Cooking with Fat
Posted on | October 27, 2011
…is one of my favorite songs by VA singer-songwriter, Tray Eppes
Starts out like this.
(wanna hear?)…and it just about sums up my recent adventure with lard. Last week I read an old recipe that called for homemade lard. As a DIY-er, I found this hard to resist. After all, I’ve made my own butter and wouldn’t think of buying margarine. Why would I put Crisco (whatever that is) into my biscuits and pie crusts if I could make my own lard?
After a bit of research on the world wide web, I discovered that the only ingredient for lard is fresh unsalted fatback. Easy enough. So I made my way to the local supermarket, found the butcher, and asked for it. He said all the fatback was prepackaged and salted, and that I needed to see Duffey. ”Who’s Duffey?” I asked. ”He’s out on 360,” answered a lady who was walking past the meat counter. After driving another 8 miles north on 360 I found a convenience store called Duffey’s, went inside, and perused the meat case. No fatback. So I asked the lady in the front if they had any that was unsalted. She looked confused, so I added, “I’m making lard.” She burst out laughing and said “Good Lord, girl! What do you want to do that for?” Then she shouted to the back for Durell to come and help this lady who’s making lard. Durell poked his head through the door with wide eyes and said, “Lard?! I’ve never heard of anybody making lard!” He said he didn’t have any unsalted but if I’d come back tomorrow at the same time he’d have some for me. I told him I’d like 3 lbs.
Cracklins and rinds after two days.
The next day I made my way back to Duffey’s. The lady called for Durell again, and this time two more butchers peeked out to get a look at the lady who was making lard. Durell came out with a big smile on his face carrying a very large piece of fatback, 7 lbs in fact. I didn’t argue about the size, since I felt lucky to be getting it. As I thanked him and started to check out, he said to wait a moment, that he had something else for me. Durell went into the back and reappeared with large ice bag full of rolled up fat (10 lbs worth). He said he wasn’t charging me for this and that it would give me a lot of cracklins. I happily took my 17 lbs of fresh unsalted pig fat and made my way home.
After 2 hours of hard labor, I had cut all that fat into small squares and began cooking it down slowly in 2 large pots on the stovetop. It took two full days to render over a gallon of lard, and about as much cracklin’ and pork rinds. Was it worth it? If you’d tasted my apple pie or my biscuits I think you’d agree that YES! It was well worth the hard work and public humiliation. Three pounds would’ve been sufficient though.
Day 3!!!