Making pastry with home rendered lard
There is an ongoing thread regarding home rendered lard. The OP was having trouble with her home rendered stuff, said the crust made with it was "wet and slimey" and the hydrogenated stuff at the store just worked better. She wondered about the consistency of her lard, both frozen and at room temperature. Not one to shirk a challenge, and since I just happened to have a pint of my home rendered lard in the refrigerator, I decided to experiment.
The lard right out of the refrigerator was firm enough that I had to cut it into pieces with a knife to get it out of the canning jar I had it stored it. I bent a spoon hopelessly trying to scoop it out. So, I chucked the pieces into a pile of flour, using my old Farm Journal recipe with 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 cup lard. It does say if you are using shortening to use 1 1/4 cups of that. Add 6 tablespoons of cold water. It took nearly twice that to hydrate my crust sufficiently.
The OP likes to grate frozen fat into the flour and then mix. Since I don't like melting the fat with the heat from my hands while grating and the resulting greasy fingers, I have a different weapon of choice.
I don't think it takes any longer to cut in the lard with a pastry blender than it does grating it all up on a grater, but you may be better at it than me!
The resulting crust was neither wet nor slimy.
I didn't refrigerate it, I dumped it out onto my lightly floured counter and rolled. It rolled out well, with no sticking, tearing or split edges, other than my lopsided rolling, LOL.
I picked it up and placed it in the pan in one piece, only folding it in half and then unfolding. It wasn't so fragile it tore, although I did have to handle it carefully.
The filling went in, the top crust went on and into the oven. About an hour and a half at 350F, and it was supper.
The crust was flakey, even on the bottom, in spite of the gravy in the beef filling. Even the thick edges were flakey.
As with all cooking related things, your mileage may vary. I find home rendered lard to be easy to work with, good to eat and it makes a magnificent pie crust. I hope the poster on the other thread works out whatever problems she is having and maybe this will help.
Annie
Comments (12)
10 years ago- 10 years ago
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Lard, tell me what I need to know.
Comments (32)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....See MoreRendering lard question
Comments (12)My oh my! This brings back memories. It has been a lifetime since i have seen the fat rendering process. Back on the farm in the 1940s, my mother rendered lard on butchering day. It was done in a large iron kettle outside over an open wood fire. The mix had to be hot enough to drive the fat out of the meat, but not hot enough to 'burn' the fat. After the fat was liquified, it was merely ladled or poured off into suitable containers. The remains, cracklings or seared and dried meat, was saved for snacks. Doing large bactches outside kept the fumes and grease vapors out of the house. The vapors from a large batch can soil the walls (and everything else). When you fry bacon, you are rendering on a small scale. We always saved the bacon fat for later uses. Two good uses are for frying potatoes and popping corn. The bacon grease imparts a wonderful flavor to these two foods. Popping corn in bacon grease may not be healthy so I am told. The grease gets very hot and can form harmful compounds on oxidizing....See MoreLard rendering questions
Comments (9)Well, it isn't flavorless, nothing is flavorless, not even water, but it doesn't taste obviously "porky". It turns white in the jar but is actually a pale yellowish when I first strain it through cheesecloth and put it into the jars. It turns white when it firms up. I freeze mine because it will turn rancid if left out long enough. You can also just ladle off the melted part as it melts, and strain it, you don't have to wait until it's all done. As I mentioned, the water will cook off but the fat will rise to the top anyway, so it can be ladled off and strained as it melts. I get a better result when I grind the fat instead of just chopping it up in pieces, but do not let those bits cook. It will not all melt, there will be small meaty bits left. That's what gives it the pork flavor. You can take those bits and fry them until crispy and they'll be "cracklins" which can be added to cornbread. Good luck! Annie...See MoreKAW...rendering lard..why I love old skillets..
Comments (28)Yum.. All these posts are making me hungry! Caryscot... I just posted a link to the vodka pie crust recipe on the Thanksgiving thread for Oldbat2be. Anyone interested can call a butcher shop and ask them to save you the leaf fat. I understand that's the best to use for rendering. Good lard from well raised hogs is sooo much better than all this vegetable oil. I've read where canola and corn oil and such go rancid AS you are digesting (or trying to anyway) them. That is if they aren't already rancid by the time you use them. They are polyunsaturated and very unstable. Lard, coconut oil, tallow, palm shortening... very stable, long shelf life and full of nutrients. The veil is starting to be pulled back on the processed food industry and it's 'phude' products. Long overdue, IMO. Glad to see all the real food people on GW!...See More- 10 years ago
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annie1992Original Author