Sunday, February 28, 2010

Making Lard

We recently bought a hog from a neighbor and got both our hog and her hog's fat.  She wasn't interested!  The butcher grinds it.

So what I start out with is packages of pinkish ground hog fat sealed in vacuum packs.    I decided to render two packages yesterday and the day before. I am posting this picture even though the quality is awful, but at least it will show you what I started with.

From Making Lard
Step l.   Start with thawed fat, ground.  Break into chunks for the pot. Some render from chopped up chunks of lard but I get the ground and so that is what I will be talking about here.

Step 2.  Add 1 inch of water to heavy pot.  Add chunks of ground fat.  I start on high and gradually turn down once it starts bubbling.  I stir often to keep the bits from sticking to bottom of the pan.

From Making Lard
It looks like this when first cooking,

From Making Lard
When it gets to this stage, I strain for the first lard for baking.  You will see the fat is beginning to settle to the bottom and the clear fat will be on top.

From Making Lard
From Making Lard
.  I definitely need to buy some cheese cloth, my old pillow case was too tightly woven and the straining took too long.
This is what the fat looks like at this point and will be put back into the pan for second rendering of savory lard and cracklins.  I suspect I should be typing cracklings.....but that is not what we call them.

From Making Lard
and you are left with this beautiful clear fat with no hint of tan,
From Making Lard
Then into the jars for storage.  In got about 2.5 quarts with my two packages of ground fat.

From Making Lard
The first batch from the day before I poured into a tin.  I really prefer them because they are so much easier to scoop out of.
From Making Lard

Note: the lard in the tin had 1 or so teaspoons of baking soda added for whitening.  I can't see a measurable difference between the one with and the one without.

The second day (I got lazy the first day) I took the reserved fat from the first rendering and combined with the second rendering fat.  I decided to use my electric cooking pot (my favorite kitchen appliance) to cook these down so I wouldn't have to be so concerned about scorching.  I added water again to get it started.
From Making Lard


I stirred now and then..  They got very foamy toward the last.  I was looking for the cracklins to be a nice brown color and when they got to this stage, I thought they were done,

From Making Lard

Strained again and bottled the savory lard.

Here is a picture showing the subtle difference in color.  I made DH tasted (you would have thought I was offering him poison!) to see if he could pick which was which.  He could. 
The total time for the first rendering was about one hour and the same for the second.

I ended up with about 2.5 quarts of first lard and 1.5 pints of the savory lard and a pint or more of cracklins which I froze.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Glenda. Thanks for the how-to on rendering. More and more I read that lard does not deserve the bad press it gets (mostly from the margarine folks *heh*). It looks lovely. What do you do with those cracklins?

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  2. Another great post, Glenda! I think I'll call my local meat-packing business and see if they ever sell hog fat.

    I got started using lard when I discovered it was cheaper than Crisco at the store. I don't believe it's as bad for you as some of that over-processed stuff. Give me one-ingredient products whenever possible!

    Waiting now to see what you make with the cracklins!

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  3. I put them in cornbread once time.......didn't care for it. I finally gave them to the chickens.

    Suzanne mentions some uses, like seasoning, casserole toppings. I am thinking tossed on salads like bacon crumbled bits.......and then there are the chickens.

    Kris, read Nina Planck's Book Real Food. It was an eye opener for me. Hydrogenated anything is not good for you!

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  4. I am 73 years old and grew up on my grandparents' farm. I can remember them killing hogs and making lard, etc. I loved! the crackling bread grandmother made. (I found you on Suzanne's CITR blog and came over to visit.) I really enjoyed this post.

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