Rendering and cooking with lard

Prudent Carnivore: Bringing Home the Back fat

By Shannon Hayes

Shannon Hayes is the host of grassfedcooking.com and radicalhomemakers.com. She is the author of Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, The Farmer and the Grill, and The Grassfed Gourmet. Hayes works with her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm, raising and processing grassfed and pastured meats in Upstate New York. The following is excerpted from her forthcoming book: Long Way on a Little: An Earth Lover’s Companion for Enjoying Meats, Pinching Pennies and Living Deliciously. All of her books can be purchased at retail and wholesale prices directly through grassfedcooking.com.

The over-selective breeding of certain farm animals to meet industrial agriculture production requirements has resulted in modern livestock breeds that have practical-minded grass farmers rolling their eyes: the large frame Angus that simply cannot finish on a season’s worth of grass, the Holstein dairy cow with extreme milk production and an impractically short lifespan, enormous turkeys incapable of natural breeding. Among the most senseless to me, however, is the lean pig. Once prized for their ability to produce bountiful quantities of fat, old-style pig breeds were largely forgotten when Americans decided that animal fats needed to be removed from their diets. Today’s small farm renaissance has restored our interest in the older, more thrifty heritage breeds, and Locavore customers are enjoying some extra trim on their pork chops, and a little more marbling in their hams. Still, I hear of too many butchers discarding copious amounts of back fat, and of too many farmers cursing the waste of feed if the fat-to-muscle ratio on the pig is too high. While some folks are beginning to reclaim the leaf fat, that layer of pure white fat surrounding the kidneys, too many people are allowing the bounty of back fat to go to waste.
In my opinion, the reputation of back fat has been unfairly tainted by food snobs. Admittedly, epicureans can be thanked for being the truth-keepers over the last 50 years when America neglected the fatty pig. In the face of rampant fat-phobia, they bravely maintained that lard made the best biscuits and the best pie dough. But those who presumed to be “in the know” spurned the farmers’ offering of back fat for the production of lard, claiming that it had more impurities, that it did not render as efficiently. That is all true. However, when I package up the leaf lard on one of our pigs, it amounts to about 1-4 pounds, depending on the leanness of the pig. When I bag up the fat closest to the meat, the back fat, even after leaving a full half-inch of trim on the pork chops, I often find myself with another 10 pounds of bounty. (Note: The fat closest to the skin does not render easily, and is best used for barding or sausage making.)

Some have argued that rendering back fat results in a porkier-smelling lard than the leaf fat, which makes it useless for cooking anything other than savory dishes. However, after some experimentation, I’ve discovered that much of the pork scent is eliminated with more careful rendering. I dice about five pounds of back fat into one-inch size pieces, put it in an 8 quart stainless steel pot, sprinkle it with ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and put it on the lowest setting on my cooktop. I leave the pot lid slightly ajar to allow the water to escape, and cook it no more than 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally, until the cracklings are floating. I turn off the flame once the cracklings have a light golden hue, but before they are truly browned. I strain the fat through a cheesecloth-lined colander, pour it into glass containers, and store it in my fridge (it never gets to my freezer, because I use it too fast). The resulting lard is a crisp white, and without a scent.

I’ve used back fat lard to sauté vegetables and make biscuits and cornbread, all which will tolerate a little savory pork flavor. However, in an effort to see if I could extend the use further, I experimented with it for more delicate operations, where a hint of pork flavor would be most unwelcome. In a carb-and- refined-sugar frenzy (I know, we’re not supposed to eat this way…but if I don’t provide occasional treats at home, my husband will start running around to bakeries behind my back), I used the lard to fry my Halloween donuts, melted it for my daughter’s birthday cupcake batter, cut it into my Thanksgiving pie crusts, and even baked chocolate chip cookies for my girls on a few rainy nights. The donuts were splendid. The cupcakes were moist and deeply chocolatey, without revealing a trace of their porcine origins. The pie crusts, made with a combination of butter and lard, held up to manipulation, and were flaky, tender and flavorful. And then there were the cookies. I tried them first with pure lard. Not so good. But then, I changed the recipe to use half butter and half lard. They were positively transformative, the best cookies I’ve ever made. Lard keeps the cookies soft and chewy; butter gives them deep flavor. With pride, I presented them to my most discerning cookie-loving friends and family. They have been awarded the distinction (among my biased fans) of “the best chocolate chip cookies ever.” And the secret lies in the lard.

I know I customarily give recipes for cooking meat with these articles, but I couldn’t very well brag about the versatility and bounty of pork back fat without providing some sweet treats to back up my claims. These two recipes work fine with either rendered leaf fat or back fat…but if you make them with the back fat, you will have the added satisfaction of knowing you are making complete use of the farm bounty, fulfilling the venerable aim to be a truly prudent carnivore.

Rainy Night Chocolate Chip Cookies
Truth be told, cookie batter made with lard doesn’t taste very good. I find this to be a good thing, because little fingers are less likely to creep into the bowl while I’m trying to mix. And better still, the result is more cookies in the end…and they’re outrageously delicious!

½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup lard
1 ¾ cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk or whey
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 egg
2 ¾ cups flour (I prefer to use 50% fresh ground whole wheat and 50% all purpose flour, but 100% all purpose flour will also work)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Add the butter, lard, brown sugar, milk and vanilla to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until creamy. Add the egg, and beat thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Using a wooden spoon and your own muscles, stir the dry ingredients into the butter-egg mixture. Then stir in the chocolate chips. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets and bake 9 minutes, or until cookies reach desired doneness. Cool cookies on the sheets for 2-3 minutes before removing them to a rack or plate. Makes about 3 dozen.

Saoirse’s Birthday Cupcakes
I made two batches of these cupcakes for Saoirse’s 6th birthday party – one with butter, one with lard. Before frosting them, I took one of each, and put them on the table for Bob and the girls to do a blind tasting and choose which was better. The lard cupcake won, because they felt it was slightly more moist, and seemed to have a more chocolatey flavor. The cupcakes were so popular, we’re already getting requests for these cupcakes for her next birthday (although, admittedly, our guests don’t know what made them taste so great…)

1 1/3 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups flour (I typically use a blend of 50% freshly ground whole wheat and 50% all purpose flour, but 100% all purpose will also work).
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup buttermilk or whey
½ cup melted lard
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour (or line with papers) two 12-cup cupcake pans. Add the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the large bowl of an electric mixer. Thoroughly beat in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk, lard and vanilla. Batter will be runny. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick or butter knife inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning the cakes out onto racks. Frost as desired (I like a cream cheese frosting).