plucky
Enjoys Recycling
I thought I'd give everyone who was interested an update on the lard making - in a nutshell, it was a success!
The butcher ground the fat for me, so I was ahead there. I started out outdoors with my biggest dutch oven on the grill, put about 1/4" water in the bottom, and started heating it up and adding small pieces of fat. About 30 minutes into it, I could see the operation was going to cost a fortune in charcoal, because it was going to take a while. I considered building a fire with firewood, but decided to try moving back into the house first
I put the dutch oven on the stove and put the heat on medium, stirring the fat every 5-10 minutes or so and skimming off the foam. Surprisingly, it didn't reek - only a light smell of cooking pork.
After about three hours, the fat had reduced to clear liquid with the cracklings sunk to the bottom, so I turned off the heat and strained out as many cracklings as I could.
Then I ladled out the liquid into a strainer - an old funnel-shaped ricer of my mom's with a cheesecloth liner, propped up on coffee mugs to have enough room underneath for the strained liquid to run into containers. I used some cool whip and gladware containers, and once full set them to the side to cool before putting them in the freezer.
Once really cooled off the liquid lard turned to the crisco-like solid of ready-to-use lard. I got three containers full from the 12 qt dutch oven, and it made a very easy to handle amount. But I can sure see the advantage of doing it all at once in a big kettle outside. I still have about three large frozen turkey-sized balls of fat to render, and this method is going to take a while.
I'm not sure how wise it is to put a dutch oven on a glass-top stove, but I took the chance because the stove is going to have to be replaced soon, and on top of that - I hate it (it came with the house).
The manual says it does not recommend using cast iron, but also doesn't say NOT to...and all the skillets I own are cast iron...if you have a glass-top stove you might think be taking a risk. So far no problems for me, but then again I like to fly by the steat of my pants. Hope this helps anyone wanting to take on lard!
The butcher ground the fat for me, so I was ahead there. I started out outdoors with my biggest dutch oven on the grill, put about 1/4" water in the bottom, and started heating it up and adding small pieces of fat. About 30 minutes into it, I could see the operation was going to cost a fortune in charcoal, because it was going to take a while. I considered building a fire with firewood, but decided to try moving back into the house first
I put the dutch oven on the stove and put the heat on medium, stirring the fat every 5-10 minutes or so and skimming off the foam. Surprisingly, it didn't reek - only a light smell of cooking pork.
After about three hours, the fat had reduced to clear liquid with the cracklings sunk to the bottom, so I turned off the heat and strained out as many cracklings as I could.
Then I ladled out the liquid into a strainer - an old funnel-shaped ricer of my mom's with a cheesecloth liner, propped up on coffee mugs to have enough room underneath for the strained liquid to run into containers. I used some cool whip and gladware containers, and once full set them to the side to cool before putting them in the freezer.
Once really cooled off the liquid lard turned to the crisco-like solid of ready-to-use lard. I got three containers full from the 12 qt dutch oven, and it made a very easy to handle amount. But I can sure see the advantage of doing it all at once in a big kettle outside. I still have about three large frozen turkey-sized balls of fat to render, and this method is going to take a while.
I'm not sure how wise it is to put a dutch oven on a glass-top stove, but I took the chance because the stove is going to have to be replaced soon, and on top of that - I hate it (it came with the house).
The manual says it does not recommend using cast iron, but also doesn't say NOT to...and all the skillets I own are cast iron...if you have a glass-top stove you might think be taking a risk. So far no problems for me, but then again I like to fly by the steat of my pants. Hope this helps anyone wanting to take on lard!
