The Taylor Five

I rendered lard last week.  Are you crazy? you ask.  Yes, I am crazy, but not because of the lard.  More on that later, but here’s a preview if you’re really curious about what could be crazier than melting pig fat on your cooktop.

Lard is actually a good traditional fat and an excellent source of vitamin D.  More here.

Anyway, here is what the leaf lard (that’s the good pig fat) looked like when I bought it from the lovely people at the farmer’s market.  That’s a big bag, mind you.

There’s the lovely stuff.  Nice and white.

The first step is to cut the fat into small pieces.

Put the pieces in a big pot with a little water to keep the fat from sticking.

Cook at medium-low heat, and after about 20 minutes, it begins to look a little shiny and slippery.

After another 30 minutes of cooking and occasional stirring, the fat has cooked out and the cracklings are floating on the top.  I’m sorry, but that looks good even if the idea of lard is repulsive to you.

Keep cooking until the cracklings stop popping, or until they sink to the bottom, or until you’re at a stopping place in the kids’ schoolwork.  I don’t think it matters too much.  But what do I know?  I have no idea what I’m doing.

I laid an old tee shirt on a big strainer and poured the oil through into a bowl.

Lovely lard-oil.  (I don’t think that’s a real word.)

Poured into a jar, obviously.

Later I decided to change containers, and here it is after cooling and hardening.  Beautiful lard!

These people think so…

And beautiful cracklings, which the children were eager to try out.

I made them wait so I could capture on film their first experience with cracklings.  Look how excited they are!

Finally, the go ahead.  Enjoy, sweet ones!

Oh my.

Yikes.

Umm…

Oh dear.

OK, so the grimaces were because they were too hot.  I promise.

Really, they finished off the bowl.

Are they crazy? Yes, they take after me.