Got this from Lehman's today can't wait to try it Rendering Lard: A First-Timer's Guide - Lehman's Country Life enjoy CG
We put ours on the wood stove in the winter. It takes most of the day so we just wait for a good cold day when we know we will need a hot fire all day long. Feeding cracklings to the chickens in this house would be a capital offense, punishable by death Wants really fun is to call my Dad when we are munching on cracklings and listen to him drool from a 1,000 miles away. OGM BTW any animal fat can be rendered it doesn't have to just be pig fat.
My only concern is - what is the spoilage on lard? Crisco and oils are darned near immortal (well, at less than 100* or so ), but doesn't lard have much less resistance to rancidity? I've used lard before. It was rendered and came from the 'local' butcher shop (no, not monkey man). Unfortunately, everything that came from that shop had the same half-smoky taste, even the lard. I've given the last two batches of lard I had to MO Titmouse 'cause I didn't have any room in the freezer to store it . Maybe she won't get any more . ~Falcon
OGM, have to agree on the cracklins but wasn't my article. Falcon Dance I would think if canned it would keep just fine and I love the taste of foods fried in it over "Crisco" types. My city family who had never eaten or even knew of lard all said what did you do differently when they tried the fried chicken. Of course I had done 2 things differently...1 home raised & butchered chicken and fried in the lard. They didn't like chicken, and they can't say that now. Now that was store bought lard and I am looking forward to rendering my own this year and trying it out Cheers CG
Whilst I was at the store yesterday with Titmouse, I looked at the packaged lard just out of curiousity. In its ingredients list (I'd have thought only one ingredient, but apparently I'm just simple) was listed partially hydrogenated oil! You know, the very processed stuff that has now been proven to be BAD for us! That and a few other goodies, assumably for preservation purposes. *sigh* Guess I'll have to look into rendering my own if I want the "real thing". ~Falcon
One thing that will play a large part in its shelf life, from what I have read and my limited experiencewith it, is how well you render it. As long as you get all the liquid out of it and keep it so it isnt exposed to air or a lot of heat then it tend to keep a LONG time. If you dont get the liquid off of it and leave it open to the air in Missouri mid summer heat, then it most likely wouldnt last to well.
the last time i renderd fat was last mo. i renderd the coon fat that i had in the freezer.makes great boot grease. i made bore butter for the frount loader w/ it.good stuff.