Cooking with lard?

[darwint]

Would lard be a good thing to cook with? We had a bunch of bacon grease, but have used it all up. I can buy 20 lb boxes of bacon ends and pieces that has a lot of fat if I get to the store at just the right day and time, but until I build up my supply again, I thought I might try lard. It wouldn’t have the bacon flavor, though.

[Fiorella]

I cook with lard all the time.

Check out the recipes I post in the recipes section of this forum

[JorgePasada]

I’m just having a hard time finding a source of good lard where I live

[Fiorella]

get the fat from your butcher. They are probably throwing it in the garbage. You can probably get it for free or close to free.

Here’s how to render it (this shows rendering beef fat…but, same process with pork fat):

Quick and easy tallow - render beef fat

There is no need to buy beef tallow (or pork lard). Your butcher is probably throwing out all the fat scraps. You can get them for free or almost no cost. When you get home, divide the fat into small plastic bags, and store in your freezer. Here’s a beautiful free piece of fat I got from my butcher: [image] Cut up into little cubes, and throw into cold pan [image] Crank up the heat, and the cubes will melt down to make tallow [image] When the cubes look like they are starting to get to…

[Genewich]

Watch out with packaged lard, all the stuff I can find around here is hydrogenated, which means trans-fats. No good.

[collaroygal]

Check out Latin ethnic grocery stores, You do need to make sure no hydrogenated stuff has been added, but most will have some pure lard available or they do in the Southwest. And Fiorella has the right idea, make your own. Unprocessed pork belly should give you plenty.

[Ernest]

I primarily cook with leaf lard. Let me rephrase that, leaf lard is my main fat…
I get it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/216713192/leaf-lard-10-pounds-of-premium-pork-leaf?ref=

[JorgePasada]

Actually I just hit the jackpot earlier today. Was checking all the different local butcher shops and came across one that sells good quality organic Leaf Lard for 1.99 a pound.

The one on the left is 4.6 pounds and cost 22.93+Tax at my local Co-Op. The one on the right is 7.6 pounds and cost 14 dollars cash from my local butcher and they took the tax out on their end.

[darwint]

The stuff I found at Walmart is made by Armour. For one tablespoon, it says
Carbs = 0
Protein = 0
Total fat = 13g
Saturated fat = 6g
Trans fat = 0g
Polyunsaturated fat = 1.5g
Monounsaturated fat = 5g
Cholesterol = 10mg
128 calories

For ingredients it says lard and hydrogenated lard, BHA, Propyl gallate and citric acid to protect flavor.

Of course, I won’t use this much once I get my bacon fat supply built back up.

[elaine1]

I buy Epic brand. Grass Fed Beef Tallow ingredients: Grass fed Beef Tallow.
Duck Fat ingredients: Duck Fat.
Berkshire Pork Fat ingredients: 100% Berkshire Pork Fat
My co-op carries it as well as Whole Foods but I found it much less expensive buying it from Thrive Market.com.