#diyfat

[cibolla]

We made lard!

Well... it's not really the normal way you make lard - we used "lardo," which is a high quality cut of pig fat which can be put straight on sandwiches - basically like bacon except almost all fat. Lard is usually rendered from the extra bits of a pig after all the quality meat has been cut off. We decided to just try to render the pig fat from the cheapest fattiest pig meat we could find.

We boiled it in a few centimeters of water until all the water boiled off. By that time the lardo pieces had separated into cracklings, and liquid pig fat. We poured off the liquid fat into a glass, and put it in the fridge to cool. When cooled, it becomes a sort of soft white paste - exactly what we expected!

We also saved the cracklings - they are like the extra bits left after you fry some bacon. They have tons of fat still in them and taste very... piggy. You can fry stuff with them because they release a lot of oil when you throw them on the pan. We also tried using our rendered lard as a cooking oil, but it tends to actually burn off fairly quickly. More experiments required.

[cibolla]

Lard may be dead in the US, but it's alive and kicking in Italy! (Or at least pig fat sold in giant chunks is)

Basically, lard can be used anywhere you would use butter or any other oil. It's made by heating up the fatty extra bits of a pig to extract the pure fat from them. It used to be a big deal in the US until Proctor and Gamble developed the method of hydrogenation, which allowed them to extract edible vegetable oil from cottonseed oil and basically totally replace lard as the go-to household cooking oil. 

Apparently it is delicious for making baked goods and popcorn, and might even be healthier than vegetable oil. 

According to Wikipedia:

"...lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than an equal amount of butter by weight.[2] Unlike many margarines and vegetable shortenings, unhydrogenated lard contains no trans fat."

Maybe we should try it! It seems like all we need to do is buy a chunk of pig fat from our local cheese, meat, and wine shop (see above photo), boil it in a pot for a while, and scoop off the clean white fat. I guess this is basically the stuff that's left on the pan after frying bacon in a pan. We used to save this at home to keep it from clogging the drains, but I don't think we ever cooked with it. 

According to Chris at the American Academy in Rome, the meat industry here is much more decentralized and humane than in the US. The pig fat we buy here will probably be from a reasonably healthy and well-treated pig, so it will probably be delicious!

Here's how to render lard from pig fat:

http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/makeyourownlard