Recently, I was given — yes GIVEN — 50 pounds of pastured pig fat.
The family that raises our grass-fed beef also raises pork, and no one who buys her pork was asking for the lard! {Seriously, my jaw fell open when she told me that.} You can imagine how delighted I was to take this “waste” off her hands. 🙂
Although my family doesn’t eat a lot of pork (besides bacon, obviously 😉 ), I love to have pastured lard on hand.
Lard is a perfect fat in so many ways.
Its high smoke point makes it an excellent choice for frying. Its large fat molecules give pastries and pie crusts a beautiful, flaky texture.
And, my favorite reason to use lard?
It’s super high in Vitamin D!
Here in northern Minnesota, we are currently experiencing short, cloudy days. Less than eight hours of daylight makes for a long, dark, Vitamin D-deficient winter.
Although I’m a big believer in smart supplementation and take several supplements myself, I still prefer to get as many vitamins and minerals from my food as possible.
Pastured lard is full of bio-available Vitamin D! It is estimated that there are between 500 and 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per tablespoon of pastured lard!
Contrast that to a mere 10-20 IU found in the CAFO-raised lard at your supermarket.
Lard is a nourishing way to get my daily dose of Vitamin D on these sun-less winter days.
How to Render Lard in a Crock Pot
Rendering animal fat in my crock pot is my favorite method. It takes longer than rendering fat on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet, but here’s why I prefer my crock pot over my skillet for lard:
- It’s low-maintenance. I can put my fat in the crock pot, turn it on low, and walk away for hours without worrying about it burning.
- I can do larger batches. Even in my largest cast iron skillet, I can fit about two pounds of pig fat — resulting in about three cups of rendered lard. In my crockpot, I can fit a much larger amount of fat, resulting in much more lard at once.
- It’s less likely to smoke. You really have to keep an eye on any animal fats you render on the stove top. A minute or two is all it takes to go from perfectly rendered lard or tallow to burnt cracklins that will make your final product taste off.
It’s time to bring back the age-old tradition of rendering fat in our kitchens!
Here’s how:
Step 1:
When rendering in a cast iron skillet, the fat pieces should be cut up into smaller bits. In a crock pot, you can leave the pieces much larger — less work for you!
Place chunks of pig fat into your crock pot and turn on highheat.
Step 2:
After a few hours, the fat chunks will be swimming in a golden pool of liquid lard!
Reduce the heat to low at this point.
Now you have two options:
First, you can leave the liquid and let the chunks continue to render — though this will take longer.
Second, you can ladle out the liquid so it can begin cooling, while you leave the pig fat in the crock pot to continue rendering. <—- This is what I do.
By ladling the lard out in batches, the remaining fat will cook faster and render out even more lard.
Step 3:
As the pig fat continues to render, it will turn brown and start to crisp. At that point, it’s not releasing oil any longer, and it’s time to stop the rendering process, strain out all remaining lard, and transfer to glass containers for storage.
Carefully strain any lard you ladle out into a glass, heat-proof bowl or large measuring cup, such as a Pyrex. Do NOT use plastic — it will melt!
Slowly and carefully pour the liquid lard into sterilized, warm glass jars.
You can heat them in a warm oven or by running hot water over them for a few seconds. The point is that you shouldn’t pour anything hot into a cold glass jar, or you risk shattering the jar and ruining your lard.
Try to keep the sediment out of the glass jars as you pour. This keeps your lard pure and creamy white.
Allow the jars to sit and cool until the lard has solidified. If your house is very warm, the lard may not totally solidify. That’s ok. Just make sure it’s cool before storing.
Storage:
We must remember that our great-great-grandmothers were rendering and storing lard long before the invention of refrigeration.
Lard, which has been well-strained so that no bits of perishable fat remain in it, is shelf-stable. You can store it in a pantry, cool basem*nt, root cellar, or in your kitchen cabinets without refrigeration.
You can also pressure can it with 10 pounds of pressure for 100-120 minutes.
I choose to freeze and refrigerate mine because I have space. I don’t want to take a chance with this precious white fat that I’ve worked so hard to render the old-fashioned way.
Lard will last ages in the freezer. I once had a jar disappear to the bottom of the deep freeze, and it was over a year before I found it. It was still just as good as the day I rendered it, no funny flavors or anything!
If your lard has gone “off”, you’ll know it immediately by the smell. Fresh lard has just a slight smell of fatty goodness. Rancid lard smells, well, rancid. I don’t know how to describe it; but trust me, you’ll know.
Have you ever rendered lard? Do you prefer the stove top or the crock pot?
Additional info:
Lard from the grocery store is not from healthy pigs and should not be used under any circ*mstance. It can be a little tricky to find truly healthy pig fat. Look for a farmer who raises “pastured” pigs — not pigs that are kept in pens and eat garbage. Healthy pigs = healthy lard.
Where to look for pastured pig fat and/or meat:
- LocalHarvest.org
- EatWild.com
- Check your farmer’s market
- Contact the Weston A. Price Foundation or a local chapter
Storing Lard Without Canning or Refrigerating
The Top 3 Reasons You Should Be Eating Lard
The Blessings of Pastured Pork Lard
Updated: 2/1/2018 8:50AM
