Rending lard & making chicharrones.

The finished product. As it solidifies, it will turn a nice white color.


I'm sure you're looking at this title saying to yourself, "Who the hell just renders some lard?" Well, I do. I cook a LOT and I don't want hydrogenated-anything in my cooking fat. And besides all that, hog fat is $0.20/ lb.

Rendering fat has been around for centuries and remains a reliable way to produce shelf-stable cooking fat or shortening. It's a great source of the RIGHT KIND of saturated and unsaturated fats-- read as, not hydrogenated and not TRANS-anything, and it tastes great. You can render it in water or in a dry pan. Water-rendered lard gives you a tremendously mild product, while pan-rendered can be a bit porky. Since I don't bake much (and vegetable shortening will KILL you), I use the dry pan method.

What you need:

Cast iron pan (I prefer cast iron for its heat-retention, but any pan will do)
A few pounds of hog back fat
'Lil bit of water
Sterilized wide mouth canning jars + lids
Butter muslin
Rubber bands, 1 per jar



Pork on the slab, and cubed.

You start with fat back pork. You can buy this from your local butcher-- I buy mine in slabs, skin on. If you can get it skinned or better yet, skinned & cubed you can save yourself some work.



The fat, mostly rendered.

Once I have it skinned & cut into smaller cubes, I put it in a cast iron pan on medium low heat with a few Tbsp. of water to keep it from burning. As the fat melts, you can gradually increase the heat some until you're at a medium-medium-hot. Eventually what you'll you have looks like the picture above-- some pieces of tasty golden brown fat pieces & a lot of liquid. When these are nice and crispy, they can be fished out and snacked on. Known as hog cracklings, chicharrones, or pork rinds they're delicious with a little bit of salt.



While all this is going on, you should have sterilized those jars and lids and placed butter muslin over the opening with rubber bands. This will filter the sediments (little burned bits) out of your lard. I like to let it cool a little bit and then transfer it into a 2 quart Pyrex measuring cup-- the kind with a pour spout. Using that, pour the lard VERY SLOWLY through the muslin. It won't flow quickly and you can get over-invested, so take your time.

When the jar's filled, twist the lid on tightly and refrigerate. While lard is shelf-stable and many a Grandmother has left a jar in the cupboard for whoever-knows-how-long, I err on the side of caution and refrigerate. It will keep in the refrigerator for months.

Enjoy!
B.