I know, I know. Make your own lard? Well, why not, lard is a super duper tasty fat and making it fresh at home only makes it that much more fabulous. Lard makes things taste seriously yummilicious! It's the secret to the sauce!
Making your own lard is not only easy but the lard is super fresh and way tastier than the processed stuff that you find in the grocery store.
Wait a minute, isn't this stuff suppose to be bad for you? Well, if you follow health news at all you will have seen in the news a lot lately that lard is not bad for you after all...surprise, surprise! Actually lard was never bad for you, if used in moderation.
What happened is that in the early 20th century a concentrated effort to vilify lard began, mostly in order to help companies sell their new products of margarine and vegetable shortening (transfat!) which as we all now know are very bad for your health. Check out our post on Choosing Healthy Oils to see more about what we think are 'healthy cooking fats or oils'.
So the happy ending is that lovely creamy lard is not bad for you at all when used in moderation (hey, our ancestors used it for many millennium after all). And it really is a very, very tasty fat!
So if you're ready to plunge ahead and make your own lovely tasty jar of cooking lard, you will need to visit your local butcher for a bit of fat. In Hong Kong we go to our wet market butcher for fat and in the States my mom goes to the larger Asian grocery shops and asks the butchers there for fat.
Sometimes you can get it for free, most of the time it's really cheap cuz no one wants it these days. Ask the butcher for 'back fat' if he has it or 'leaf lard' (the fat around the pig's kidneys) if you want the best grade most neutral flavored fat.
Update! My hubby, the appointed lard maker in our house, has been messing around and developed a tweak that produces improved results. Not only that but this tweaked method makes the work easier!
So what exactly is this tweak? Well, previously, to make lard we just cut up the fat and then placed it in a dry pan over low heat and let the lard slowly render out. This method makes lard just fine but has a few drawbacks. First, cutting up raw fat is hard work. Second, the resultant fat is a bit porky in flavor.
With hubby's improved method both of these drawbacks are resolved! And we were tickled pink with the results: smooth, creamy, neutral in taste lard.
With the new method the big pieces of fat are first placed into a pot of cold water and heated up to simmer for a brief time. This parboiling allows any impurities in the fat to be drawn out into the water. Also, since the fat is cooked the texture will be soft and tender and very easy to slice up.
Here is the fat after the parboil. So lovely and white. It is left to cool down before slicing.
The fat is sliced into cubes. It's an absolute dream to slice thru now!
The sliced fat cubes are placed into a thick bottomed pot. Ready to start rendering the lard out!
Water is added and the fat is allowed to slowly render out over low heat. Water allows the rendering process to start without fear of the fat scorching or sticking. Low heat is the key to being able to control the rendering process. Look at that bubbling, so nice!
Keep an eye on your pot as it renders. Here is the pot towards the end of the render. You can see the diced fat has shrunk in size, the liquid fat in them rendering out into the pot. Also the surface bubbling has been much reduced.
There are two options on how to finish the lard. If you want neutral tasting white lard you will want to remove the fat bits from the lard immediately once when you think the render is done. The fat bits at this point should still be a very pale yellow color. However, if you want a more yummy flavored lard (but less white in color), let the fat bits cook until slightly golden (as in the above photo). Then use a sieve to remove the fat bits from the lard.
And what to do with the fat bits that you removed from the lard? You can make delicious crunchy pork cracklings! Just toss them back into a separate pan and fry them until golden and crispy.
I did not know this before the first time we made lard at home, but fresh made pork cracklings are the most yummilicious things in the whole wide world ever and forever and ever! Embarrassingly I did not even realize that we were going to end up with pork cracklings as a side benefit to making lard but thank goodness for serendipitous porky side benefits!
OMG pork cracklings are sooooo GOOD!!! (I know, I'm losing it a bit, my bad, but can't help it, it's porky fever!)
The rendered lard should be cooled for a bit before being poured into a sterilized non reactive storage container like glass or clay pot and left to cool. I prefer a glazed clay pot cuz it keeps the light out which helps the lard stay fresh longer. Store lard in a dark cupboard or in the fridge and only use sterilized utensils to scoop out what you need.
And how to use this lovely oil? We like to add a spoonful to finish off a stir fry and give it that taste boost and gloss that only lard can give. It's also great for making certain baked goods like Macau Almond Cookies 澳門杏仁餅 and Chinese Almond Cookies 澳門杏仁餅 to achieve a chewy crispiness that only lard provides.
Also traditionally it is used in Chinese festival treats like Snow Skin Mooncake 冰皮月餅, Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumplings 炸油角, Red Bean Paste 紅豆沙, and, of course, the wonderful traditional Mooncakes 月餅. Remember, lard is the ancient Chinese secret, the secret to the sauce!
Check out more on our thoughts about choosing a healthy oil/fat for your family cooking needs.
How to Make Your Own Lard Recipe
製作(煉)豬油
製作(煉)豬油
(makes approx 1 cup lard) Prep: 4 mins Cook time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
- 10 oz pork fat, 300g
- 1/2 cup distilled water
Directions:
Parboil the fat: Rinse the fat, making sure any bone bits or extra bits are washed away. Place in a pot and add cold water to cover. Heat over medium heat until the water boils, turn heat down and let simmer for 8 mins or until foamy guck appears in the water. Remove from water, rinse any guck off and let cool to room temperature. Dice the fat.
Render the fat: Using a thick bottom pan, add in the diced fat pieces and distilled water. Using a low heat, let the fat cook slowly until the liquid lard completely renders out, around 20-30 mins. Note that this rendering time is dependent on the amount of fat being rendered as well as the size of the pot being used so the best policy is to keep a close eye on the pot.
Check render: How to tell that the rendering is finished? As the fat renders out the bubbling on the surface of the liquid in the pot will reduce by a lot. When the fat bits are floating and there is only slight bubbling, check further by using a scoop to lift out the fat bits up out of the lard. They should feel quite light as the fat inside them should have render out into the pot.
Remove fat bits: Once the render is finished scoop the floating fat bits out with a slotted spoon and put aside for the time being. If you want the lard to have a bit more flavor let the fat bits cook until golden in color before scooping out.
Cool the lard: Let the lard cool. Pour lard into a sterilized dry jar. Allow the rendered lard to cool completely before covering.
Make pork cracklings: Toss the fat bits into a pan and fry until crisp and golden. Once crisped to your liking salt the cracklings, let cool and store in an airtight jar, if they last that long.
Store the lard: Store in dark cupboard or the fridge (we prefer the fridge) for up to 3 months or longer. Just give it a sniff before using to check for any rancid odor. Use a clean dry spoon to scoop out lard as needed. Enjoy!
Tip: Another super duper easy way to make lard is to strain and save the bacon fat rendered when you crisp up bacon. It will have a smoky, bacony flavor but that is a very good thing no? We strain it into a lidded ceramic jar and keep it near the stove to dip into whenever we need a lick of bacon flavored lard to boost up the yummilicious factor!
Made with Lard at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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How do you say and type leaf lard or back fat in Cantonese? Thank you 😊
ReplyDeleteHi, in Chinese leaf lard is 板油. ~ellen
ReplyDelete