I hate to say it, but I think flour tortillas come out better when made with lard. I also find donuts to be better when fried in lard. I rarely purchase lard but would do so more often if I found a source where I was confident of the quality of the animal.

When I was 9-years old my cousin (also 9-years old) gave me her mother's recipe for crumb cake and it called for lard. We always baked two of these cakes when our parents got together to play cards for a dessert with coffee after the game was over, and it was a favorite cake of mine for many years. Lard was still the most common household fat at the time (1961). Out in the country we all had hogs we raised, processed, and in the freezer back then, and that meant we all had lard. That crumb cake recipe always tasted better with lard than shortening or butter. It was a distinct memory trigger from my childhood. I can still get fresh lard from a meat processing plant, but only around the holidays, and I wouldn't use the hydrogenated crap they sell in the stores now. I may have to take a page out of Annie's book and render my own because it's the WWII generation who purchase it for their special recipes during the holidays, and there's not many of them left, and not much of a market for lard anymore.

Chicken, and everything else for that matter, was always fried using lard, but fried chicken on Sunday was always the best. Lard has a distinct flavor you probably had to be raised with to appreciate. And to the science..... Lard has larger fat crystals than shortening or butter, and that's why it works so well for making pastry. When the highly-advertised Wesson oil hit the market, it soon became an embarrassment to use lard because it was so old-fashioned.

A friend of ours will be retiring from a paper company out of Wichita, KS in August, after 52 years of sales with them. He sold all over central Kansas. He says when he first started selling for the company, paper lard buckets (with the flat paper lid that fitted on the top of the lard) were his top selling product because nearly every little town had a meat processor. Now he can't even remember the last time someone ordered them.

Most unfortunate name. Not much better in Italian. Lardo.

I use it. Not the commercial brands that for some reason add unnecessary ingredients to 'preserve flavor'. (?) Partially hydrogenated and treated with bleaching and deodorizing agents. We get a cubed one that needs to be refrigerated. I freeze as i don't use it often. More like a render-as-you-need-it, an easy hot rendering, and the tiny cracklings i use as a garnish for some chowders and fish dishes.

Called scrunchions in Newfoundland.

I do like duck fat. Also not used that often. Love the flavor and its cooking ability for crisp like lard.

A dish i like, an appetizer, served with bread at the table, uses tiny cooked shrimp, packed tightly in small ramekins. Finely minced onions and scallions softened in the rendered duck fat or lard. Then add fresh herbs. Then fill the ramekins and chill. Some add a bit of butter. It has a name or maybe it is something that was altered using local ingredients.

Oh thank goodness! I am a very good cook ( if I do say so myself), and I use lard for all the things mentioned here. Probably others, too.

I also shop at Aldi! Family has always known about lard and Aldi, friends not so much. I just smile and say thanks when the compliments come in. If asked, I always 'fess up, never try to deceive our guests, but most people disdain both lard and Aldi and can be vocal about it, so it's better left unsaid, IMHO. Never had a friend "who knew" not come back for more, though.

I buy lard from the Mennonite farmer who renders it.

Love it in pastry, 1/4 lard, 3/4 butter.

Today I used coconut oil in my pastry to see if it tastes better. Someone made a pie crust using coconut oil recently and Grainlady has used it for 20+ years. With all the health benefits of coconut oil hype I wanted to try it. I can honestly say that I didn't like the way it rolled out, the chunks didn't break down like lard and butter do. My rhubarb pie is cooling so we can't do the taste test yet.

The reason lard works so well in pastry is because it has a larger fat crystal than butter or shortening.

Tip for adding coconut oil to pastry (as well as any solid fat):
Freeze the fat. When you are ready to make the pastry, grate 1/2 of the fat on a box grater into the flour and mix it until it creates a fine mixture. This will be the tenderizer. Where fat coats the flour it won't absorb liquid and form gluten. Every step of making pastry is about avoiding gluten-development - including starting with a low-protein flour.

Grate the remaining portion on the large holes of the grater and add the last portion of fat so there are still some chunks remaining. This will create the flakiness. Where the large bits of fat are located they melt during baking, and the steam lifts the pastry layers to create flakiness. Mix in the liquid quickly and form into a disk. Freeze the disk to harden the fat before rolling it out.

I think you needed to experience lard early in life to really appreciate it. It's a flavor not everyone likes when experienced later in life.

I used to use lard for tamales, but I have switched to duck fat, and that is even better, but I have to roast a duck to get the fat. DB will not eat pork lard, but it gives great results for tamales, and they are not the same with other fats/oils. I prefer pork (carnitas) tamales, but I generally make them with turkey or duck now, or else chicken.

Grainlady, I had forgotten how easy it was to render lard and my crockpot works better than anything else, I think because it never really gets hot enough to cook the cracklin's so there isn't so much of the "porky" flavor. The cracklin's get cooked in a frying pan after being dipped out of the lard.

Grandma also used lard to fry doughnuts, make fry bread with lard and then fried in lard and she had a mincemeat cookie recipe that she always used lard in.

sheesh, I shop at Aldi. My daughter likes their gluten free pasta and I buy produce there. It's nearly always grown in the USA and many times it's local. I like that, plus their cheese is cheaper and my husband likes that!

Lard is actually healthier than shortening and margarine with their transfats and healthier than butter, according to experts. Lard contains 40 percent saturated fat compared with nearly 60 percent for butter. Its level of monounsaturated fat (the "good" fat) is 45 percent while butter is 23 or so percent. Of course, it's still fat and should be used in moderation.

Annie

People here have mentioned home rendered lard; that's a hugely different item from the hydrogenated stuff you buy at the supermarket. I had used some of that stuff before and wasn't really impressed, but then a friend who raised his own pigs gave me a quart mason jar of lard. Great stuff, but he's moved away...guess I'll have to start rendering my own.

Lars, Have you tried tamales with rendered chicken fat? I wonder how that would work. Part of me wants to work on rendering some pork lard but my daughter this year decided that she was no longer eating pork products so I have to keep that in mind.

Our supermarket, Stater Bros, meat department renders and sells it by the pound. I just bought some. They had it packed in 2 styrofoam containers taped together with one on top. Our apple tree is loaded, so it's pie time. Going to try the Stater Bros variety of Lard.

Love the thread in praise of lard....
Duck fat french fries are my absolute favorite. Even better than beef.
Slices of lardo on crostini -- delish.
Tamales with real pork fat =yum. The duck fat version sounds heavenly.

I have not tried tamales with rendered chicken fat because I do not get enough of it from a chicken - barely enough for use as schmaltz in Matzo balls. However, I do get huge quantities of fat from duck, which of course I will not waste.

I used to get pork lard for free at a Cuban meat market where I would buy masa. It was a waste product for them, and they would put it in a Styrofoam cup for me.

Our apple tree has lots of apples now also, but they generally do not get ripe until September. The tree never loses all its leaves, and it is always very late to put on new leaves. Here's the tree February 11, 2015 - still had not lost leaves:

I am another believer in lard......remembering being raised with lard use.....Mother had a 5 gallon can she keep lard in...she baked pie crusts, biscuits, fried every thing in it.....and a lot of frying was done. Even 50 yrs ago when My Bill and I were married we used lard from our own hogs. My pie crusts always turned out real good with lard. I tried hard using other shortening one kind or another....I was never happy always went back to lard...never gave up lard for pie crust, however let up lard use on most other things.

Remember Annie said she rendered her own....that was not feasible for us anymore..... thought I would buy some fresh from a slaughter house. Last fall found one near by and yes they had lard and bought 10#. For last Thanksgiving I used for my pies, using up 2 lbs. The pie crust were not good, had an off taste. Working the crusts up things were not right, didn't feel right, didn't smell right, and the pies did not turn out right. I threw the other 8 pounds out. I buy lard in the grocery stories, do have one favorite brand tho. Just this week made a blackberry pie with store bought lard and it turned out well.

Chicken fried in lard is the best fried chicken in the whole wide world! ! !

I use lard too. Pie crust is not the same with butter. I think it makes the crust hard. My mother used lard for frying chicken and doughnuts too, as I do. We have a butcher nearby that renders it. Duck fat is wonderful too, especially for fried potatoes.