Good and good for you.

I made the switch away from plant oils awhile back, with the exception of pure olive oil for things where olive oil is called for, and couldn't be happier with the choice. I feel better, my HDL, LDL, and TG numbers have improved, food tastes better, and my cast iron loves it.

It cooks better, bakes better, tastes better, is healthier, makes great soap, and it is dirt cheap to render yourself.

Yesterday I picked up 15 pounds of back and leaf fat from my local butcher for $5. It's all from homegrown pigs without hormones and/or antibiotics. Today I'm going to grind it, render it, and can it up. Should give me about a gallon of fresh and pure lard.

White gold!

Somebody call me?

Welllll...it's just liquid bacon...so what's not to like

Agreed! I render the kidney leaf fat from our grassfed Hereford every fall, and buy lotsa hog fatback from the local butcher for making sausage. I just got a really heavy duty outdoor propane burner, so maybe it's time to render some pig lard as well!

Gustofer, what grinder plate do you use, and what rendering method? With the beef, I've been doing it dry in a very low oven for a loooooong time.

quote:

Originally posted by Outnumbered:


Gustofer, what grinder plate do you use, and what rendering method? With the beef, I've been doing it dry in a very low oven for a loooooong time.

I'm not sure the size. My grinder came with three plates and I use the larger one. It seems easier for it to go through when partially frozen. When I first started, I just cut it up into smallish cubes. Grinding seems to work much better.

I was doing it on the stovetop in a large pot for awhile, but lately I've been using my crockpot on low/warm. I just pile in the ground up fat and ladle it off as it melts. I run it through some cheesecloth and bottle it up.

Makes flakier biscuits, too.

Rendering our own. Last two hogs e have had butchered, we have requested the fat back from. And you get cracklins. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm!

I should inquire with our local family-owned butcher that processes quite a bit of pork. It does makes such great biscuits and pastries. I'd used vegetable shortening for making Cornish pasties, but switched out to lard a while back. SO much better.

I remember my late great-grandmother telling us how her family doctor had urged her to stop making lard crusts and use "something healthier" (she loved making pies). She outlived him and passed away at 98.

quote:

Originally posted by MrToad:
I'd used vegetable shortening for making Cornish pasties, but switched out to lard a while back. SO much better.

I never could master a good pasty dough until I started using lard.

I usually make up a whole mess of them (pasties) and freeze them. They make great quick and easy meals when I don't feel like cooking. Also great to stick in my pack when I'm out in the woods all day. They make an awesome lunch.

It is impossible to make "the best" re-fried beans unless you use lard!!! There is no suitable substitute.....period!!

You guys realize this can kill you? The fed have spent millions of tax dollars to study trans fats and concluded you will die after consuming lard. If you are ingesting a diet of lard filled bacon, gluten filled wheat bread, and cholesterol laced chicken eggs I predict you will not live past the age of 126.

Lard in the skillet fries up some mighty fine bacon, once the bacon is done it fries up tortillas nicely and after the hot lard can be used for cooking eggs.

What was the question?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

I never could master a good pasty dough until I started using lard.

I usually make up a whole mess of them (pasties) and freeze them. They make great quick and easy meals when I don't feel like cooking. Also great to stick in my pack when I'm out in the woods all day. They make an awesome lunch.

Not to go too far off-lard topic, but have you ever tried the Bedfordshire Clanger variation, where one puts a fruit jam or fruit-type filling at the end of the pasty for dessert? I'm going to give that a shot sometime soon.

That's kind of a neat idea. Why didn't I think of that?

Ok, I have to ask. What the heck is a pasty? A better, tastier version of a Hot Pocket?

From the Devon-Cornwall part of the UK. Tin miners used to eat them. Pastys are like empanadas or stromboli. Filling baked inside of a pastry shell. The miners' version would have a thick edge baked so that they could hold the pasty and throw away the portion that was used for grasping. That was to avoid eating arsenic in the tin mine.

https://www.thespruce.com/trad...-pasty-recipe-435042

Maybe someone will post a favorite recipe.

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
From the Devon-Cornwall part of the UK. Tin miners used to eat them. Pastys are like empanadas or stromboli. Filling baked inside of a pastry shell. The miners' version would have a thick edge baked so that they could hold the pasty and throw away the portion that was used for grasping. That was to avoid eating arsenic in the tin mine.

https://www.thespruce.com/trad...-pasty-recipe-435042

Maybe someone will post a favorite recipe.

Thanks. Looks tasty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWC0sKCS5oA

Fry your chicken in lard. Nothing is better.

When my dad would make pasties he'd use ground suet and damn if those things weren't the best.

quote:

Originally posted by MrToad:
I should inquire with our local family-owned butcher that processes quite a bit of pork. It does makes such great biscuits and pastries. I'd used vegetable shortening for making Cornish pasties, but switched out to lard a while back. SO much better.

I remember my late great-grandmother telling us how her family doctor had urged her to stop making lard crusts and use "something healthier" (she loved making pies). She outlived him and passed away at 98.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Fry your chicken in lard. Nothing is better.

It's the only way I do it now, in a cast iron, buttermilk and all.

So good.