Has anybody rendered their own lard?

[Mike Nolan]

A local farmer is selling unrendered organic pork fat for $2.75 a pound (4 pound packages.)

Has anybody tried rendering their own lard? How messy a job is it?

I've been looking for a source for leaf lard, I can get it online for about $10 a pound, plus shipping.

The flyer doesn't say what part of the pig the fat is from, but it's probably better stuff than what you can get at the grocery store anyway.

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[S_Wirth]

Grocery store lard is hydrogenated these days and as such not as good as farm sourced lard.

Leaf lard is from around the kidneys and per some users this is the best quality lard.

When I was a kid, my grandparents butchered and rendered the lard in a big chowder-type kettle.

Someone on the old BC had a thread on lard rendering. If I recall correctly, when we had done it in small batch sizes, we just used low to medium heat to slowly melt the fat then packaged in small containers. It will go rancid so needs to be used fairly soon after rendering.

When my parents had hogs butchered, mom had a big lard bucket the lard was placed in by the locker plant. Lehmans.com stll sells those old fashioned lard buckets.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by S_Wirth.

[Joan Simpson]

When I was a kid my Grandfather would butcher hogs and all the excess fat was put in a big outdoor iron pot with a fire under it they would cook the fat that had been cubed up into cracklings,then the fat was poured up and the lard was used for cooking.I've never did it but I have heard of people putting it in a crock pot and like overnight it would cook the fat out,if I were to do this, this would be the way I'd go.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't really have a crock pot, but I did watch a video on YouTube on rendering lard, and it looks time-consuming but not all that messy. The fat is already ground up, so that simplifies the task of getting it ready to render. I ordered 4 pounds of it, along with 20 pounds of beef bones for stock.

[Joan Simpson]

Good luck Mike,I can remember my Grandmother had a big white tin can that held about 25 or 50 # of lard and she used it for all frying and making biscuits etc.I use to sit and watch her make biscuits by hand,no spoons except to dip the lard out of the can and she made at least 3 - 9x12 pans of biscuits at a time.I always liked watching her sift the flour,it looked like it'd be fun.One day I got that sifter and slipped it outside to sift the sand we played in,mostly dirt yards then.Well I got my ass tore up when she found me and my cousins playing with it.No I never did it again.Great memories.

[chocomouse]

Joan, that is so funny! I hope you can laugh about it now. I always used to wonder about "pre-sifted" flour. It was pre-sifted at the packaging plant, and then allowed to sit on shelves, transported in vehicles, etc. where it settled, and now you don't have to sift it again? LOL How times have changed, and what fun we had once upon a time.

[Joan Simpson]

Chocomouse I had a wonderful childhood growing up with lots of cousins.We had to hunt in the woods and around the place for stuff to play with,cans,we had sifted that sand with a torn up screen but I wanted that sifter.We use to play with tree moss for a shawl and long hair (I can't remember getting red bugs but I bet we did from the moss),making tobacco stick play houses,wonderful times.Yes I can laugh and have a big smile.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Joan Simpson.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I wish I'd known my grandfather. He had a wholesale meat business so I might have been able to learn something from him.

I know it's not leaf lard but when cooking bacon is that considered rendering the fat out? My mom always saved bacon grease in a coffee can. I am not sure what she reused it for but the can was always on the side of the stove. Maybe it was just a way to store it and throw it away.

[Mike Nolan]

My mother saved her bacon fat in a jar by the stove as well. She would use it when cooking, especially to make wilted lettuce salads.

I pour fats in a #10 can, but I don't reuse them, I just don't want them clogging my drains. When the can is full, I throw it in the trash.

[Italiancook]

Well, Mike, if it's a #10 can, how do you keep the fat from dripping all over the garbage bag? Bacon fat will harden somewhat, but liquid oils won't. I "recycle" empty quart mayo jars for fats, and most of the time, it's quite liquidy when I finally throw it away.

My mother-in-law always had bacon fat by her stove, also. She used it to make refried beans. Her refrieds were the best ever, but I've never had the courage to use bacon fat in mine.

[Joan Simpson]

I always save my bacon fat and use it to season vegetables like squash,beans fresh and dried.

[Mike Nolan]

I tend to generate more fat during the winter when I'm making stocks more frequently, when I have a full can I just toss it in the garbage when I take it down to the street. I've got a nearly full can right now, I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Probably double bag it and put it in the trash.

[aaronatthedoublef]

There was a fascinating article which I can no longer find about bacon grease not just clogging up home drains but accumulating and clogging up town sewer lines. Cleaning crews were called in and pulled out mammoth plugs of hardened fats. I'll keep looking for it.

[Mike Nolan]

There was an article in the London Guardian a while back about workers removing a 10 ton fatberg from sewers in Chelsea. In addition to cooking fats, a major problem has been the so-called 'flushable' wipes, many of which, unlike paper products, are not bio-degradable.

Another issue has been the tendency for people to use garbage disposals to grind up foods rather than throw them in the trash or compost them. I recently bought a composting pot for the kitchen which uses bio-degradable bags made of cornstarch, and a two-chamber rotatable compost bin for the garden, and I'm trying to compost fruits and vegetables instead of throw them in the trash or down the disposal. Meats and fats generally shouldn't go in a compost pile anyway, they mess up the composting action and increase the smell, and will attract mice and other vermin.

[BakerAunt]

This thread contains so much neat stuff!

My mother always saved bacon grease and used it. She fried chicken in it. She seasoned green beans. She used it in cornbread. Until I got hit with the high cholesterol numbers, I saved it also. I would use a little to saute onion to get some flavor in clam chowder or a bean soup. I'll probably have at least a few BLTs this summer, but the grease will be sopped up with a paper towel and thrown away.

Fat clogs were a problem for the city when I lived in Lubbock. They had a special truck for cleaning them out.

A friend of my husband's there had a vehicle re-engineered to run on used cooking oil. However, he gave up on it because the local restaurants--unlike the place where he had lived in California--either were not willing to strain it or left it out in containers in the alley where people would dump in other stuff. We had a renter here in Indiana, who when he moved left container after container of used cooking oil in the kitchen. We actually took it back to Texas and gave it to the friend.

Joan's story reminds me of when my husband wanted to cut something and reached toward my embroidery scissors. He'd never seen me move that fast. I now keep them out of sight.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

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