Just finishing up a slab of bacon, and the tail end of it is about 95% fat. There's about a pound of it. I'm thinking I could render, and have some smoky lard on hand. Yes or no? I've never cooked with lard, what could I use it for/in?
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Yes. The Answer is always YES!
Grind it. Then put it in a crock pot with about of water. Place on low and let it go all day. I filter it through cheese cloth and a funnel. Then you can put that into a stainless bowl and let it cool. Take out the lard, which will be hard on top. Discard the water. Flip it over and scrape the brown bits off the bottom.
Then you can reheat it and do it over again to get a cleaner lard. Or you can just reheat and put it in jars. Or you can chunk it up and stuff it into jars.
I make this all the time with beef fat for tallow. I make lard as well. The cleaner you get it, the less flavor it will have, but the higher the smoke point will be. -
Same as Spinaker . Lard is great in anything that calls for oil. In my house you can chose lard, bacon grease, beef tallow, olive oil, butter, peanut oil, and the occasional duck fat or chicken schmaltz.Comment
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Been wrapping Brisket in paper with rendered pork fat instead of beef tallow, and really like it over tallow that i used to always use. Like mentioned above, anything calling for oil, pork lard adds great flavor.Comment
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Indeed.... lard instead of tallow.... very very interesting. -
I watched Harry Soo conduct a four way brisket taste test by injecting at a cows normal body temperature of 101.5 degrees, between beef tallow, wagyu tallow, pork fat-pure lard, Ghee-clarified butter then soaked the paper after it's wrapped. Spoiler alert, Pork fat won for best taste according to Harry. I've also switched to pork fat when injecting and wrapping both briskets and tri tips. Give it a shot. Oh, if using lard, you'll need to add a touch of salt unless your using bacon fat.
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Use it for anything fried like everybody used to do until we were all hoodwinked.Comment
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Absolutely nothing wrong with Spinaker 's method at all. Just thought I'd mention I don't grind it and I do it stove top. Add a little water so it can begin rendering, and then render until all the water is gone. As the cracklin's dry out completely, I remove them from the mix. I'd say in a four hour process stove top, I've got my lard filtering through cheese cloth into Mason jars using a canning funnel. Man, that stuff makes awesome biscuits! I store mine in the back of the fridge. Keeps for months and months.Comment
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I don't have access to pork fat, but I'd like to render some lard. Would it pay to buy back fat to render? Last time I bought some for sausage, I paid like $3/lb. What's the return?Comment
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The fat I render for lard comes from accumulated fat cap trimmings from pork shoulders. If I'm not cooking a huge number of pork shoulders to have enough trimmed fat to render, I put the trimmings in a bag in the freezer until I have enough to do a full batch render. You could buy the fat if you need to... B
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I'e rendered both pork and beef lard.
It's awesome.
SweatyComment
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Good idea, but pretty much a total failure. Approximately 1 lb of belly fat turned into maybe 2-3 oz of lard. Much belly fat stuck to the bottom of the pot I used. Soaked for an hour to clean it.
This was the first belly I've gotten that had this large section of 95% fat at the end. Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.Comment
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For future, start saving fat in a vac seal bag and once you have enough to render a good batch, then go about it with a crock pot or low setting on the cook top. When I buy brisket or whole rib roasts, I always save up a few bags worth before I turn into tallow.
I realize pork belly may take a while to get enough, so you could always add in pork fat back as well from a butcher.
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I use lard in several things I cook. I seldom have enough trimmings to make rendering worthwhile. I just buy it at the store. It’s great to have on hand and once you get used to reaching for it instead of the cooking oil you now use you’ll like it. It’s taken a long time for lard, tallow, eggs , and cheese to get past the bad press they got several years ago. They are just fine to use and in many cases bring back that wonderful flavor of grandma’s cooking.Comment
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Biscuits made with lard sounds HEAVENLY!
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I make a mean bacon grease and peanut butter cookie...Comment
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Yes indeed! I’ve lived in England for some time, and I was surprised that it was easier to find lard in the grocery store than regular butter. It is very common, and great to cook with.
Lard -> pork fat
Tallow -> beef fat
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As recently as five years past, tallow (rendered beef fat) and lard (rendered pork fat) would have been "must avoid" fats based on advice from many so-called "authorities."
That's all changed, since more detailed research reveals that they both provide a foundation of healthy vitamins and minerals (especially "trace minerals") not present in most factory produced cooking oils.
Here's what appears to be a great summary article on both of them, including a "how to" for their production at home: https://pumpkincreekranchco.com/blogs/the-beef-blog/beef-tallow-vs-lard-pros-and-cons-explained
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