Lard used for baking (like for pie crusts, shortbreads etc...) is made from the visceral fat surrounding the kidneys/loins of the pig. This fat renders into pure white and has very little pork flavor making ideal for sweets/baked goods. We would wet-render this by grinding the raw fat into tiny pieces and then boiling. Skim the melted fat off the top.unhippy wrote:We have started cooking with lard in the last few years.....soooo much better taste and you seem to use alot less lard as well compared to to the amount of olive oil or butter that you used to cook the same meal.
The lard that I get is from a butcher that does a nice little side business rendering down the pork fat into lard...of which he has 2 types, one for baking and a 'frying' grade lard.....dunno what he does differently but you can taste the difference if your cooking with it.
Lard used for frying and for savory dishes has a more pronounced pork flavor. Usually this is rendered from fatback or caul fat and dry rendered. Put the ground fat into a pan (with only a few tablespoons of water to keep it from initially burning) and bake it. The resulting lard is slightly brown in color and very porky.
Saw my cousin's wife spreading lard onto bread and she couldn't stop eating it. "This is the best butter I've ever tasted" she exclaimed.
Then she learned the "butter" was really lard. I like to take some cold lard and spread it onto toasted bread (like butter). Add some salt, pepper and raw chopped onions. So delicious...
