Comments on: How to Render Lard

By: Roxanna Youngblood

Roxanna Youngblood — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:46:04 +0000

How much lard do you get from, lets say, 1 lb of fat? and do you leave the lid on if you put it in a crockpot?

thanks,
roxanna

By: Vampiragrl

Vampiragrl — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:48:03 +0000

A friend of mine recently had some chocolate chip/nut cookies made with bacon grease and didn’t even realize it until he asked what they were made with because they were so delicious!

By: Leona Arthen

Leona Arthen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:09:20 +0000

I read this while waiting for my batch of lard to cool enough to pack. I freeze mine and find it the very best for pies. This batch may have gotten a bit overcooked but I’ll use it for savory pies and label the next batch for sweet pies. Nothing better!

By: Deena

Deena — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:36:28 +0000

Love the info on this site, it’s great to know so many people are doing there own rendering.
I render tallow and lard mostly for making soap but I do cook with the lard also. They both make wonderful soap.

By: Wynne

Wynne — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:27:58 +0000

You can render any animal fat I can think of the same way. With things other than pork, you want to remove as much ‘non fat’ as possible, and keep the temperature very low in the process. It’s especially important to get any chunks of meat off very early in the process. It makes the tallow/suet/grease less meaty tasting (I’d call it “sweeter”).

You can render sheep fat for lanolin (don’t cook with it; it doesn’t taste good), deer, beef, even rabbit fats for cooking; duck fat for using in confits…the list goes on.

North American Indians used bear oil as a cooking ingredient regularly, for example.

If you want to use the rendered fat for non-food use (think about tallow candles used prior to kerosene lamps being available), the cleanliness and freshness is less important, but you’ll want to do the rendering outside if it’s not super fresh or has skin and meat in it.

By: richard

richard — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:46:06 +0000

also id like to add if you have a convection oven and a rack for the fat dripping to fall through in to the bottom of your convection in to a posible pan it makes better cracklings + it renders them rather low fat and still good eating.

By: richard

richard — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:43:33 +0000

yes, i have a question pertaining to this add. now i have over time kooked alot of baken and ucumulated alot of lard or pig fat, but i havent any idea what i should do with it other than cooking with it. I have also found it a good to making soap or using it to create biodezl. but what other practicle aplications in the uses of pig fat? im interested because given all the pig fat ive acumulated id feel bad just throwing it out when or if i could use it to do other things.

By: Candace

Candace — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:21 +0000

Kim

Did you place the lid on the crock or cook it lid off?

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:49:27 +0000

Thank you for posting this! I’ve had two half-hogs’ worth of pork fat sitting in my deep freeze for a few years because I’ve been too intimidated by the idea of rendering it. It turned out to be really easy, following your directions! Thank you!

My cracklings didn’t fully render in the pot but the process wasn’t going anywhere at the end there, so I strained it all and then put the cracklings onto a sheet pan. They went into the oven for something like 40 minutes, and I stirred and drained them periodically. The amount of fat that they gave up in the oven was pretty surprising!

By: Brenna

Brenna — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:28:56 +0000

RE: Crockpot Lard Rendering,
For those who have done it, did you let it cook all day and then just take the cracklin’s out, simple as that? Or did it need monitoring/temp adjustment/etc.? (I’m wondering if I can leave it on while I go to work).
Thanks!