I made lard!!

[tankgirl73]

With my latest order from our local, grass-fed beef farmer... they also sell pork products... I asked if it was possible to get some pork back fat for lard. They said sure! And they threw in 8lbs of big chunks of fat to my order, no charge!

Yesterday I took 2 pounds, chopped it up, put it on the stove, and rendered it. I ended up with just over 2 cups of beautiful clear yellow liquid (which solidified to creamy white) and a big sieve full of crispy cracklings. It seems to have worked perfectly!

So now that I'm confident with the method, I'll render down the rest and probably put some in the freezer to store. Making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving, eh?), got some nice pie pumpkins in our CSA box this week, so I'm all set for perfect pie crusts!

[cocobean]

You rock! Way to go!

[Kelilah]

Sounds just like making schmaltz! (Rendered chicken fat, also known as Jewish lard.) I looooooove my schmaltz, haven't tried it in a pie crust yet but am tempted to try it this weekend just to see how it works.

What will you do with your cracklings? The "cracklings" left over from rendering schmaltz are known in Yiddish as gribenes and they are absolutely the most delicious treat I've ever had. I like to sprinkle some on a salad, but I made cornbread with them once and that was good too; I think cornbread is the traditional Southern use for cracklings.

Does lard taste like pork, or is it more of a flavorless fat?

[tankgirl73]

Schmaltz is chicken fat? That's cool! I never knew that! I often refer to certain kinds of music as "schmaltzy", that's stuff that's really... uh... overdone, uh, kitschy, uh... hard to define it other than "schmaltzy" lol... But that's the use of the word as I learned it, I never thought to look into where it comes from. I wonder what the connection is lol...

As for the cracklings, so far I mixed them in with some homemade hash browns and that was quite yummy. I've never had them before so I'm just experimenting too... Apparently, yes they're a staple for cornbread, so I might try that. Scrambled eggs and hamburger are other things we might mix them in with.

For the taste -- lard is supposed to be completely flavorless. I find my jars have a slight porky smell, but just ever so slight. I don't think it will impact my pie crusts. But I will do a test pie tomorrow, just to be safe. Bacon fat -- which I use often -- does taste like bacon (soooo good in scrambled eggs... and actually I fried up the hash browns in bacon fat), but lard is tasteless.

[Marcee]

Sooo Cool!! Way to go.. I have always wanted to try to do this.

[Mama~Love]

I need to do this too. I have bear fat and pork fat to render. I've never done it before, and don't know what's involved.

Was it easy to do? I'm afraid of messing it up.

[limette]

I'm going to do this in the spring when our pig is butchered, using these instructions.

[Kelilah]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

Schmaltz is chicken fat? That's cool! I never knew that! I often refer to certain kinds of music as "schmaltzy", that's stuff that's really... uh... overdone, uh, kitschy, uh... hard to define it other than "schmaltzy" lol... But that's the use of the word as I learned it, I never thought to look into where it comes from. I wonder what the connection is lol...

Schmaltz is a very rich (saturated) fat; schmaltzy movies, schmaltzy music, etc. are the kind that you can only take in small doses before you start to feel queasy, haha!

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

As for the cracklings, so far I mixed them in with some homemade hash browns and that was quite yummy. I've never had them before so I'm just experimenting too... Apparently, yes they're a staple for cornbread, so I might try that. Scrambled eggs and hamburger are other things we might mix them in with.

For the taste -- lard is supposed to be completely flavorless. I find my jars have a slight porky smell, but just ever so slight. I don't think it will impact my pie crusts. But I will do a test pie tomorrow, just to be safe. Bacon fat -- which I use often -- does taste like bacon (soooo good in scrambled eggs... and actually I fried up the hash browns in bacon fat), but lard is tasteless.

Wow. I normally don't care for pork anyway and don't feel like I'm missing out, but as I put quite a lot into baking pies, I do feel like I'm missing out on the lard thing. And I live in a city that is obsessed with high-quality bacon. Oh well, I can't have everything!

Originally Posted by Mama~Love

I need to do this too. I have bear fat and pork fat to render. I've never done it before, and don't know what's involved.

Was it easy to do? I'm afraid of messing it up.

Bear fat! Wow!

Rendering fat is the same regardless of the animal, I think. I cut the fat up in chunks about one inch in size, and throw it all into my heavy cast-iron skillet. Turn the heat on medium-low and let it sit for awhile. It'll start to melt. Once it's about halfway melted, I throw on a handful of chopped onions (optional - I wouldn't do this with lard but it makes good schmaltz) and let it keep going. Make sure it doesn't get hot enough to smoke or burn. After 45-60 minutes you should have a skillet full of golden yellow liquid with little fried bits sizzling in it; those are your cracklings, gribenes, whatever you call them. Strain the fat through a wire mesh strainer and let it cool. It'll turn creamy white in the fridge, where you can store it for a few months.

Super-easy!

[Mama~Love]

Originally Posted by Kelilah

Bear fat! Wow!

Rendering fat is the same regardless of the animal, I think. I cut the fat up in chunks about one inch in size, and throw it all into my heavy cast-iron skillet. Turn the heat on medium-low and let it sit for awhile. It'll start to melt. Once it's about halfway melted, I throw on a handful of chopped onions (optional - I wouldn't do this with lard but it makes good schmaltz) and let it keep going. Make sure it doesn't get hot enough to smoke or burn. After 45-60 minutes you should have a skillet full of golden yellow liquid with little fried bits sizzling in it; those are your cracklings, gribenes, whatever you call them. Strain the fat through a wire mesh strainer and let it cool. It'll turn creamy white in the fridge, where you can store it for a few months.

Super-easy!

Thank you so much! We hunt bears, and got 2 this year, very delicious meat . We have it ground into hamburger mixed with beef, and it's so good. It's sweeter than beef, and oh-so-good!