The sausage place was wonderful. The person who helped us was very knowledgable. No lard or pork belly available today. Bought 20 german bratwurst. Went to a nearby Wegmans that is more "international" than the Wegmans that I usually go to. After way too much time standing in Wegmans trying to make a decision.... I purchased Morrell Snow cap lard. It does say "with hydrogenated lard bht and bha added to help protect flavor". I'm going to try it with the idea of going back to the sausage place to get pure lard when they have it available. For this weekend, If the crullers don't come out with the Morrel lard I will use crisco. I will try them again with pure lard when I get it. Many of you make rendering lard look easy but I need to make sure I don't run out of time with hosting two parties this weekend. Thank you all for the help! On a side note, I dropped off my grandmothers cookbook at a binding repair shop. The cover is completely off. They are going to put on a new cover trying to make it look as much as the original as possible. Kinda of sad to replace the original cover but its the only way to make the book usable.

The problem with coconut oil is that coconut is a common allergen (I'm allergic, for one :) ). That probably doesn't matter if you're topping with coconut cream. :) There are all kinds of coconut products that are being used as vegan substitutes to great success, but for entertaining, I'm always looking for the items with the fewest known sensitivities. Which is why I'm going to definitely look for the Sectrum shortening Cloud Swift mentioned. I've never seen that. The Crisco has soybean oil, which is another problem for some people. It also has hydrogenated oils, whereas the spectrum is organic and pure palm oil. They say it makes flaky pie crusts. They also have a non-dairy butter flavored one on their site that they say is good in cookies. I wonder about that because vegetable shortening in general isn't great in cookies. I'm definitely going to try this. Like Cloud Swift, I don't like baking with parve margarine. Apparently it used to be better. When I wanted to make a parve version of my mother's challah recipe, Healthy Choice had come out with a zero trans fat shortening, which worked great and I used it for cakes, pies, etc. Then I went to find a new can and it had disappeared but Crisco had started selling the same thing. The timing led me to believe that they might have bought the product from Healthy Choice, though that's speculation. It seems identical, however. Oh, I should say, with the addition of water as described for the substitution, be aware of your recipe and how it bakes. It makes for a lovely, moist crumb, but if you want something stiffer and drier you could skimp a bit on the water. But, as I said, I'm going to try the Spectrum, too. :)

The lard is all done, it took about 2.5 hrs and I ended up with a little over 11 pints. Here's what I started with... Just out of the oven... In jars... The cracklings taste pretty good to me and my dog thinks they are great. I may save them in the freezer to add to a few dishes I cook. I already used some of the lard tonight when I made a pork sweet n' sour stir fry. I didn't deep fry my pork, just browned it in the lard and then simmered it a bit in pineapple juice. Nancy

Madonna, for you I'll also pray for no snow, so you can get to your DH without any driving issues. Dave, my mechanic/son-in-law assures me that if your vehicle runs OK, just ignore the light until you can conveniently deal with it. It can be anything from the gas tank cap not being on tight to a loose wire in the radio. If it runs OK, just go see DH and get to the Jeep repair when you can. I was hoping you would get to go south, but with DH in the hospital, I guess that's on hold. (sigh) You'll both be in my prayers, stay strong, I'll be thinking of you. I really like the Nathan's Never Fail pastry recipe, but that other poster was having such an issue with home rendered lard that I decided to haul out the most basic recipe I had, one that specifically called for lard, and use it. The recipe actually made enough for three crusts, as I tend to roll my pastry somewhat thin, so I have an extra in the fridge right now. Maybe coconut cream... LindaC, you're right, I'm not worried about my driving, I'm worried about everyone else's, snow or not. And don't even get me started on those people who need to be talking on the phone or texting while driving, and can't even get through the pharmacy drive-thru without holding up the line behind them because they're busy texting instead of watching where they're driving! As for the pie crust, I usually don't measure the fat very carefully, I plop it in. About half a pint jar of lard in the fridge? That's probably a cup, or at least it's close enough, LOL. I remember Grandma used to use a two cup measure, add a cup of water then fill with lard to the 2 cup line. She'd then use some of the water for the crust, and didn't have a greasy measuring cup to wash because the fat floated in the water, so I know she was more careful than me! Annie