Rendering Lard

This is super easy.

1. Get out a crockpot/slow cooker.

2. Put 3-6 lbs of pork fat, cut into 1 inch cubes, into the cooker. Look for organic grass fed pork. Otherwise, this will be more similar to lard blocks at the store. However, by doing it yourself: you know no other chemicals are added in the rendering.

3. Turn it on low. (Do not cook this on high, you will end up with a pork flavor and the lard will be more brown. On low, it will be white when it cools and can be used in pastries. Lard, done correctly, has no interfering flavors.)

4. Stir every hour or so for 3-5 hours.

5. Line a metal strainer with a coffee filter.

6. Ladel (or pour) through filter, into jars. I didn’t think about jars for this, oops. It will look yellow like ghee until it cools. Then it will be white and solid, like crisco, but healthy!

7. Waterbath can the lard to make it shelf stable or place it in the freezer or refrigerator.

Do not try and boil oil. That is way too hot, if you spill it you may have to go to the hospital. Just bring it up to where water boils and you will kill anything in it. Lard is fine on the counter like butter. But it won’t last forever unrefridgerated, just like butter. Lard will keep for years in the freezer.

It will eventually go rancid (like all oils do.) Smell it. If it doesn’t smell like it did when you made it, and it’s been a while, it probably has turned and it’s time to toss it and make more.

Use lard instead of all of the seed oils they’ve forced on us for the last 60 years. Lard has a high smoke point and it doesn’t take much, to make what you are cooking in: non-stick.

As far as cracklins (left over pork from rendering) you can cook those on a mesh tray with a pan underneath to drain the rest of the fat. They should end up like pork rinds. Or, do what we did and toss them out for the neighborhood cats.

I couldn’t get over the amount of grease the cracklins held. It was kind of a bacon taste, but drowning in fat that wouldn’t separate from the meat. I was tired of messing with it, it stunk up the house with a browned fat smell, and the feral kitties appreciated it. Everyone wins.

Meet you in the kitchen to learn old skills!

Crazy Green Thumbs