Paleo Project: Homemade Lard

In a quest to find fats that I could cook with on the Whole 30, I decided to try my hand at making lard. I was getting very bored with eating everything stir fried in coconut oil and had a bunch of fatback and leaf fat in my freezer from the pig I had butchered in May just waiting to be rendered.

Lard purchased in stores has trans-fats, so homemade is really the only way to go with this. Lard has a very high smoke point, which makes it safe to cook with at high temperatures as oils will oxidize if you allow them to get so hot that they smoke. Check this article out to see what happens to oil when we overheat it. Lard is made up of about 40% saturated, 48% monounsaturated and 12% polyunsaturated fats. Depending on what the pigs have been eating, the fat may also have a good Omega 3 to Omega 6 fat ratio. According to this article by Christ Masterjohn at The Daily Lipid, lard is also the second richest source of Vitamin D when the pigs have been exposed to sunshine.

The two fats I had to choose from were fatback and leaf fat. Fatback is the fatty tissue on the pig's back right below the skin. I had read that when rendered fatback has a slightly piggy flavor. I was intrigued. Leaf fat comes from right around the kidney's and is considered the highest quality fat because it is completely flavorless, but has the great cooking qualities of lard. I chose to use my fatback in case I royally screwed this up.

To render lard you can either use wet or dry methods. After some research, I decided to wet render the lard. It seemed easiest and most fool-proof of all the methods.

I recommend you check out this video from Alton Brown on the benefits of lard and a quick overview of how to render it.

- Cut off any remaining skin or muscle tissue, then cut fat into 1/2 inch or so cubes. I used about 2.5 pounds and did 2 separate batches. Add 1/3 C water per batch.

- Bake uncovered in a 300 degree oven for 3-4 hours

- Every half hour or so I used a potato masher and mashed the fat to help the process along

- Rendering was finished when all that was left are these crumbly things. You can make cracklin's, by my attempt was an epic fail. Maybe next time!

- Allow to cool and you can freeze it, keep it in the fridge or keep some on the counter (which is what I do).

- It will be a milky white solid after it cools.

The leftover solids

The Rendered Lard

Project Cost
$2.00/lb from my local farmer. I buy from Mount Vernon Farm in Sperryville, VA

2.5lbs @ $2.00/lb = $5.00 total for enough lard to last me 5-6 months.

Thoughts
Rendered lard from fatback does have a slightly piggy flavor, but I don't really notice this unless I am cooking something that otherwise has no real flavor like eggs or chicken breast. I noticed that unlike frying in coconut oil or bacon grease (which has yummy salt, sugar, etc.), I had to add some spices to my eggs fried in lard. Turkish Seasoning from Penzey's did the trick.

I have added lard to cook meat a little before adding ingredients to soup and have no problem. I can use it pretty much interchangeably with butter or coconut oil now as long as I know that I will be seasoning things.

Will I do this again? Hell yes! Cheap, easy and a super nutritious cooking fat. I'm even planning on trying it out on the Primal Palate's Pumpkin Pie instead of palm shortening which can be hella expensive. I may use the lard from leaf fat for this, though.