Consuming lard

smoky_cOwy · 07-09-2011, 06:43 PM

anyone ever eat it?

where i'm from originally lard is a very common thing in ones diet and my grandpappy would often pan fry pork fat for hours to extract lard. Pork isn't exactly too healthy in this country so we've actually been making it here out of Duck, it is soooo delicious. Anyone have any sort of odd eating habits that most people dont do. (i don't mean like you like to mix twinkies with rice, just something thats a little odd but common to a degree... i must make little sense to people)

wellfleation · 07-09-2011, 07:02 PM

Are you a lard-ass?

Just kidding, but seriously, if I'm going to eat something super unhealthy, it is certainly going to be something other than lard.

Sir-Ex · 07-09-2011, 07:08 PM

I dunno about lard but I sure eat my share of animal fat

Captain Cannabis · 07-09-2011, 07:55 PM

im down with eating fried pork fat. eastern europe has some delicious traditional foods. i definitely ate cookies made with pork fat.

also i use lard in pie crusts because its the best

Sir-Ex · 07-09-2011, 08:13 PM

As opposed to shortening?

it most certainly is

DanDomingo · 07-09-2011, 08:32 PM

sometimes I like to put whipped cream and chocolate syrup on honey nut cheerios..

Rubix · 07-09-2011, 08:55 PM

lard is a shit ton better for you than GMO corn/soy veggie oils....its actually a natural product.
Lard: The New Health Food? | Food & Wine

Quote:

Lard: The New Health Food?
Startled by news about the dangers of trans fats, writer Pete Wells happily contemplates the return of good old-fashioned lard.

By Pete Wells
When I turn to the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, I more or less know what I'll find. Paul Krugman will be preaching to the choir and David Brooks will be gamely hiding the strain of being the conservative that liberals can almost imagine having lunch with. On very special days, the paper may issue some rumblings about the UN's Oil-for-Food affair. The last thing I expect to see is an engraved invitation to eat french fries and fried chicken, yet that is roughly what I got one day last summer.

Extending this astonishing offer was the food writer Corby Kummer. In response to the news that New York City's health commissioner had asked local restaurants to stop using cooking oils containing trans fats, comparing them to such hazards as lead and asbestos, Kummer proposed that we bring back lard, "the great misunderstood fat." Lard, he cheerfully reported, contains just 40 percent saturated fat (compared with nearly 60 percent for butter). Its level of monounsaturated fat (the "good" fat) is "a very respectable 45 percent," he noted, "double butter's paltry 23 or so percent." Kummer hinted that if I wanted to appreciate the virtues of this health food, I needed to fry shoestring potatoes or a chicken drumstick.

What did I know about lard? Bupkes. To my generation, the phrase deep fried in pure lard is shorthand for morbid obesity. Born in the '60s and raised in New England, I had consumed as much lard as a resident of Mecca. Okay, I exaggerate. I had eaten a pie crust made with lard and seen the way it flaked under a fork. But I'd eaten nothing fried in lard. "It is absolutely the best for frying," says Fran McCullough, author of The Good Fat Cookbook, an impassioned defense of butter, fish oil and other natural sources of fat. "Nothing crisps food quite as well as lard. Hands down, there's no better fried chicken."

With lard circulating in polite society again, I would have to introduce myself and get acquainted. First, though, I had to find some. The one-pound brick of lard in my corner bodega was hydrogenated, as was the 40-ounce tub my favorite butcher carries, along with nearly all the commercial lard available in this country. During hydrogenation, fat molecules are pelted by hydrogen until their chemical structures change. Hydrogenation can make liquid fats solid at room temperature (that's how we get Crisco) and gives lard extra stability so it won't go rancid as quickly. Unfortunately, hydrogenation is also the source of unwholesome trans fats, which shoot extra LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) into your arteries while batting away the other, good cholesterol. If I wanted the freshest, purest, most nutritious lard available, I'd have to make it myself.

Good lard starts with good pork fat, and plenty of it. Old recipe books tell you that the fat on a hog's back grows thicker than an inch, but modern pigs are bred to be as slim as greyhounds, and compiling enough of their back fat to fry a batch of chicken would mean stopping at every butcher in Brooklyn. The pigs I needed were premodern. At last, I talked with two young farmers who raise venerable breeds like Tamworths on the rolling pastures of Flying Pigs Farm in upstate New York. These enterprising hog merchants, Jennifer Small and Michael Yezzi, agreed to hook me up.

For five long days, I waited for my fat. On the sixth, a huge cardboard box arrived. I tore it open and stared in awe. Inside were four massive hunks, each the size of a dictionary. They were lumpy, with the barely noticeable pink color of a cooked rabbit loin. Together, they added up to 10 pounds of the finest pig fat, and it all belonged to me.

Rendering is how we extract cooking fat from the chunky solid stuff. (The grease in a pan of bacon is rendered bacon fat.) Heat melts the fat and draws it out of the surrounding tissue; it also evaporates the water in the fat. You can't just crank up the gas, though, or the fat will scorch. To speed up this low-temperature process, I sliced my fat into big chunks and ran them through an electric meat grinder. What came out looked like spaghetti on steroids. Even with the flame set at a quiet flicker, the spaghetti strands quickly melted. Then, for the next two hours, the pot bubbled away as the kitchen filled with the aroma of roast pork. When the bubbling became sluggish, I strained my brand-new lard through cheesecloth and let it cool on the counter. The solid crunchy bits caught in the filter are cracklings. They are famously delicious in corn bread, but I've been too busy eating meals that were deep fried in pure lard to mess with cracklings.

Now I asked my wife which foods she was most keen to drench in our half-gallon of homemade lard. Her shocking answer was "None." I feared for a minute that she was not the same girl I married, until she explained: Since she and lard had no history together, she simply didn't know what to hope for. At that moment, I knew that more was riding on my experiments than my own idle curiosity. I had an obligation to millions of Americans in my age group. Every generation has a defining moment, a time when it turns squarely to meet its fate. For Winston Churchill and his peers, that moment was the second world war. Vietnam molded the baby boomers. I believe my generation's destiny is inextricably bound to animal fat. As children, our fragile bones were nourished by Crisco and margarine. We were all, as Gertrude Stein would have said if she'd stuck around, a lardless generation. Now lard was back. Would we have the strength of character to meet it on its own terms? To find out, I invited two friends over for a fried-food adventure. One had lived in Central America, the other in Poland—yet neither had ever tasted homemade lard.

A half-gallon of lard doesn't go as far as you'd think. About a quart went into my largest cast-iron skillet to meet the cut-up components of two young chickens. Once fried to a beguiling amber, the birds perched on a brown paper bag from Bloomingdale's while I spooned lumps of hush-puppy batter (cornmeal, flour, egg, buttermilk) into the lard, which was poultry-scented now. Sixteen hush puppies later, I had about two cups of lard left. Somewhere I have read that the ideal temperature for deep frying is between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit—so high, in other words, that the food has almost no time to soak up the fat before it's fully cooked. Judging by how much lard was missing, I had fallen short of the ideal by at least a hundred degrees.

Next I cooked beer-battered scrod in a pint or so of virgin lard. (It is whispered that in some Southern towns, far off the main highways, weekend-night fish fries still center on vats of roiling hog grease.) Hardly any fat remained for my french fries. This is how I broke another sacred precept in the Fryer's Code: I overloaded my oil. Authorities concur that french fry perfection is achieved through a double baptism in fat. A first immersion over medium heat cooks the potato, then a second, roaring-hot bath browns and crisps the exterior. Where I went wrong was the roaring-hot part. I split my potatoes into two batches for the first dunking, but then I threw the whole mess in together for the final rinse. The thermometer sank gloomily and so did my spirits. Why did I sabotage the whole recipe in one reckless move? I was hungry, that's why. Hungry for the taste of lard.

Except there was no taste. From my experience with bacon grease and some memorably fatty Flying Pigs Farm loin roasts, I had the idea that anything fried in lard would take on a sweet, rich, porky essence. Yet my friends and I agreed that our food bore no trace of pig. The chicken tasted exactly like chicken and the scrod just like scrod (whatever scrod is; I've never been sure). We might have wondered why I had bothered if we hadn't been completely entranced by something else: the texture.

We'd thought lard would encase and entomb food—maybe because at room temperature it looks like face cream—but it is a fat of rare finesse. Extra-virgin olive oil is more versatile—hog-fat vinaigrette probably won't be coming to a trattoria near you—yet I generally find it too assertive for frying. ("Pure" olive oil has a more neutral flavor and is cheaper, too.) Corn and soybean oils (these days, most bottles marked "vegetable oil" contain soy) perform well at the higher temperatures used for frying, but they also leave an unpleasant tacky residue in the mouth, like wet paint. Not lard. At 350 degrees it forms a crust that shatters with satisfying ease; my disastrous french fries came out like potato sticks, but they were potato sticks that met your teeth with a memorable snap. After hanging out in your mouth for a minute, though, a lard-fried crust becomes soft and creamy, as voluptuous as a Rubens nude but not as heavy. All my kitchen slipups didn't stop me from recognizing that lard is the most elegant fat I've ever met. Even the absence of pork flavor, which at first struck me as a flaw, only made lard seem more delicate and refined.

My euphoria lasted about 10 minutes. Then I wanted to hunt down the villains who'd kept me away from my beautiful lard all these years. When I find them, though, I doubt I'll have the heart for revenge. When McDonald's swore off beef tallow in 1990 and started crisping its fries in vegetable oil, plenty of decent, honest people believed lives would be spared. But the oil they were using was partially hydrogenated. Now there's a crusade against trans fats; the company is under pressure to switch to nonhydrogenated oil. Animal fat has been around a lot longer than the FDA. Why were we so quick to toss lard overboard?

As I sent my friends home bathed in the warm glow of hog grease, I felt sure that our generation would pass the test of lard. We might not cook with it every night—natural lard is expensive and (all right, I'll admit it) deep-fried foods are often loaded with calories, no matter which fat you use. But we won't live in fear of it, either. When we want deep-fried excellence, we'll reach for the best fat for the job: lard.

Lloydy · 07-10-2011, 02:47 AM

Beef dripping>Lard

Theres a chippy near me that fries their chips in beef dripping, they are amazing

farmergiles · 07-10-2011, 03:20 AM

Lol bet you can hear the arteries cracking afterwards.

Tastes great though.

Sir-Ex · 07-10-2011, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lloydy

Beef dripping>Lard

Theres a chippy near me that fries their chips in beef dripping, they are amazing

my god. fries... in beef fat.... !!!

It's like a dream! I must partake!

BudSniffer · 07-10-2011, 12:55 PM

I grew up eating salmon stew... I've never met up with anyone else that made it/liked it.... my dad said he ate it growing up and me and my brother and sister have all our lives... it might not sound too good, but it is... specially on a cold rainy night. It is nothing but a can of salmon, bones and skin removed, 2 cans of condensed milk and 2 cans of water, butter, salt and pepper, and I started chopping up a little sweet onion in mine, and I like to crush up a lot of crackers in mine and a dash of tabasco.

Parallax · 07-10-2011, 04:56 PM

when i fry up some sausage i like to pour some of the fat/grease on top of the sausage

Grieves · 07-10-2011, 11:52 PM

when i eat a granola bar,

i recycle the wrapper...

The Rev · 07-11-2011, 12:17 AM

Every once in awhile, I will get refried beans in something made with lard. Seriously nasty. Then again, all meat is seriously nasty to me. Makes me laugh sometimes, because I used to love burgers and all that. Now. Vomit. Funny how changing your habits ultimately changes you.

The Rev

RETSKNARPLIVE! · 07-11-2011, 01:09 AM

lard is a way of life in the south. ever try making tamales without it? i will agree with the above post how it is better than hydrogenated oils and shit. lately, been going ketogenic on the eating plan. <allows for eating proteins and fats without any problems.. Anyway ever make lettuces wraps. Different spin on taco night but making tacos with lettuce doesnt take away from the overall meal.

fuk the carbs.. highly unnecessary in our metabolic processes anyways..

where im from people love eating fajita botanas.. its the shit especially after some hard drinking. not very common in other parts of the US

BTW botanas are the american cheese nachos with refried beans, grilled onions, green peppers, jalapenos, avocado, quesadillas, sausage, and fajitas.. fuck yes..

Xil · 07-11-2011, 01:32 AM

i like to fry up bean burgers in a pan of bacon grease.

so. fucking. tasty.

and the by-product of rendering bacon fat is pretty awesome... fucking bacon!

**Pharm Girl** · 07-11-2011, 03:24 AM

that sounds alot like the Atkins Diet...~

**SageTree** · 07-11-2011, 07:49 AM

Where I grew up scrapple/pan haus was a common breakfast food.

Hog_maw, it's what's for dinner!!!

I hunted a lot of the meat I ate growing up as well. Deer, rabbit, groundhog, fowl, but the odd one I think for most people is squirrel, which is actually a really nice dark meat, with a very good favour. You can fry it up and eat it right off the bone, or boil so you can pull the meat off the bone and put it into things like pot pies and the like.

my_scatterheart · 07-11-2011, 08:22 AM

My favorite pizza is my favorite pizza probably because of the lard they put in their sauce. Love you, pizza.

**SageTree** · 07-11-2011, 08:25 AM

Tastebuds

lipids no doubt.

I'll tell you all my Great Grandmother's secret ingredient:

A whole stick of butter in ANYTHING you made.

07-09-2011, 06:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
smoky_cOwy Musician Join Date: May 2002 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 364 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Consuming lard anyone ever eat it? where i'm from originally lard is a very common thing in ones diet and my grandpappy would often pan fry pork fat for hours to extract lard. Pork isn't exactly too healthy in this country so we've actually been making it here out of Duck, it is soooo delicious. Anyone have any sort of odd eating habits that most people dont do. (i don't mean like you like to mix twinkies with rice, just something thats a little odd but common to a degree... i must make little sense to people) __________________ That's like, your opinion, man.

07-09-2011, 07:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
wellfleation Old School Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Methuen, MASSHOLE Posts: 3,853 Thanks: 195 Thanked 601 Times in 427 Posts	Are you a lard-ass? Just kidding, but seriously, if I'm going to eat something super unhealthy, it is certainly going to be something other than lard. __________________ FIGHTPOWER

07-09-2011, 07:08 PM	#3 (permalink)
Sir-Ex Learner Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 11,416 Thanks: 1,726 Thanked 3,818 Times in 2,258 Posts	I dunno about lard but I sure eat my share of animal fat __________________ Smile Ditch the cigs!!!!!!

07-09-2011, 07:55 PM	#4 (permalink)
Captain Cannabis safety word: more Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: m.i.a. Posts: 13,922 Thanks: 2,705 Thanked 3,174 Times in 1,812 Posts	im down with eating fried pork fat. eastern europe has some delicious traditional foods. i definitely ate cookies made with pork fat. also i use lard in pie crusts because its the best __________________ fuck the monkeys

07-09-2011, 08:13 PM	#5 (permalink)
Sir-Ex Learner Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 11,416 Thanks: 1,726 Thanked 3,818 Times in 2,258 Posts	As opposed to shortening? it most certainly is __________________ Smile Ditch the cigs!!!!!!

07-09-2011, 08:32 PM	#6 (permalink)
DanDomingo Freefallin' Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 111 Thanks: 113 Thanked 120 Times in 57 Posts	sometimes I like to put whipped cream and chocolate syrup on honey nut cheerios..

07-10-2011, 02:47 AM	#8 (permalink)
Lloydy KTF Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: England Posts: 11,976 Thanks: 533 Thanked 2,478 Times in 1,139 Posts	Beef dripping>Lard Theres a chippy near me that fries their chips in beef dripping, they are amazing __________________ Keep the red flag flying high

07-10-2011, 03:20 AM	#9 (permalink)
farmergiles Yahookan Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sick of the hatred and the lies Posts: 7,802 Thanks: 2,281 Thanked 3,748 Times in 2,553 Posts	Lol bet you can hear the arteries cracking afterwards. Tastes great though. __________________ Cultivate a stoic calmness *Fuck the Monkeys* Every Kind of Vice

07-10-2011, 12:55 PM	#11 (permalink)
BudSniffer Just bein' me Join Date: May 2002 Location: waayyyy over yonder Posts: 822 Thanks: 413 Thanked 306 Times in 186 Posts	I grew up eating salmon stew... I've never met up with anyone else that made it/liked it.... my dad said he ate it growing up and me and my brother and sister have all our lives... it might not sound too good, but it is... specially on a cold rainy night. It is nothing but a can of salmon, bones and skin removed, 2 cans of condensed milk and 2 cans of water, butter, salt and pepper, and I started chopping up a little sweet onion in mine, and I like to crush up a lot of crackers in mine and a dash of tabasco. __________________ "Nobody thinks the way that I do, I guess nobody dares. My head's so full of things, I set my mind free of them. I'm breaking the rules, breaking all the rules. " -Ozzy Osbourne

07-10-2011, 04:56 PM	#12 (permalink)
Parallax Admiral Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 4,739 Thanks: 160 Thanked 590 Times in 318 Posts	when i fry up some sausage i like to pour some of the fat/grease on top of the sausage __________________ FUCK THE ROBOTS!!! NUKE THE WHALES!!!

07-10-2011, 11:52 PM	#13 (permalink)
Grieves The Worst Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Interstate 8 Posts: 12,088 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 2,576 Thanked 3,116 Times in 1,711 Posts	when i eat a granola bar, i recycle the wrapper... __________________ "And no matter what they said dollar is not your friend and it's the feelings that are hard to know are the feelings that all come slow No matter what they said dollar is not your friend and these feelings that so hard to know are the feelings that wont let go No don't let go, till you find a home World Unite and I'll love you forever"

07-11-2011, 12:17 AM	#14 (permalink)
The Rev Clear Light Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In my head, somewhere. Posts: 17,865 Thanks: 5,018 Thanked 5,420 Times in 2,865 Posts	Every once in awhile, I will get refried beans in something made with lard. Seriously nasty. Then again, all meat is seriously nasty to me. Makes me laugh sometimes, because I used to love burgers and all that. Now. Vomit. Funny how changing your habits ultimately changes you. The Rev __________________ Budforce - My Friend August 29, 1973- May 25, 2012

07-11-2011, 01:09 AM	#15 (permalink)
RETSKNARPLIVE! Blunt killer Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Where ever the road goes Posts: 41 Thanks: 0 Thanked 13 Times in 8 Posts	lard is a way of life in the south. ever try making tamales without it? i will agree with the above post how it is better than hydrogenated oils and shit. lately, been going ketogenic on the eating plan. <allows for eating proteins and fats without any problems.. Anyway ever make lettuces wraps. Different spin on taco night but making tacos with lettuce doesnt take away from the overall meal. fuk the carbs.. highly unnecessary in our metabolic processes anyways.. where im from people love eating fajita botanas.. its the shit especially after some hard drinking. not very common in other parts of the US BTW botanas are the american cheese nachos with refried beans, grilled onions, green peppers, jalapenos, avocado, quesadillas, sausage, and fajitas.. fuck yes.. __________________ Zen Nutrition Last edited by RETSKNARPLIVE!; 07-11-2011 at 01:13 AM. Reason: put yall on some knowledge

07-11-2011, 01:32 AM	#16 (permalink)
Xil OD'ing on sobriety Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mizzura Posts: 3,334 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 1,036 Thanked 1,158 Times in 717 Posts	i like to fry up bean burgers in a pan of bacon grease. so. fucking. tasty. and the by-product of rendering bacon fat is pretty awesome... fucking bacon! __________________ "we'll show these fascists what a couple of hillbillies can do"

07-11-2011, 03:24 AM	#17 (permalink)
Pharm Girl Weeding the Garden.~ Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 4,540 Blog Entries: 13 Thanks: 3,003 Thanked 1,176 Times in 894 Posts	that sounds alot like the Atkins Diet...~ __________________ .....The Time has Come to 'Walk the Talk'.....~ ......A message for ALL from the Deer Tribe...~ It is a great journey — but you must do the walking and have the willingness to change and make the leap into the next level of human evolution. Become an inquisitive free thinking individual that takes responsibility for your life and the spiritual accountability to live life to the fullest. *Fuck the Monkeys*

07-11-2011, 08:25 AM	#20 (permalink)
SageTree ~Kalyāṇa-mitrā~ Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: In Love Posts: 23,414 Blog Entries: 26 Thanks: 13,070 Thanked 6,767 Times in 4,664 Posts	Tastebuds lipids no doubt. I'll tell you all my Great Grandmother's secret ingredient: A whole stick of butter in ANYTHING you made. __________________ "What's oppressive is letting your life be confined by old definitions of what everything is." -Zen Meister my_scatterheart YaHooka is.... Cannabis lovers from around the world pulling up a comfy chair, picking up a vaporizer, a bong, a brownie, a pipe, or a joint, getting high, stoned, buzzed or healthy. Uniting our minds in conversation...While Portraying a Positive Image of marijuana and marijuana users to the world. Treat your fellow YaHookans with kindness,respect and tolerance.

07-11-2011, 07:49 AM	#18 (permalink)
SageTree ~Kalyāṇa-mitrā~ Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: In Love Posts: 23,414 Blog Entries: 26 Thanks: 13,070 Thanked 6,767 Times in 4,664 Posts	Where I grew up scrapple/pan haus was a common breakfast food. Hog_maw, it's what's for dinner!!! I hunted a lot of the meat I ate growing up as well. Deer, rabbit, groundhog, fowl, but the odd one I think for most people is squirrel, which is actually a really nice dark meat, with a very good favour. You can fry it up and eat it right off the bone, or boil so you can pull the meat off the bone and put it into things like pot pies and the like. __________________ "What's oppressive is letting your life be confined by old definitions of what everything is." -Zen Meister my_scatterheart YaHooka is.... Cannabis lovers from around the world pulling up a comfy chair, picking up a vaporizer, a bong, a brownie, a pipe, or a joint, getting high, stoned, buzzed or healthy. Uniting our minds in conversation...While Portraying a Positive Image of marijuana and marijuana users to the world. Treat your fellow YaHookans with kindness,respect and tolerance.

07-11-2011, 08:22 AM	#19 (permalink)
my_scatterheart Today, I am alive. Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NJ Posts: 3,565 Thanks: 1,486 Thanked 3,328 Times in 1,870 Posts	My favorite pizza is my favorite pizza probably because of the lard they put in their sauce. Love you, pizza. __________________ Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

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