We were afraid that lard-rendering was a difficult process, but really it was quite simple. First, we sliced up the raw lard. Everything we read said it should be cut into tiny chunks or even grated, but we were lazy and decided to see if the slices would work. (It seemed to work just fine.) We also removed any wonky bits - veins and bits of flesh and sinew - and fed those to the chickens.
Clearly, our family does not eat a perfect diet, but we are trying . . . slower than we would like however. Step one was to preserve as many veggies as possible in our own garden. Step two was raising our own chickens for eggs and meat and finding a source for local, organic, grass-fed beef (we bought 1/2 a steer). Step three is more ambiguous--just trying to make better choices at the grocery store by buying more "whole" foods and avoiding as many packaged foods and GMOs as possible.
There is one item that has been on "death row" in regards to being removed from our pantry: "vegetable" shortening. I had to put the word "vegetable" in quotations because really, vegetables aren't used to make shortening. I knew that vegetable shortening was highly processed, likely contained GMOs and chemicals, and was full of hydrogenated fats, but butter just wasn't a legitimate substitute for shortening to get flaky pie crusts.
Enter, lard. I know that lard is making a comeback, but we have taken a long time to jump on the lard bandwagon. Just the word "lard" is disgusting. Tub of lard. Lard-ass. Heck, it makes Trevor think of the dude from the queasy-inducing pie eating contest in the movie "Stand By Me."
We decided to hail that bandwagon and give it a try. We purchased 10 pounds of leaf lard from a local butcher (leaf lard is mild-flavored and comes from the kidney region of the pig). In the future, we will be sure to obtain lard, and ideally pork, from humanely-raised, pastured pigs. While I wish that we were doing this ourselves starting yesterday, we may have to explore other options, such as Peter's Heritage Acres.
There is one item that has been on "death row" in regards to being removed from our pantry: "vegetable" shortening. I had to put the word "vegetable" in quotations because really, vegetables aren't used to make shortening. I knew that vegetable shortening was highly processed, likely contained GMOs and chemicals, and was full of hydrogenated fats, but butter just wasn't a legitimate substitute for shortening to get flaky pie crusts.
Enter, lard. I know that lard is making a comeback, but we have taken a long time to jump on the lard bandwagon. Just the word "lard" is disgusting. Tub of lard. Lard-ass. Heck, it makes Trevor think of the dude from the queasy-inducing pie eating contest in the movie "Stand By Me."
We decided to hail that bandwagon and give it a try. We purchased 10 pounds of leaf lard from a local butcher (leaf lard is mild-flavored and comes from the kidney region of the pig). In the future, we will be sure to obtain lard, and ideally pork, from humanely-raised, pastured pigs. While I wish that we were doing this ourselves starting yesterday, we may have to explore other options, such as Peter's Heritage Acres.
Then we cooked it slowly over low heat, stirring often.
About 3 hours later, the cracklings were brown and crispy-ish and floated to the top, so we turned the heat off and strained the lard and poured it into jars.
The 10 pounds of raw lard transformed into just over a gallon of rendered lard + more cracklings than I know what to do with. I lightly salted the cracklings and fed them to the kids, and got mixed reviews. Max didn't really like them, but Xander did. He said they "smelled like chicken, but tasted a bit like bacon." I couldn't bring myself to try them--I guess I'm not quite that evolved. I may crumble them up a bit and use them as a crispy topping for a casserole, but in the worst case scenario they will be a fatty chicken treat.
As a recovering vegetarian, this entire process pretty much grossed me out--from handling the slabs of pig fat, to the mild pork aroma permeating throughout the house, to watching my children chewing on crispy pork fat. However, the rendered lard is clean and beautiful and was the perfect oil for scrambling eggs this morning. I can't say that I am looking forward to rendering lard again in the future, but it doesn't freak me out anymore. So I guess that's progress.
Diana
Diana
Thanks for the photo, Peter's Heritage Acres
