Little Brook folks like lard. There, I said it. (Side note: anyone thinking about Tina the llama?)
Llamas and social prejudice aside, isn’t there something cool about turning pork fat (that would otherwise be wasted) into a healthful, delicious cooking ingredient? And I won’t bore you with lard health facts: There are plenty of articles if you’re interested in that. And honestly – who’s going to believe me if I say it’s healthy? ‘Bout the best I can do is tout its deliciousness.
Firstly: let me give a quick explanation of what this stuff is for the uninitiated. Lard is rendered (slowly melted) pig fat. This separates the oil from the substance of the fat. Think bacon and bacon grease… but really low and slow and not bacon-y.
So anyway, I make lard:
a) when I am inspired to
b) when we need more
c) when we run out of freezer space
This last batch was the latter case. Necessity is the mother of lard. It also is the cause of these two pots of broth bubbling on our stovetop.
The motto of this past week has been “CONSOLIDATE!”. Did I mention we have four pigs coming back from the butcher next week?
Here’s how I make lard. You’ll see all sorts of recipes describing “perfect”, “snow-white”, “odorless”, “pure” lard. I kind of get the impression I could use it for styling mousse.
But perfect lard is a little over-rated. If you want to use it in pastries, be careful to try to make it as un-porky as possible. But for most cooking needs, a little extra flavor is welcome. It’s just not technically “perfect”.
And in that sense, the stars did not align for this batch.
So here’s the fat we’re using up. As you can see, it’s back fat. (First star out of alignment.) Back fat comes from the body of the pig and sometimes has streaks of meat (cut these out), while leaf fat comes from around the kidneys and makes a purer lard.
Once again, back fat makes a nicely flavored lard. Just don’t expect if to taste like butter.
Next, chop into tiny pieces, being careful to remove any meat from back fat or the plastic-wrap like coating of leaf fat. Second star gone wonk. I was hurried – what can I say? These are less than perfect: rather large, not thoroughly picked through.
Heat ’em up! I’ve usually used a crock-pot on low. This was my first batch in the oven. I set it at 300. In retrospect, I would have stayed at 300 until it was all hot (for food safety) and then turned it down to 250 or 275. Furthermore, the next time I baked in the oven, it was majorly smokey. So I would prefer to use a crockpot, but it was broken – yet another unaligned star.
Next step: Forget about it. You know it’s done when you smell burnt pork.
Ha ha, just kidding. Ideally you should monitor it, stirring as needed. It’s done when the chunks of pork are mostly melted and starting to get little and almost crispy.
I chose to forget about it. However, it turned OK; it was just a little burnt porky. Glad I smelled it when I did, though! : )
Strain into jars. Technically you don’t need to filter it, but I did just to get some crisps out.
This was left over! They should be whiter and less crispy. These can be made into cracklings.
The lard in its warm liquid state. Pretty soon it will cool down and become firmer and whiter. We store it in the fridge and use it up within a year. I’d love to have the guts to store it on the counter, as is reported to be acceptable.
Porcine goodness!