Lard!
It’s good for you, explains Slate’s Regina Schrambling, and it’s good for the environment, too:
… if you are going to eat an animal on a planet at risk from too many humans raising too many animals to eat, you have to eat the whole thing. Lard is just about the last stop before the squeal when pork producers are extracting every savory bit from a pig.
That environmental consciousness coupled with competitive cooking has resulted in the nose-to-tail trend set off by British chef Fergus Henderson. Walk into any high-end restaurant these days and pork chops are less prevalent than pig’s ears, trotters, and jowls. The salumi/charcuterie craze has also been great for enhancing lard’s profile, particularly thanks to lardo—pork belly cured Tuscan-style with wine and herbs and served in thin slices over warm bread or on pizza. If Mario Batali says it’s good, diners everywhere listen.
Read the whole thing. When we can get our hands on the stuff (it’s a bit more expensive than butter, so we don’t always buy it), Angela and I frequently use lard for soups, pie crusts, and home-baked bread. Another tip: save your (preferably high-quality) bacon grease in the fridge, use it as a base for soup, and cut out the cheapo store-bought chicken broth altogether. Yum!
Filed under: food
My stepmother grew up in a very poor part of southern Kentucky. She used to tell me that her grandmother grew up eating lard sandwiches when times were tough. Even 70 years later she would occasionally eat one for ‘old times sake’.
I use lard in cooking occasionally but I draw the line with smearing it on some Wonderbread.
I always have lard in the fridge. A lard/butter combination is my secret for my famous pie crust. And when I make tradition Hungarian dishes like gulyas and paprikas, they just don’t taste right unless you brown the meat in lard. I figure it is far less bad for us than Crisco.