Lard

[freemotion]

Looks like trim fat....and it looks pretty thin so it should chop pretty quickly. Sharpen up your knife.....on a coffee mug!

 

[TanksHill]

Thanks you guys. It actually chops more easily because its kinda frozen. I'm just going to fill the crock pot today. Then maybe the oven tomorrow.

G

 

[so lucky]

First Time Rendering Lard: Well, it has taken me nearly a year, but I finally found a butcher willing to part with some pig fat. I called them about 5 times and they kept giving excuses, but yesterday I got 10 lbs of lard, for free! It's not leaf lard, but is pretty clean. Has the skin on it. I processed about half of it today, and got 4 pints of lard. The first pint is snow white, the second two are off-white, and the fourth is just a shade darker. It took forever to get it rendered out. First I didn't have my oven hot enough, but after a couple of hours I turned it up to 275. Took about 6 hours total, not counting the chopping time and the clean up time. I strained it through 4 layers of cheese cloth, cupped over a canning funnel, fastened with a rubberband. I used a soup ladle to get the hot grease out of the roasting pan. I don't believe I spilled or splashed any this way.
I didn't grind it, I diced it, and I don't think my knife was sharp enough. The skin was very tough. I ended up just kind of filleting the skin off the fat. I still have most of the skin to render down, as I know I missed a lot of fat. I don't think I cut it up small enough. Will grind next time.
Needless to say, this took about all day. My hands are sore from the gripping and chopping (I have RA) but I am proud of my attempt to be self sufficient. My DH looks at this with the same dubious acceptance that he does for all my SS projects: Kraut, kefir, raw milk butter, sprouted wheat bread, chickens, etc. He is usually OK as long as it doesn't mean extra work for him.
So in a couple of days (after the porky smell is gone from the house) I will taste the whitest pint of lard. If it doesn't tast porky, I will use it for pastries/baking. If it does, I'll just use it for frying, etc, as I plan to use the majority of it. I will store it in the freezer, taking out a pint when I need it.

 

[the funny farm6]

On the stove top do you just heat on low till melted?

Also could I store it in 1 gallon ice cream pails? They are plastic and have lids.

 

[TanksHill]

 

[so lucky]

On the stove top do you just heat on low till melted?

Also could I store it in 1 gallon ice cream pails? They are plastic and have lids.

I think the answer to both your questions is Yes.

 

[paul wheaton]

About two minutes ago I uploaded a video about hot to render lard. I included some time lapse stuff so you can see it go from fat to oil and cracklins. Then from oil to lard.

The gal in the video talks about lots of ways she has rendered lard, and this is her favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cveJczI65Ao

 

[~gd]

Well I have to disagree with most of this thred Water rendered lard is so much superior to all the Hot methods mentioned here that I was suprised that no one really mentioned it. Like most fats the higher temperatures degrade them faster. Water rendered lard is usually pure white with only the last traces of lard recovered having a very light yellow trace. The white lard you see in the store is usually steam rendered but that is hard to do at home. They use a centifuge to seperate the condensed water from the rendered lard. On the farm where I grew up there would be a large kettle suspended over a low fire [we buchered pigs outside] The boys would cut the pig fat as small as possible and the girls would use their ladels to lower the bits into the water [no throwing because of the splatter danger] and skim the lard off the water and onto cheese cloth [or milk filters] over gallon jars. This filter removed any meaty bits which were saved for Cacklings or for feed for chicken cats or dogs. Often they contained enough fat that they were returned to render some more as the rendered fat and water sat in the jars it would seperate and the fat would be decanted off into the final storage containers.
Since this lard had never seen any temperature above 212F [boiling] it was white with a higher smoke point and the "piggy" taste and odor was in the water not the fat.
The Cacklings would be fried off in the last of the lard.
The water that was seperated from the lard in the jars Was used to make the salt brine which was the first step in making salt pork, bacon, ham, fatback, and sow belly why let all those taste elements go to waste?
~gd

 

[so lucky]

So ~gd, how would I water render lard at home in the kitchen? I have a large deep stock pot. Could I just put the large pieces of skin and fat in the pot with a gallon of water or so and bring it to a boil? Would it come to the top so I could skim it off? I like this idea.

 

[Denim Deb]

So do I. I want to get some pig fat this fall and see if I can render it myself and I like that idea better.