Home Rendering Lard – the RIGHT way!

*please refer to my YouTube video by clicking here if you are more of a visual learner!*

I’ve posted on my Instagram a handful of times, mentioning in passing how much I love making pie crusts with it. A few curious folks reached out to me and asked me how I like to make lard, because they have memories as children of their parents making it and it smelling awful!

I’m here to tell you that lard shouldn’t stink if you’re doing it right!

Lard gets a bad rap. Admit it, when you say the word, you think of globby fatty yucky images, huh? But did you know that lard alternatives, like a specific vegetable shortening, are so much worse for you?

This specific shortening was invented by Proctor & Gamble in the early 1900s. A soap company at the time. It is derived from partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil. The hydrogenation process turns a liquid into a solid, so it was heavily marketed for home bakers to use instead of lard. And hey , it just so happened the company found a nice cheap fat source to keep making soap. Unfortunately, these hydrogenated oils are heavy in trans fats, a leading factor of heart disease! But with heavy marketing and a very cheap cost of production, Cris- I mean- this specific shortening, boomed in popularity.

But anyway, enough of the history lesson. I’m here to show you how to make the best snow white lard in all the land!

Bonus: it shouldn’t take on any hint of porky smell if you follow these steps, which makes it ideal for baking dessert pastries. Mmm, pie.

Step 1: Source Your Pork

If you’re going to eat meat, eat it right. That’s our motto around here anyway. By that, I mean try to source your meat from local farms. And if you can, try to only buy pastured meat products. Then use every part of the animal as possible.

We are thankful we live a short drive away from many local farmers who share our animal welfare qualifications.

Step 2: Partially freeze the pork fat, then cut it up into small pieces.

Why take this extra step? The smaller the pieces are, the faster they melt, which means less time the fat needs to be on heat, which means the less opportunity to absorb any porky smell. I like to grind my pork fat with my kitchenaid mixer attachment for the quickest results.

Step 3: Place the fat in a large pot over medium low heat

Again, we are trying to avoid any porky taste or smell. By keeping the heat low and slow, it helps the fat melt evenly, but without accidentally cooking any of the pork meat bits that are inevitably in there.

Later, we will be removing those pork bits to make cracklings!

Step 4: Patience

But really. The trade off of the process to nice white pure lard is that it takes a much longer amount of time.

Keep stirring your pot occasionally, and after some time you should begin to see it turn more liquidy. It’s melting! At this point I like to turn down my heat just a tad more, especially if I hear any snapping (think of it like cooking bacon) or if I see any of the pork bits browning too much.

Step 5: Sift the pork pieces out

This is the key to keeping your lard free of the pork taste. When your pot turns into mostly liquid, get yourself a ladle and start scooping out any meaty looking pieces that remain. I like to set them aside in a cast iron pan to cook later.

Have you gotten all the remaining solid little pieces out of your pot? Good, it’s time to move on to the next step.

Step 6: Strain the liquid to remove sediment

Fat is really good at absorbing… stuff. That’s why I try to source from the best farmers I can, because I’m ultimately eating what these pigs were fed! But this next step is also a way to ensure you get very pure lard.

Get a separate pot on the stove (medium to large size will do), put a fine mesh sieve on top, then later a piece of cheesecloth or paper towel inside of that.

You’re going to be slowly ladling the liquid from your original pot into this filtering system, where it’ll catch any sediment, then allow the liquid lard to drip down into the pot below.

Sediment levels vary between fat sources. I’ve done this where I only had to use one piece of paper towel total, then another time I was changing out the paper towel constantly. If you are finding it’s taking you a long time, you can turn the heat on below your second pot to a very low setting.

Step 7: simmer down the lard

You’re almost done!

To ensure your new lard stores for as long as it possibly can, you’re going to now turn your heat on just high enough to see it start to simmer. We are attempting to evaporate any remaining water from the fat. This step usually takes me about 20 minutes.

Bonus step 7: cook cracklings

Remember those pork bits you set aside earlier? Get the heat going on those and let’s crisp them up! Think of them as bacon bits when cooked. They are amazing on salads, potatoes, just about everything.

They’ll likely let off quite a bit of liquid lard as they cook down. This won’t be the pure white stuff we’re after, but it’s great to have in the fridge for cooking! I always pour it off into a jar for saving.

Step 8: jar it up & cool down

Now that you’ve simmered your lard, let’s ladle it into some jars!

What containers you are using depends on how you are planning to store your lard. In my experience, it can stay in the back of the fridge for a few months, or over a year in the freezer. If you are refrigerating, you can fill up jars. If you’re planning on freezing, don’t fill the jars more than halfway to allow for expansion. You can also use freezer friendly containers like these.

Oh boy! Your lard is poured, it has cooled down to room temperature and turned bright white! Now what do I do with it exactly?

Two words: pie crust.

And guess what? Because you got this far, I’m going to let you in on my secret and simple pie crust recipe.

Just so you know, just about everyone who has eaten this crust has said “oh my God”.

So here’s that for you down below. Thanks for reading, and as always, drop a comment below if you want! I love hearing from you!

Becca’s Pie Crust

1/2 cup lard

1 1/3 cup flour

4ish tablespoons cold water

Combine the lard and the flour as well as you can until it’s kind of a flaky mess. Add COLD water. Use those hands, work it in. If it’s too sticky, add very little quantities of flour as needed.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Flour a rolling pin, roll out your crust as you like. My best advice? The fewer times you have to manipulate your crust, the flakier it will be in the end. Try to roll as little as needed to fit your pie dish.

*the cooking lard we reserved from making cracklings makes a great pot pie crust!

Enjoy!

Happy growing,

Becca