Best Rendered Leaf Lard Recipes

RENDERED LARD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• 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.

LEAF LARD CRUST

Steps:

• Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the lard and the butter, and cut them in with a pastry blender until the larger pieces are the size of peas and the mixture begins to clump on the pastry blender. Shuffle through the mixture with your hands, pinching chunks of lard to flatten them.
• Add 4 tablespoons of the ice water and mix with a fork. Pinch a clump of dough in your hands: If it feels moist and clumps together easily, it's probably hydrated enough. If it feels really crumbly, add another tablespoon or two of ice water until you can form a baseball-size clump of dough, packing it on as if you were making a snowball. You want to mix the dough as little as possible to ensure it stays tender.
• Divide the dough in half and form each half into a flat disk. Wrap both disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
• Thirty minutes before you're ready to roll out the dough, remove it from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature to soften.

HOW TO RENDER LARD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.
• Wash and chill fat.
• Cut into small pieces (1 inch).
• Place 1 cup of fat in roasting pan.
• Place in oven.
• When fat starts to melt, add more pieces until roaster is about half full.
• Render until all is melted and all moisture is cooked off and evaporated.
• Let cool slightly.
• Dip liquid from roaster and strain through triple layer of cheesecloth.
• (Note:After you have dipped out most of the lard and you have bits of crackling left, continue to cook these down on top of stove but watch it closely and don't let it get too hot.) Pour into 5 to 10 pound containers.
• Cover tightly.
• Store immediately in a freezer if possible.
• Quick cooling produces a fine grained lard.
• Store in freezer.
• You can increase storage time for this lard by adding a 3 pound can of vegetable shortening to every 50 pounds of lard.

STOVE TOP-RENDERED LARD

Steps:

• Working in batches, cut, grate, or grind fat into small pieces. If the fat begins to soften in your hands, return it to the refrigerator until firm.
• Place ground fat in a heavy-bottomed pot set over very low heat. Add 1 cup water. Leave on stove until completely melted, 4 to 5 hours. As fat renders, crispy cracklings will form, rising to the surface of the bubbling fat. Use a slotted spoon to remove cracklings to a paper towel-lined plate. These are best eaten sprinkled with salt.
• Strain rendered lard through a fine sieve and pour into jars. Lard may be stored at room temperature just like olive oil. It may also be stored in the refrigerator with no change to flavor or texture.

RENDERING LARD

Steps:

• 1. FOR CUBED FAT: Trim any large pieces of meat from the fat, does not have to be perfect, just remove the large bits. If you buy the fat at Tesco, it will be back fat and all be trimmed and in large pieces. In the US try and get leaf fat from a reputable farmer that is from pasture raised pigs. I bought 5 slabs at Tesco, about 3/4 inch thick that came out to 1 kilo in weight. Slabs are skin and fat.
• 2. Dice the fat into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.
• 3. Add the fat to your slow cooker and add a 1/4 cup of water (the water evaporates off). Place the lid on the cooker and set the cooker to Low setting.
• 4. After 1 hour, give the pot a stir and you will see some liquid in the pot, that is the fat being rendered.
• 5. Continue to stir every hour until the fat is fully melted or is brown bits on the bottom of the pot that start to float again. At this point, the lard is ready. Mine was ready in 15 hours.
• 6. Pour the lard through cheese cloth placed in a strainer, over a pot, Let the brown bits (crackling) drain for about 20 minutes or so. Remove the strainer and set aside with the cracklings.
• 7. Pour the lard into a quart jar and allow to cool on the counter uncovered. Once cooled, cover and store in the fridge until use.
• 8. Cooled and solidified, perfect!
• 9. Bonus item! Heat a non stick pan and when hot, dump the cracklings, the left over bits in the cheese cloth, into the pan, season with salt and herbs of your choice, fry until crispy, enjoy!
• 10. FOR COARSE GROUND FAT: If you have an electric meat grinder, and a coarse plate, the coarse plate I have is called the wagon wheel. Assemble your grinder with clean sterile parts. Do not add the hopper tray, the try that fits on top of the feed tube, first, it is not needed, two, less to wash later.
• 11. To prepare the fat, you want is very cold, not frozen. Place the fat skin side up on a cutting board, cut into strips that are about 3/8 inch wide, once all the strips are cut, check each one for any meat tissue and trim that off. Be careful doing this as pieces will be very slippery. Here you can see the strips and the meat tissue I removed on the right.
• 12. Place a bowl to catch the fat. For this method, you are not going to load up the hopper with a bunch fat, you are going to do this one strip at a strip at a time, as the grinder is grinding the skin as well, so we do not want to overwhelm the grinder or slow the motor. Turn the grinder on and drop in a fat strip, when that is coming out, drop in another. This actually goes quite fast.
• 13. Place the fat in your slow cooker. And proceed with adding the 1/4 cup of water and setting the cooker to Low.
• 14. Stir every hour, the fat and skin will turn golden brown and the bits will sink to the bottom, when they start to float, the lard is ready. Mine was ready after 9 hours.
• 15. Pour the lard through cheese cloth placed in a strainer, over a pot, Let the brown bits drain for about 20 minutes or so. Remove the strainer and discard the bits, they are so small, don't worry about using them cracklings.
• 16. Pour the lard into a quart jar and allow to cool on the counter uncovered. Once cooled, cover and store in the fridge until use.

RENDERED LEAF LARD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place lard in a Dutch oven and bake until fat melts and the cracklings float to the surface, stirring every 45 minutes (this may take up to 4 hours). Remove from oven and strain into a heatproof glass measuring cup; discard solids. Pour rendered lard into small ice-cube trays about halfway full and freeze.