So Excited!! Just finished my first big batch of LARD!!

I never realized that there even WAS different kinds of fat until I started soaping so don't feel alone. :)
 
Sweet, learned somethng new! So one more question, if you don't happen to raise your own meat animals, where do you get it? A specialty butcher or...?
 
mamaluv321 said:
Sweet, learned somethng new! So one more question, if you don't happen to raise your own meat animals, where do you get it? A specialty butcher or...?
:) I think you just have to ask the butcher.
 
Ok, I guess I just assumed that butchers these days don't have stuff like that. Then again, I don't actually have a small local butcher. Just grocery store butchers that don't really get whole animals.
 
Freemotion knows more about this than I do. She should be here shortly. :)

We have a "meat market" downtown that sells it. I am not sure if grocery store butchers will carry it or not.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n-0THwZLb0 a good video on making it
http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer calculator I use, I use a glass pyrex loaf pan that fits well in my crockpot. This makes a great way to make soap, never had a batch go wrong. I use 100% organic ingerdiants for smells, coffee beans, vanilla,dried orange peel, coco nibs,oatmeal,lavender,mint,even tea! I allow 2 weeks for extra drying though because the drier the bar the longer it lasts.
 
You won't find leaf lard at the average grocery store today. They get their meats already packaged nowadays. You need to go to either a store that speciallizes in meat or better yet, a real butcher shop that cuts up whole carcasses for people who raise their own meat. Most people THROW THE FAT AWAY!!!! :th The butcher knows better and will save a lot of fat from pigs for when people bring in deer and will add the pig fat to the deer sausage. The butcher I go to saves the leaf lard separately and I get it dirt cheap, like $0.89 per lb.

YUM!
 
Yup. We have a small butcher shop fairly near us that does custom butchering for farmers. I bet a lot of areas have places like this one, but you DO have to hunt them down as they are getting scarce.

I just go in tell them what I am doing and an ASK (with my pocket book in hand). They have ALWAYS given me the fat for FREE!

As a matter of a fact when I asked for suet to make tallow the last few times they brought me a BOX full still fresh but chilled with fresh kidneys still attached! Yum. Free kidney pie! Another time they even ran it through the grinder (worth paying for) for a couple of bucks.

Often places like that end up paying for some of the stuff to be hauled away!!
 
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