Cooking With Lard

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 6:45 pm

This discussion is proof that one thing can lead to another. It all started with me shopping for a new frying pan. My current pan has a non-stick coating that is starting to peel, and I think we can all agree the particles of synthetic anti-stick coating are not something we want in our food...so I started looking at uncoated pans. I wanted something high quality and American made, so a 12" All-Clad stainless skillet was our choice. Proudly made in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, I can't wait to try it.

The catch with an uncoated pan is to keep the food from sticking. I have solved this in the past with lots of butter and a little less heat, but I started doing some research to see if there were other products that made sticking less of an issue. Turns out a lot of people are advocating for cooking with lard. Many claim it produces better tasting food, is healthier than many of the "fake" alternatives, etc.

Some reading:

http://primary.slate.com/articles/life/food/2009/06/lard.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/seasonal-recipes/cooking-with-lard-zmgz12djzkon.aspx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/cooking-with-lard-baking_n_5212804.html

Any thoughts? Any of you use lard for cooking?


 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 6:52 pm

That's all we used when I was a kid. I've been lax, lovin real butter the way I do even in all my cast pans-- I do use Crisco to season the cast--kinda lard but way different LOL--BUT, I'm gonna try and track down some natural lard & give it a shot. Thanx for the post Rob.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 7:10 pm

Crisco used to be the thing. My Mother and her Mother used it in a lot of cooking.

But as we found out in the Cookin' With Coal thread in an effort to be "healthier", today's Crisco has changed from what it was years ago. Doesn't work as well for seasoning cast iron pans as it used to either.

We haven't tried using real lard, but we do watch a lot of PBS cooking shows. We've noticed that we're hearing about lard use in recipes of professional Chefs more than we did a few years ago. Seems worth at least doing more looking into it.

Paul

 
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Post by franco b » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 7:20 pm

Coconut oil is the least damaged by the heat. Olive oil is also good.

 
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Post by scalabro » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 7:21 pm

Goose fat is the King.

Duck fat is the Queen.

Pork fat is the Jack.

Ask any chef!

Try roasting potatoes in Goose or Duck fat....once you do, there will be no going back :lol:

 
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 7:39 pm

franco b wrote:Coconut oil is the least damaged by the heat. Olive oil is also good.
We use coconut oil occasionally. It is great for baking things, but in some cases the coconut taste can throw things off.

 
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Post by michaelanthony » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 8:03 pm

scalabro wrote:Goose fat is the King.

Duck fat is the Queen.

Pork fat is the Jack.

Ask any chef!

Try roasting potatoes in Goose or Duck fat....once you do, there will be no going back :lol:
I agree, I have yet to try goose fat but duck fat is amazing...duck con fit, pronounced con fee is unreal. :punk:


 
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Post by tikigeorge » Mon. Feb. 08, 2016 8:54 pm

Try the cast iron Lodge, made in the USA. It takes time to season the pans, then to keep them in shape. But you don't have to worry about the toxic nonstick Chips getting in your food.

 
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Post by Den034071 » Tue. Feb. 09, 2016 8:31 am

We miners at number 9 mine received a donated lunch for working .Our president made bar b que twice a month .It was real good I mean real good . Steve the pres. was about 78 .I asked him what was his secret to the flavor .Lard yes lard .I an the other miners aftera January shift dove into this chow topped with raw onion . jack

 
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Tue. Feb. 09, 2016 8:48 am

Cooking French fries in lard and beef fat is what made McDonald's famous. In 1990, they stopped using beef fat and switched to an oil blend containing canola, soybean and hydrogenated soybean oil.

When I was cooking at our Little League concession stand, I planned on switching to beef fat but the "powers-that-be" said no.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Feb. 09, 2016 12:24 pm

We have some Stainless steel pans. I stopped using them because fried foods seems to stick to them more so than cast iron or Teflon pans. Eggs and fish especially. We went back to using cast iron pans for most of the frying.

I read about using flax seed oil to season the cast iron pans. Said it has a very high smoke point plus other benefits. Turned out to work very well.

This past weekend I used "Easyoff" oven cleaner to strip a cast iron pan that got trashed on a camping trip. Cleaned it right down to like-new cast iron.

Then cutting open some flax seed oil capsules (available in the vitamin/supplements section and cheaper than the liquid form in bottles) I squeezed out the oil into the pan then wiped it around with a paper towel to give it a light, even coating all over.

Then I placed the pan on the pie shelf in the top of the coal oven where it gets to 400F + for a few hours. Let cool and then did another coat. Four light coats was all it took.

The flax seed bonds better and has a tougher, nonstick surface that isn't gummy like any of the times I've used bacon fat, olive oil, or vegetable oil.

Pix are of the pan I did this weekend.

Tonight it gets it's first use frying some Chicken. Wish I had some lard to try out with it. :(

Paul

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Post by CapeCoaler » Thu. Feb. 11, 2016 12:20 am

One of my customers is a French Restaurant... ;)
Poached Duck eggs on Duck confit hash...
Wikipedia yummy...
Confit of goose (confit d'oie) and duck (confit de canard) are usually prepared from the legs of the bird. The meat is salted and seasoned with herbs, and slowly cooked submerged in its own rendered fat (never to exceed 85 °C (185 °F)), in which it is then preserved by allowing it to cool and storing it in the fat.
Better yet baked potato coated in duck fat while baked...

 
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Post by NJJoe » Thu. Feb. 11, 2016 9:28 am

Lard is great. Its one of the best cooking fats. Too bad it has a unhealthy stigma. Its actually healthier than butter for you. Less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat and less cholesterol. A baker once told me his secret to the flakiest pie crusts; a mixture of butter and lard. Butter for the rich flavor and lard for the flakiness. Lard has huge fat crystals compared to other fats so it makes the best pastry shortening. When these crystals melt in the oven, that's what leaves behind voids in the pie crust that results in flakiness.

All of this goes without saying though. The store lard you find on a shelf is junk: very unhealthy for you and poor for pastry purposes. It has been bleached, deodorized, treated with preservatives and the fat hydrogenated so it can become shelf stable. The best lard is one that has been slowly rendered from the visceral fat surrounding the loins and kidneys and then stored in the freezer. Anyone who wants to try lard in cooking is best served by befriending a butcher and having him set aside the viceral fat for you and stay away from store shelf lard. It can be rendered in the oven. A great byproduct of the rendering process are the "cracklins". You know the bacon bits salad toppers they sell in the store? Disgusting imitation bacon flavored "bits". You can get the real thing from your own lard production and they are delicious!!

 
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Post by unhippy » Tue. Jun. 21, 2016 2:42 am

We have started cooking with lard in the last few years.....soooo much better taste and you seem to use alot less lard as well compared to to the amount of olive oil or butter that you used to cook the same meal.

The lard that I get is from a butcher that does a nice little side business rendering down the pork fat into lard...of which he has 2 types, one for baking and a 'frying' grade lard.....dunno what he does differently but you can taste the difference if your cooking with it.

 
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Post by franco b » Tue. Jun. 21, 2016 9:59 am

Lard used to be the preferred cutting oil for drilling metal. Just dip the drill in hardened bacon fat.


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