Making lard is easy and there is NOTHING that makes a better pie crust than lard. Plus shock of shocks ... lard is a heart healthy fat just like avocado or olive oil. All lard is, is slow melted pig fat. Here's how to make it.
Skip right to the printable tutorial.
Hey, you know that thing you thought about lard being bad for you? Well it isn't. So you can just file that thought away with your previous thoughts on eggs, wine, chocolate, coffee, and red meat being bad for you. I give it a year before we find out stabbing yourself in the eye isn't bad for you either.
It seems scientists had jumped to the wrong conclusion about lard many years ago. The theory was animal fats were bad for you and plant fats were good for you. Think Olive Oil and Avocado Oil, the darlings of the fat world. They're good for you, have high smoking points and are heart healthy.
Well guess what. Turns out lard is that type of fat too. Ergo, lard is good for you. Scientists have recently taken a big backtrack on their analysis of it being bad for you because it's high in the heart healthy monounsaturated fat.
Lard is now seen as a fat that's good for you. But there's a catch. It should be homemade lard.
Grocery store lard has preservatives BHA and BHT added to it so it has a longer shelf life. Those 2 preservatives are thought to be bad for you. But hey ... that's this week, right?
Luckily homemade lard is stupid easy to make.
HOW TO MAKE LARD
Ingredients:
Leaf lard (your butcher will know what this is)
Steps:
Step 1: Dice the fat into small pieces or (even better) put it through a grinder.
Step 2: Place the fat into a slow cooker along with ¼ cup of water.
Step 3: Slow cook on low/medium until all the fat has melted. If it sticks add a bit more water. This will take several hours.
Step 4: Strain the fat into a jar. I don't like cheesecloth for this because it soaks up too much of the precious lard. I prefer a very fine mesh strainer.
Step 5: Store the lard in your fridge.
IDEA: Lard makes the world's best pie crust and pumpkin makes the world's best pie. And if you're going to make pumpkin pie, make it with real pumpkin.
1. Why leaf lard? Because it's the cleanest and softest fat on the pig which has no "piggy" smell or taste once rendered. It's gathered from around the kidneys of the pig. Fat from pasture raised pork is the best because you are what you eat. And so is the pig.
Where to find leaf lard? You can get it from a farmer's market or butcher shop.
Murray Thunberg, owner of Murry's Farm in Cambridge, Ontario which produces pasture raised heritage breed pork, firmly believes fat from his pigs (which is what I used) is especially good because his pigs are not only pasture raised but they aren't given any corn or soy products in their diet at all. I asked him what he thought of leaf fat as being the premium fat for rendering and he laughingly said he can't tell the difference between lard rendered from leaf fat or other fat. It all tastes good.
2. To dice, grind or grate? Lard takes a long time to render and it HAS to be done at a slow temperature otherwise it'll brown. The smaller your lard bits are the better it will render. No matter how you get your fat ready (dicing, grinding or grating) it'll all be easier if you're working with refrigerated fat that's easier to grate and slice because it's firmed up. Room temperature fat is soft, wiggly and harder to work with.
BEST - Grinding
2nd BEST - Grating or finely chopping in a food processor
3rd BEST - Dicing. It will still work, as I've shown in this post, but it's the most time consuming and least effective for getting the most out of your fat.
I also should invest in an actual Crock Pot (or any slow cooker) as opposed to this Instant Pot which I have very unfriendly feelings towards. You can read my unfriendly review of the Instant Pot here.
3. Why the water? Adding a bit of water just helps to stop the fat from burning/browning.
4. How to store it? There are a LOT of differing opinions on this on the Internet so take my advice with a few words of caution: I'm no expert. But I store my lard in the refrigerator.
I'm gonna say you could probably just store it on the counter being that fat is a natural preservative AND lard has more saturated fats in it than vegetable/seed oils so it stores longer without fear of going rancid. Also I think we've all become a little crazy when it comes to the fear of getting sick and dying from food.
How to Make Lard.
Lard not only isn't bad for you, it's full of heart healthy fats!
Good for you for making some yourself!
Materials
- Leaf lard
- Water
Tools
- Slow cooker
Instructions
- Dice the fat into small pieces or (even better) put it through a grinder.
- Place the fat into a slow cooker along with ¼ cup of water.
- Slow cook on low/medium until all the fat has melted. If it sticks add a bit more water. This will take several hours.
- Strain the fat into a jar. I don't like cheesecloth for this because it soaks up too much of the precious lard. I prefer a very fine mesh strainer.
- Store the lard in your fridge.
Notes
Leaf lard is supposed to give you a clean, almost sweet flavour for your rendered lard so try and get that if you can. It will have no pork flavor. If your butcher doesn't have it, ask for the cleanest fat they have for rendering into lard.
Cubing the fat works, but if you have a meat grinder, ground lard will render more quickly and evenly.
Perfectly clean lard will store well at room temperature, but I store it in the fridge just to be extra safe. Also, I use it mostly for pie crusts and I want the lard to be cold for that anyway.
For now, with the jar that I have, it's going to be used for a deep dish cigarette pie. Because didn't you hear? Those are good for you now too.
Just kidding. Cigarette pies have an aftertaste. Blueberry pie it is.
Lost me forever.
We buy a pig every year and I cook down the lard in an electric roaster. I don't bother to cut it up in little pieces but it would probably help it cook down faster. We feed the parts that get strained out to the dog and he loves it!
I’m a city kid so no raising pigs for me. But I read about how much better lard is for cooking and baking. After a long and unsuccessful search for it in local stores, I found leaf lard on Amazon. YIKES! The PRICE! But I paid it just so I can have the kind of pies my gram used to make. Now I just need a recipe. Any suggestions.
You can try a neighborhood meat market. I live near St Louis and I can call a neighborhood meat market/butcher, pick it up in 1 gallon containers. If I'm making soap I can place a special order and pick it up in a few days. I've tried the larger chain grocery stores where I was told it was special order and was going to cost me more than Amazon. Local meat market had it for half the price. Don't remember the exact amount.
Funny...I just made my first ever batch over the weekend. My grandma and my mom always made it. My mom just gave me a smallish pretty beat up enameled pot that I remember as the "Schmalz" pot. I just use the pork fat they sell at the Latino/Asian grocery. And since we're German I leave the bits in it and use it as a smear for bread - add a light sprinkle of salt and: oh yeah!
I believe Julia Child once said that the reason McDonalds used to have the best French fries is because they used lard to fry. They don’t anymore. Which is probably why they were way better back in the 70’s
It was beef tallow. :) And from what I remember, they try to replicate the taste in their fat with an additive now. (I've recently been researching McDonalds French Fries) But I haven't confirmed the additive part is true. ~ karen!
Funny to mention McDonalds. My husband worked for McDonalds way back when. At that time they only hired males because they were thought to be cleaner. Whole potatoes were delivered daily to be pealed and cut for the day.
I've found leaf lard at the farmer's market (just this last summer) but it's already been rendered. And has the price tag to match. :( I have to say that 6oz butter and 2oz lard made a delicious crust for my quiche - which was something I also learned to do this past year. Maybe I can find some UNrendered lard next year!
Karen, as the second favorite thing about reading your posts for me is reading all the comments, I appreciate that the newest are now at the top of the comment section.
I am constantly amazed at your ability to find the best and easiest solution to every problem.
This finally gives me the space to not completely hijack a post for another question that I‘ll bet you either know the answer, or have the means to figure out the answer.
Why/how do some fill-in-your-email-address-spots automatically give you a keyboard with the ‘@‘ and the ‘.’ on the same keyboard and not have it necessary to go back and forth?
I know you can go back and forth (on my iPad or iPhone) by holding down the symbol key and sliding to the key you want, but often I can’t seem to be smooth enough to do it correctly, and have to do it over the hard way.
Thanks for your answer.
Just the other day, I saw a photo online (I can't remember what it was I was reading at the time ) but it was from a store and I could clearly see that they had lard. I thought 'OMG, where is this? Who sells lard?'
I have never seen lard in the stores where I shop (though I admit I have not specifically looked for it).
I always miss lard when I make (2x a year, max) potato pancakes (from grated potatoes). Maybe I can use duck lard for that. They just aren't the same when made on avocado oil (which I use exclusively, except when I make a batch of schnitzels at Christmas, then I buy some cheaper oil).
I bought a pound of lard packaged like butter in a grocery store. It is NOT the kind I used when I was young but nasty and I threw it away. I'm sure it wasn't leaf lard! That you need to make for yourself which is well worth the trouble. I envy Karen making french fries and know it will be the best she ever ate.
Lard is usually found in the “ethnic food” aisle.
When I make spare ribs I boil the ribs first and usually get round 8oz of beautiful lard to bake with, I just wait til it's cold and take it off the top (then the cooking water can be reduced to a wonderful broth).
How long do you boil the ribs, Tricia?
Around 45 minutes Marcia, at a low rolling simmer. I don't add salt at this stage as i like to reduce the cooking water.
You understand it's killing me not to admonish both of you for boiling ribs, right? But I won't. I'll just sit here quietly. ~ karen!
Not understanding the dates on these comments.
Indeed. I don’t see any mention of this being an update of a previous post. Curious.
That being said, I’ve rendered beef fat but never pork so this is good info.
Hi Suzanne! It's a previously published post that I rewrote and updated the photos for. ~ karen!
Karen, God bless you. I have been wondering how to do this for ages.
I've been wanting to try this Neapolitan Lard Bread. Now that I know how to make lard I have no more excuses.
http://www.ciaoitalia.com/seasons/20/2020/neapolitan-stuffed-easter-bread
I might be completely making this up but if I~ want to strain something wet through something like a muslin cloth, I always soak the cloth in water first. Then it's already taken up something wet and whatever you're straining can pass straight through instead of being wasted soaking into the muslin.
Like I said, I could be just making something up though. Maybe the lard would just displace the water - it doesn't seem to, but I haven't scientifically tested it or anything.
My parents raise a few pigs every year, and I always request all fo the fat. I don't have your fancy instapot, so I render it down on the stove. Not hard, it just takes forever. My only tip is make sure you shower afterwards. When you go to bed, you think you smell fine. But waking up the next morning smelling like cooked fat is not good.
Sweet!! Since I have a lard ass I can now say that I can make my own lard to plump it up even bigger!!
Perfect timing. Last fall, we bought half a pasture-raised pig for the freezer. Now we are just down to the odd bits. Recently, I was looking at the two packages of fat and thinking, "I really gotta find out how to render this." Now to adjust the directions to a non-electrical appliance. (Or go visit a friend with a crock-pot and a connection to the grid for half a day!)
Do you ever cook in a hole in the earth? Or have a cob oven? I have a hunch if you were to leave the fat in the cob oven once it cooled down over night it might do the trick. It just has to be low enough temp so that it doesn't burn. ~ karen!
I have a bake oven in the top of my masonry stove. Perhaps after my next fire (cold this weekend, eh?) I could set it in there.
Hole in the earth - heh.
Karen..my Mom always made the best French fries and fried potatoes with lard which was bought from the farmer..his was probably more like yous is without any added stuff...I'm talking about this was in the 50s -60s...
Can you render lard in a crock pot, if you haven't succumbed to the Instant-Pot mania, yet? (providing you can find leaf lard...)
You bet! A slow cooker/ crock pot is perfect for rendering lard. ~ karen!
Curious, how much does leaf lard cost? And who can tell me the difference between tallow and suet? I've used suet before in an old german stollen recipe and it is almost impossible to find now.
Lard is from the fat of pigs. Suet is the white fat from beef, used for cooking. Tallow is the yellow fat from beef and sheep, used for making candles and bird seed blocks.
Honey, I don't NEED to MAKE my own lard. I have a more-than-ample supply.
I just need to know how to harvest the stuff. And if I can make a buck from it, so much the better! :-D
I'm going to try this - I use lard for pies and a couple of other things already. That being said, I have to disagree about the best fries in the world - duck fat rules when it comes to the best fries in the world.
Duck fat is FANTASTIC for frying potatoes in any way shape or form. ~ karen!