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

Farmfresh

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I never realized that there even WAS different kinds of fat until I started soaping so don't feel alone. :)
 

mamaluv321

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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...?
 

big brown horse

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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.
 

mamaluv321

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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.
 

big brown horse

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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.
 

dntd

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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.
 

freemotion

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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!
 

Farmfresh

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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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