What does it mean to render lard?
Rendering lard? What is that you may ask as well as wonder how to render lard. Let me help to clarify what it is. Lard comes from pork fat that has been cooked down a.k.a. rendered and filtered. This process starts off with a slab or ground up fat straight from the pig. The ground or cubed up pork fat is then heated and melted down. During the rendering process the fat separates from skin, meat, or other tissue that may be encased in the fat. Then it’s filtered and stored away where it turns solid at cooler temps or stays liquid at higher temps or somewhere in the middle depending on environmental temps. Lard can be used in frying, baking, seasoning cast iron, oiling pans for cooking, oiling leather, and even in homemade body products.
Note Worthy: lard comes from pig fat and tallow comes from beef fat.
Can we render any lard?
When we learn what it means to render lard, the next question may be can we render any lard? The short answer is yes… First off, there are four main types of lard.
1) back fat= back fat is the most plentiful as well as the most commonly used lard. Back fat lies just below the surface of the skin on the back of the pig.
2) leaf fat= leaf fat is prized. Leaf fat covers the kidneys. This fat will render down into the most white and odorless lard of all. However, there is not nearly as much leaf fat as there is back fat. Because of the lack of quantity and the fact it’s so pure is why it is reserved for baking such as pie crusts and tarts. Seriously, you wouldn’t want your flaky pie crust to taste or smell like pork would you?
3) caul fat also called lace fat= this fat is a thin membrane that surrounds the organs of the pig. This particular type of fat is not rendered down but instead reserved for using as a wrapper and wrapping around other slabs of meat.
4) Pork belly fat= we don’t render this fat down as it tastes like bacon and is so flavorful instead we find delicious recipes to use this fat for.
Back fat and leaf fat can both be rendered into lard using the same process, but we just rinse and store caul/lace fat.
Can we render lard from any source?
Now that we know what it means to render lard and which pork fat can be rendered, now we need to get our hands on some pork fat.
Can we get pork fat from any source to render into lard? This question will have different answers depending on who you ask, so you’ll actually have to answer this for yourself, but here are some things to think about.
If you plan to use your rendered lard only for frying then you can get your pork fat from trimmings off of any part of the pig. Simply keep the trimmings in a freezer bag in the freezer. Then once the bag is full, render it down.
You could be more choosy and ask the grocery store butcher or a butcher shop butcher for specific pork fat.
You could order your own hog or pig from a farmer and ask the butcher to reserve the pork fat for you too. Or better yet, you could raise your own pork.
As you can see, it should be pretty easy to get your hands on pork fat to render into lard. Now let’s talk about the quality of the pork fat.
As I already listed above, it shouldn’t be hard to get your hands on pork fat, but not all pork fat is created equal. This is where you have to decide for yourself what quality you want.
We have all heard the phrase “grass-fed beef” and how it’s much more healthy than feedlot cattle that are fed only grain. The same can be said for pork, poultry, and even eggs. I refer to it as how God intended. Any animal raised as God intended is going to naturally be more healthy than what the modern industry feeds them. As far as vitamins and nutrients when comparing feedlot to how God intended the raising of animals goes, from my research, it sounds like the vitamin and nutrient content is close with God’s raising being slightly higher.
The real difference comes down to the omegas. We all know that omega 3 are healthy while a diet high in omega 6 is detrimental to our health.
Which pork would you rather consume? Which pork looks healthier? The pork on the right is raised outside in fresh air, sunshine, and is free to eat grass, roots, and plants. Not to mention it has several acres to run around on. The pork on the left is kept in some sort of housing, fed only dead, dry grain, and is confined in much tighter spaces. Also understand that as animals are raised in more confined spaces, the risk of illness increase which means medication use for these animals increase. The free pork is naturally higher in omega 3 while the confined pork is higher in omega 6.
Side note here: omega 6 isn’t bad in and of itself, what makes it bad is when we consume much higher amounts of omega 6 than we do omega 3, but that’s an article for another day.
One more question worthy to be asked is what kind of grain the pig is fed. I won’t go into detail on this, but I’ll just say I personally do not want to consume a pig that has been fed GM or GMO grain. That’s an article for another day.
You may wonder what does it matter what a pig is fed and how they are treated if you’re going to render lard. Think about this, what a pig eats is what it is. What you eat is what you are.
How to render lard
Now the fun part and focus of this article; how to render lard. Note Worthy: beef fat can be rendered into tallow using this same process.
STEP 1 to render lard: cube up
Once you have your lard, I find it is easier to cut if it’s frozen or partially frozen. If it’s completely thawed out or especially at room temperature, it’s quite greasy and slippery. Sometimes the pork fat I get comes in a large solid slab and other times the butcher processes it into long thin strips. Simply cube the pork fat up into evenly sized cubes; the smaller the faster it’ll render down and also the more lard you’ll get as there will be less surface area so more will cook out of it. However the less cracklings you’ll get. You can also grind the fat so it’s quite small. I prefer cubing my pork fat on a wooden cutting board as it helps to oil and condition the wooden cutting board. Win! Let’s touch on cracklings. Cracklings are a delicious by-product when you render lard. Cracklings can be bits of meat or any tissue that was embedded in the pork fat. These are delicious salted. They remind me of a lighter version of pork rinds.
Step 2 to render lard: Place SOME pork fat into a cast iron dutch oven
Yes, I said that to render lard to place the cubed fat into a cast iron dutch oven however, you can render lard in a slow cooker or in a non cast iron pot that is heavy bottomed. I personally love cast iron, and I find rendering lard in cast iron has the added benefit of seasoning my cast iron. Win! I just turn my pot or slow cooker on very low or warm until the fat begins to melt down. LOW AND SLOW. Simply add a small amount of cubed pork fat into your cold cast iron dutch oven and turn the pot on very low. LOW. Make sure the pot is not only clean but DRY.
**Do NOT cover the pot. This will trap the steam and add water to your lard. We do not want there to be any moisture from water in our finished lard otherwise it will mold or go rancid in storage.
Step 3 to render lard: Cook the pork fat
To render lard turn the stove on a low LOW heat and stir the pork fat frequently. Keep stirring until the small amount of pork fat has melted and coated your dutch oven with a thin layer across the bottom of the pot. Add the rest of your fat and stir until all the fat chunks are coated with the melted fat. By stirring frequently, this keeps from having hot spots and keeps the pork from burning. We want it all to melt evenly. Be sure not to heat your pot up too high as this can overcook your lard or burn your cracklings. If this happens you’ll lard will have a strong porky smell and flavor. I recommend using a wooden spoon while stirring your melting pork as this helps to oil and condition your wooden spoon. Another win! Continue cooking and stirring until there are no more bubbles and the cracklings are a nice golden color. When I say “bubbles”, I mean that is a thing to look for in order to know your lard is finished. Think about when you deep fry something. There are a lot of bubbles and splattering, which is the moisture cooking out. So we want to make sure all the moisture is cooked out of the lard. Don’t let your pork fat boil. Low and slow.
Step 4 to render lard: Remove cracklings, filter, and bottle
Once the lard has completely quit bubbling, which means all the moisture has cooked out, use a slotted spoon to remove the cracklings. The cracklings should be a golden color. Place the cracklings on a paper toweled plate, salt, let cool a bit, and enjoy! You can strain and filter your liquid lard multiple times, but I use a funnel on top of a wide mouth glass jar. On top of the funnel I have a coffee filter and on top of that I have a reusable fine mesh coffee basket. Another option to filter your lard would be draping muslin over a fine-mesh (non nylon) strainer and over a funnel above your glass jar. Carefully ladle the hot liquid into your strainer and filter and into the glass jar. It should go without saying, but make sure your glass jar isn’t cold as your jar may crack; this lard will be very very hot, so be careful. It’d be best if your jars were warm or hot. Make sure the jars and lids are clean and dry though.
Once the cracklings are removed and your filter strainer is ready to go, turn the heat off and start ladling the lard into your jars. You’ll notice the color will be like a golden yellow color, that’s ok it’ll lighten up and be more white as it solidifies. Fill the jars as full as possible about 1″ of headspace and place a canning lid and ring on them. This just helps to keep out oxygen to help keep your lard pure longer. The heat of the lard will cause the lids to seal, but please note we are NOT canning lard. Once it has cooled for about 24 hours, it should be solid and have a creamy off white or pure white color. Unless you used leaf fat, the lard may smell a bit porky, but not bad.
How to store your rendered lard
Congratulations you rendered lard, now you need to know how to store it. If it was rendered properly and all the moisture evaporated out and the impurities were all removed then this lard is shelf stable, but I recommend storing it out of direct sunlight, in the dark, and preferably in a cooler place.
However, if there’s a chance your rendered lard isn’t completely pure or you’re in doubt, store it in the freezer or fridge. If it starts to mold, consider tossing it out. If kept in ideal conditions, the lard can be good for up to a year. However I have a jar that I use weekly in the fridge that is still perfectly good and is 19 months old. If you stored your lard in a pantry, once you open the jar and start using it, it’s best to store in the fridge thereafter.
How to use rendered lard
Once your rendered lard is finished, you can substitute it in place of shortening for a 1:1 replacement or in place of cooking oil. Simply melt some lard down and let it cool slightly then use in place of liquid oil. I have a friend that uses lard in her homemade body products. My oldest daughter uses it when oiling leather. I use it for cooking and seasoning my cast iron.
Troubleshooting when you render lard
Mold can happen in your lard if it wasn’t rendered properly. This can be because there was moisture in the lard or all the impurities weren’t rendered out. If you’ve already been using your lard and find it is now developing mold, another possibility could be that moisture or bacteria was added into the jar as you were using it. This can also happen with ferments. In our home we have a rule that when we get into yogurt or any kind of ferments, our utensils must be CLEAN and DRY. We don’t use the same utensil between multiple fermented jars nor do we use our hands.
If your finished and cooled lard is dark tan or brownish in color, it has either been overcooked or not rendered enough.
If the lard has a strong, unpleasant odor, again it was either overcooked or not rendered enough in order to get all the impurities out.
We hope this article was helpful for you and inspired you to make your own lard. You can do it!
