Comments on: Rendering Lard: A First-Timer’s Guide

By: socoast

socoast — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:10:18 +0000

Leaf lard is from the area around the kidneys. It’s the best for pie crust. Hard to get, as the butchers will keep it for themselves.
Make sure you tell them you are expecting to get back your leaf lard!

By: donnchadh

donnchadh — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:34:06 +0000

Oh, I see so it’s like canning tomatos….you process the canned lard in jars. I am going to ask the meat manager at my grocery store if I could obtain some “leaf” fat so I can render it.

While I have never used lard for cooking yet, I have always saved bacon grease (in a can in the refridgerator) for cooking. It adds a great flavor when frying. I have a hard time digesting vegetable oil, and greatly prefer pig fat.

donnchadh

By: cpthegreat

cpthegreat — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:18:37 +0000

Hello, donnchadh – well, when the lard is canned, it is “safe” for storage, but when you open it, I think refrigerating it will keep it from spoilage much longer. It doesn’t actually “spoil” but does get an off taste after awhile if in the cupboard. “Leaf” lard is from parts of the animal that actually look like leaves. I am not sure where it comes from.

Lard does make a flakier pie, in my opinion. It might not be yours, but you should try it!!

By: donnchadh

donnchadh — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:59:46 +0000

As someone who has never rendered lard before, the canned jars of lard made in this story….do they have to be refridgerated to prevent spoilage? What is “leaf” lard?

Does using lard make for a more flakely pie crust?

By: pie crust « Cook. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

pie crust « Cook. Eat. Drink. Laugh. — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:28:11 +0000

[...] funky thing is that I will have to render the fat – never done that before. So it will be an [...]

By: clinton

clinton — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:15:25 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to mention Crackling cornbread and corncakes. Don’t feed all those cracklings to the chickens. You will never taste a better pan of cornbread or spread molasses on a better corncake than those made with cracklings. Use your regular recipe and leave out the fat that you normally would use and stir in a handful of the cracklings and proceed as usual to bake or fry up the cakes.

By: clinton

clinton — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:08:40 +0000

When I was growing up on the old farm we used a lot of lard. Of course all pie crusts were made with lard but most other baking was done with half butter/half lard. There was exceptions, all spice cakes, gingerbread and cookies were made with 100% lard. I don’t know why this was done buy boy I do remember how delicious they were. Mom’s favorite was Applesauce Spice Cake with Carmel Frosting. It was chock full of nuts, raisins and of course chunky homemade applesauce. It was fantastic and made with lard.

By: Chad

Chad — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:49:06 +0000

Great post! The farm I do some work for has lard that I could get, I’ll have to give it a try as I’ve never used it before. I’m wondering how it would affect the flavor or physicality of say, a pie crust.

By: simplefarmgirl

simplefarmgirl — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:45:31 +0000

I love baking and cooking with lard. We render down our own lard. I love the expressions I get when people eat home made stuff made home made lard. The fresh taste, nothing artifical..

By: Pat Veretto

Pat Veretto — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:02:53 +0000

Oh, my, that brought back some memories! I’ve rendered lard in the oven of a wood cookstove and kept it in a cold pantry. Speaking of pies, real (”homemade”) lard will make the best pie crust you ever made.