a fine, fine snack, especiallysprinkled over salad if that’s not too perverse for you.
9. The lard will be a yellowish liquid. This is what it’s supposed to look like.
10.Refrigerate it overnight and when it solidifies it will turn white. Itwill keep in the refrigerator for about three months, and the freezerfor up to a year. posted by Homesick Texan at 10:31 AM