Lard Storage

[Bubblingbrooks]

Leaf lard is also called kideny fat.
You wil find it in the belly atatched to the organs.
When you see it, you will instantly know why its called leaf lard.

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[navajo001]

Okay, cool. Thank you all for your great answers. I probably won't be butchering any hogs in the near future, but hey, if anyone asks, then I'll know!

Aw, come on, you KNOW you want to. All the cool kids are doing it!

 

[navajo001]

eta: you posted while I was typing!

Yeah, I have no life!

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[navajo001]

I've always wanted to try my hand at making bacon (that...didn't quite sound right.)

Now THAT's FUNNY!

I've recently been considering my chances of creating proper sausage meat, but that's an expensive venture. My aunt and uncle would mix pork and venison, so you'd get a good balance of fat, but I don't have anyone hunting venison for us down here. However, they do sell kangaroo and wallaby mince, both of which are dark red and very lean meats (similar to venison or elk in flavor too, actually). I could get some ground pork and 'roo and make a pretty good sausage mix I think.

that's ONE thing I've never tried. Interesting to know it tastes similar to venison (my FAVORITE meat!).

 

[Bethanial]

Oh yeah, I remembered what I had to add on the subject of lard.

At home, you could find "Manteca" (lard) on the shelf next to the shortening. No refrigeration. From what I remember, it didn't have a distinct smell, either. I made two pumpkin pies for our makeshift Thanksgiving down here (which my Oz friends loved to all ends! Go me!) And because I use lard preferably in the pie crust, I bought a couple blocks of lard. These WERE refrigerated. I thought okay, that's cool, I need em chilled anyway. Well, when it came down to using them, I opened one up, and was appalled to find it melting as I held it, and the smell was like it was just drained from the pork roast pan. I didn't want my pumpkin pie tasting like pork roast leftovers, so I used the emergency stash of butter instead, but I still have the two blocks of lard. I thought maybe I could use it in savory crusts or breads, or anything, but it's still there. In my fridge. Mocking me.

Melt it in your biggest skillet and deep fry something in it

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Okay, cool. Thank you all for your great answers. I probably won't be butchering any hogs in the near future, but hey, if anyone asks, then I'll know!

Aw, come on, you KNOW you want to. All the cool kids are doing it!

aint that right!

*high fives Free*
;-)

navajo001 - i like to put the rendered lard in tubs and keep in the freezer. mostly b/c i like to use it in making pastries/baking and you need cold lard for pie crusts. easy peasy.

 

[~gd]

Well y'll I am in NC where you can still find 40 pound buckets of lard in non airconditioned coultry stores. It is sold in buckets because it is likely to be liquid in the summertime. There are two different products depending on how it was rendered. The traditional method (called wet rendered) was make in big old pots with a good layer of water in the bottom. As the lard melted in the hot water the lard would float to the surface and the meat, skin, and other byproducts would sink into the water layer. the liquid lard would be skimmed off and screened into lard buckets. This lard is almost white and has no 'off' smell or taste. If done commerically an antioxidation addative is added to keep it from going rancid in storage and the airtight lard buckets help.
Now if you get careless and fail to add water to the tub all the water evaporated and the temperature of the contents would rise above 212F(water boiling point) and the lard becomes dry rendered. The meat,skin etc is now cooking in the lard and the fat itself starts to break down due to the higher heat. This is the stuff that someone above compared to the fat from a pork roast. It becomes darker in color, much stronger in taste and smell and has a lower melting point and tends to go rancid much faster then the wet lard. If you continue cracklings and pork rinds start to float to the surfaces since they are the meat and skins that have had all the water cooked out. Many think these cracklings and pork rinds make tasty snack food (President Bush was right fond of pork rinds). IMHO this 'lard' is only suitable for deep fat frying where the pork flavor iis not a problem and it must be refrigerated to keep it from going rancid.
I hope this clears up the subject for you.

 

[freemotion]

Gonna render up some more lard today, snow day!!!!