Cooking with Lard

[Pomai]

A friend of mine is trying to find where to buy cooking lard locally (on Oahu). Anyone know where to get it? How about Y. Hata? Get?

He wants the true, "old school" pig fat type, and not the modern hydrogenated oil stuff, or Crisco (vegetable shortening) for that matter.

My sister swears by lard as superior to cooking oil for the best tasting fried chicken, damned the saturated fat it contains.

I also here it's superior for baking applications, and for great corn bread.

Any cooking ideas, family history using the stuff, how to render your own, and/or resources on where to get it would be great.

Mahalo! Oink oink.

[Peshkwe]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Here's a good visual step by step for rendering piggy lard. I've only done bear 'cause pig lard is easy enough to find around here.

http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/200...09378997673043

Pure lard is the only stuff you should use to season cast iron with. A well seasoned iron skillet works as good as teflon.

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Looks like gotta make your own. That's some good instructions Peshkwe posted.

Another way, for small batches, is to keep a glass jar next to the stove to keep bacon drippings, just like Grandma and Mom used to do. Works great in salad dressings and cornbread recipes. Anything that a little smokiness can improve on flavor.

[Pomai]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Looks like gotta make your own. That's some good instructions Peshkwe posted.

Indeed, a very informative link. Thanks!

But if you were to get the naturally-rendered pig's lard from a butcher, store, restaurant supplier, etc., how would it come packaged? In a jar? Plastic container? Vacuum packaging?

I suppose one just as well could ask a butcher at the local supermarket where to get (or if they have available) those back-fat parts needed for rendering good cooking lard at home. Interesting how water is used in the rendering process to prevent it from burning and "cooking".

I blogged Holy's Buttered Apple Pie recently, and noticed on the ingredients label that it says they use Vegetable Shortening (Crisco). I wonder how much better their pies (as if it wasn't already broke-da-mout' enough!) would be in taste and texture if they used lard. Hmmm.

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Cooking with Lard

When I go to Kauai, I see wild chicken running around everywhere. Would those be edible if cooked with lard?

[Peshkwe]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Lard tends to make pie crusts super flaky and light. Veggie shortening seems much heavier in comparison.

The trick to rendering it down really is melting it and not cooking it. And you HAVE to skim and strain it to make it fine, silky and suitable for pastry or medicine making.

I got more than one pop in the head from my grandmother's silver thimble for not watching the boil right.

[Adri]

Re: Cooking with Lard

/snip Another way, for small batches, is to keep a glass jar next to the stove to keep bacon drippings, just like Grandma and Mom used to do. /snip

I have friends who say they grew up with a can or container near or even on the stove to catch the excess bacon grease for use in other things. I wondered if they didn't get food poisoning from unrefrigerated bacon fat or if they didn't worry about the fire hazard of storing grease near or on the stove. Apparently none of my friends who have recollections of their families storing bacon grease that way have suffered any ill effects from it.

When I go to Kauai, I see wild chicken running around everywhere.

No need go Kauai for that. Get plenty wild chickens running around by The Treetops restaurant (I think near what used to be Paradise Park) and other places right here on Oahu. *g*

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Lard lasts a long time in the fridge, it can be frozen, or it can be canned (ten minutes in a boiling water bath).

Check the local slaughterhouses for a supply of rendered lard or fresh fat that you can render. Or find a friend with a household pig.

[sophielynette]

Re: Cooking with Lard

I remember when I was young, a friend of the family gave us a bunch of pork products and a tub of lard. We kids got a kick out of making jokes -- "Where's the flour?" "Next to the tub of lard." "Don't talk about your brother like that!"

That's really all I have on the subject..

[lihingmui]

Re: Cooking with Lard

My grandmother, who made wonderful old school type almond cookies always said lard made the best cookies.

I think I have seen lard at Mercado de la Raza on Beretania (phone: 593-2226) but it has been a while since I have been there.


Here is an article about cooking with lard:

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/...ew-health-food

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Fatten on pig to slaughter. Kill the pig and cut out all the parts that are meat. Grind up the rest of what might be meat and stuff into the turned insideout and scraped and rinsed guts of the pig and call that sausage or grind up the liver and mix it with the sausage paste and call that paté. Take any questionable bits left over and cook with onions and leeks and carrots and bayleaf and then grind that up and add the blood of the pig and called that boudin or blood pudding. The rest is fat and skin. Cut it up and put it on a pot with a bit of water and simmer gently til the fat melts and the skin turns into cracklings. Pour off the fat or let it get cold and turn it out and there is your lard. Salt the cracklings and eat them while drinking a cold beer.

[cyleet99]

Re: Cooking with Lard

Keep the bacon grease in the fridge unless you use it fast enough for it not to go rancid. I season lots of things with it, but I don't use it for baking. It probably would take a long time to go rancid since bacon is made with so many preservatives already. And if you look for lard in the grocery, read the ingredients. The last time I tried to buy lard, it had vegetable shortening in it. And the label listed it as pure lard.

When I got here to O`ahu, I "invested" in a tub of nonhydrogenated organic vegetable shortening. (I was on the lookout for no trans fats, and trying to get away from hydrogenated vegetable oils.) It stays in the cabinet and has stayed soft and not rancid so far. Not good for seasoning, but great for baking.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Cooking with Lard

A friend of mine is trying to find where to buy cooking lard locally (on Oahu). Anyone know where to get it? How about Y. Hata? Get?

He wants the true, "old school" pig fat type, and not the modern hydrogenated oil stuff, or Crisco (vegetable shortening) for that matter.

does this count? if so, i've seen plenty of the green & white armour LARD/MANTECA boxes at monster safeway, by the meat section. it's probably the partially hydrogenated for shelf stability kind, tho.