Rendered Lard

pork fat, fatback, pork scraps

water

Cut the fatback into 1/4-inch cubes and put it into a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven. Add the water. Put in the oven, uncovered and stir every 30 to 40 minutes, pressing the pieces against the pan in order to help them melt. Cook until the fat has melted, the water has evaporated and the pieces begin to brown slightly, approximately 3 to 4 hours. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a heatproof container and allow the fat to cool completely before covering and storing in the refrigerator.

This worked great! I grated as much as possible with a food processor, then chopped the rest. I used my grill at 300 instead of the oven, because I heard this was a smelly process. In a shallow pan, it was done in 90 minutes.

There is another way to render pork lard with very good cracklins. Using a pound or 2 of pork fat with skin remove all but about ½ to ¾ of an inch of the fat. Cut skin into inch long pieces then trim those to 2 inch pieces. In a very heavy pot or a cast iron Dutch oven heat all the fat and the skin pieces do not heat above 325 while rendering. The skins will turn into themselves and turn a very lovely golden brown at that time remove the cracklins and cook the fat until completely rendered to lard. The entire process should only take about 2.5 to 3 hours and must be watched at all times. 

This method has been a perfect way for me to obtain all-natural, non-saturated lard. Ever since I watched the Good Eats episode entitled "American Classics VIII: Tacos," I've been looking for ways to incorporate lard intro recipes in place of butter and/or Crisco due to its health benefits over both options. I wasn't able to make "cracklins' " as Alton suggests in his brief instructional video on how to render lard, but I'm consistently more than happy with the amount of lard I'm able to obtain from every attempt.

rendered lard

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Servings: 1

Cost: $13.88 /serving

Author : Alton Brown

Ingredients

Instructions

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