Lard Question

[kimlove2]

I rendered some lard for the first time, but I think maybe I did something wrong. Instead of it being nice and white the results look a bit 'muddy', almost more like bacon grease. What did I do wrong? And can it be fixed? If not and I try to make soap from this, will the soap come out right? Or should I put some coloring in the soap? :dunno

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'm guessing it got to hot? you kinda want to keep it below boiling and just to melting. i think i try to keep it under 180*....low and slow.

did you strain it?

i use even "bad" batches for cooking - usually frying. but sure you could use it for soap i'm guessing.

 

[freemotion]

Maybe strain it through something finer, like several layers of gauze or even a coffee filter (I've read, not tried, I have lots of gauze here) to get the crispy crumbs out...that is what I'm guessing might by making it muddy. Too hot while rendering.

 

[kimlove2]

I strained it when I rendered it, used paper napkins, but if it will work I'll try melting it and re-straining it. It's possible the heat was too high, but I put it as low as it would go. The soap would mostly be for us, but I thought of selling some at a local fair. Except I don't want it to look ucky.

 

[freemotion]

Sometimes the brown "crumbs" settle to the bottom and you can scrape them off when you are ready to make soap. As long as the fat smells basically neutral you can use it in soap. You can "wash" it by boiling it in lots of water....I've read this but have never tried it.

You can also add fine coffee grounds or something similar to that batch to hide the color....

 

[ORChick]

Doesn't help for this batch, but for next time you might want to try a slow cooker set on *LO*; I find this works extremely well, and I don't have to hover over it. As free mentioned, you can melt it again with some clean water in the pot; bring it up to a boil, and then lower to a simmer for awhile, until the lard is completely melted. Pour it into a relatively tall, narrow container. The heavy bits will sink, the lard will float and harden as it cools.

 

[Farmfresh]

I think your lard might benefit from a "cleansing".

I render quite a bit on lard each year, since I am a soaper. What I do is get a deep stock pot and fill it with a few inches of water and a bit of salt, then I add the lard and bring it to a boil. Watch the pot and stir it often to prevent boiling over and fires from over heating.

Once the pot boils sit it somewhere to cool and then disturbing it as little as possible refrigerate it overnight. In the morning the clean lard will go to the top of the pot and the sediment and contaminates will fall down into the water below. (By the way my hens LOVE that sediment stuff!)

With particularly yucky lard I sometimes repeat this process a couple of times.

Hope this helps.


Added: I like to render using an old roasting pan and a low 275 oven, just cause I am too lazy to watch it close. Another tip is to have the suet or fat real cold and then ground like hamburger. It renders faster and far better. I pay a bit extra and my butcher does this for me.

 

[kimlove2]

I'm going to try 'washing' it as suggested. It couldn't hurt! I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

So when you wash it, do you just scrape off the lard and pack into containers? Does the water on it cause any storage issues?

And does overheating lard when rendering cause it to smell more porky? Mine smells pretty porky, which I dont' care, but I was just curious.

 

[Farmfresh]

So when you wash it, do you just scrape off the lard and pack into containers? Does the water on it cause any storage issues?

And does overheating lard when rendering cause it to smell more porky? Mine smells pretty porky, which I dont' care, but I was just curious.

The "wash" she is referring to is the boiling water procedure that I described above. When it is cool I just scrape off the top layers and pack them into a container. If it has a bit of water on it I damp it off with a paper towel, but usually the fats are up and the water is down.

What you are basically doing is bringing the fats in the lard to liquid form combined with boiling water. All of the tiny bits of solids in the lard will be jostled loose from the fat and will sink to the bottom of the pan, while the now clean fat will float to the top of the water as it cools.

It will actually store BETTER after being cleaned, since it does not contain the little meaty bits that can rot.

I don't know about the overheating idea? I think different diets in the pigs make different smells in the fats. IMO anyway.

If you are cooking with the lard the porky-ness is actually nice. Not too many people like to bathe with bacon soap however.