Adventures in pork fat
Why would you want to render your own lard?
Well... if you like pie crust, but are trying to follow an organic diet you will be very hard pressed to find an alternative to crisco, pura, flora or trex (at least you would in the uk!) and the lard commonly sold in the supermarket is neither organic nor very nice stuff in terms of additives and/or animal welfare.
So, when the organic farm I tend to get our meat from offered me a huge chunk of pork backfat to have a go with, who was I to refuse?
As you can see it was a good sized piece, probably about 2kg or so. There was barely any meat clinging to it, but what there was I trimmed off as this stuff is mainly for sweet baking.
The process was very simple.
Chop the lard, the smaller the pieces the faster it renders out. I did about 1" chunks. Be carefull, slippy, greasy knife and slippy fatback can be dangerous bedfellows.
Drop it in a large pot, heavy based and preferably light in colour. add a quarter cup of water just to get things going. Bring it to a gentle simmer and then turn it down and ignore for about an hour, stir, ignore... repeat until you have tiny translucent chunks floating in a clear to golden liquid.
Strain through a double layer of muslin, I just sat the muslin in a sieve over a bowl. Pour into glass jars with lids, lard picks up smells and flavours very easily.
Chill till set and snowy white... sit back, enjoy the bounty! I instantly wanted to do something with the stuff... and in the end, after much thought I made gingersnaps.
I put together the dough, it needed chilling for at least an hour, no worries! it actually got an overnight stop in the fridge. As I creamed the lard and sugar I did have momentary qualms, it smelt, not unpleasant, but definitely porky.
the recipe... (originally yanked from a newspaper article I read online, adapted from a recipe by Ann Hodgman)
4.5 ounces lard
8 ounces granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling.
1 large egg
4 tablespoons molasses, all I had was organic blackstrap, turned out just fine
10 ounces plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
about half a teaspoon cardamom (my addition, I love cardamom)
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
In a large bowl, or with a stand mixer, cream the lard with the sugar. Add the egg and molasses. Mix well.
sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Beat them into the molasses mixture.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour and up to a day.
Preheat the oven to 375 (190 uk) degrees. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are crackly looking.
Cool completely on a rack.
I got 30 cookies, each using 27g of dough... cooked for nearer the 10 than the 12 mins, I like my cookie bottoms less browned.
Well... if you like pie crust, but are trying to follow an organic diet you will be very hard pressed to find an alternative to crisco, pura, flora or trex (at least you would in the uk!) and the lard commonly sold in the supermarket is neither organic nor very nice stuff in terms of additives and/or animal welfare.
So, when the organic farm I tend to get our meat from offered me a huge chunk of pork backfat to have a go with, who was I to refuse?
As you can see it was a good sized piece, probably about 2kg or so. There was barely any meat clinging to it, but what there was I trimmed off as this stuff is mainly for sweet baking.
The process was very simple.
Chop the lard, the smaller the pieces the faster it renders out. I did about 1" chunks. Be carefull, slippy, greasy knife and slippy fatback can be dangerous bedfellows.
Drop it in a large pot, heavy based and preferably light in colour. add a quarter cup of water just to get things going. Bring it to a gentle simmer and then turn it down and ignore for about an hour, stir, ignore... repeat until you have tiny translucent chunks floating in a clear to golden liquid.
Strain through a double layer of muslin, I just sat the muslin in a sieve over a bowl. Pour into glass jars with lids, lard picks up smells and flavours very easily.
Chill till set and snowy white... sit back, enjoy the bounty! I instantly wanted to do something with the stuff... and in the end, after much thought I made gingersnaps.
I put together the dough, it needed chilling for at least an hour, no worries! it actually got an overnight stop in the fridge. As I creamed the lard and sugar I did have momentary qualms, it smelt, not unpleasant, but definitely porky.
the recipe... (originally yanked from a newspaper article I read online, adapted from a recipe by Ann Hodgman)
4.5 ounces lard
8 ounces granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling.
1 large egg
4 tablespoons molasses, all I had was organic blackstrap, turned out just fine
10 ounces plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
about half a teaspoon cardamom (my addition, I love cardamom)
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
In a large bowl, or with a stand mixer, cream the lard with the sugar. Add the egg and molasses. Mix well.
sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Beat them into the molasses mixture.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour and up to a day.
Preheat the oven to 375 (190 uk) degrees. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are crackly looking.
Cool completely on a rack.
I got 30 cookies, each using 27g of dough... cooked for nearer the 10 than the 12 mins, I like my cookie bottoms less browned.