Preparing the Fat and Rendering Lard

[230gr]

Preparing the Fat and Rendering Lard

The Best Fat to Render
   The back fat, that from the top of the back, is the best fat on a pig for making the best tasting and highest smoke point lard. It is equivalent to belly (bacon) fat but with much less meat. It can be used and processed into as “fatback” which is poor man’s bacon.  The internal organ (Caul) fat is the poorest in quality, taste and it is also has the poorest shelf life. Although still perfectly useable, it should be kept separate from the better quality lard. If you are going to process the fatback similar to bacon, leave the skin on but for lard remove it and save for making pork rinds!
•   Rendering the Lard
   Render out doors if at all possible as the greasy smell is over whelming if done in an enclosed area. Also there is a safety issue to considered as a quantity of lard catch fire is like a fire bomb going off and you do not want that anywhere near your house.
   First chop that fat into as small of pieces as practical, then place the fat into a deep cooking vessel along with about half that volume of water. This keeps the fat from scorching until sufficient grease is produced for distributing the heat and cooking it. It also produces the whitest, mildest tasting and best keeping lard. Heat the mixture while starring until the water is boiling. When there is enough grease produced, insert a metal thermometer and let the temperature slowly rises until it reaches 212oF. It will stay there until the water is boiled out of the fat. At this point, the cracklings (fine pieces cooked out meat) will sink to the bottom of the pot and settle there.
   Stirring will likely not be enough to keep the cracklings from scorching so they will need to be scraped out the bottom every so often. Once the temperature rises above 212oF, it will begin to clime with increasing speed. When the temperature reaches 250oF, you have a choice to make. Stop the heat and let it cool, this makes the mildest tasting, best keeping lard for baking or continue to heat and scrape the cracklings until the temperature rises to 325 or 350oF to give it a darker, stronger fried bacon flavor that is preferred for Mexican cooking and deep frying.
   When the lard is still liquid but cool enough to handle, ladle off the clear lard down to the settled cracklings. Using a cheese cloth or screen, gently pour the remaining lard and let the cracklings drain. When the lard solidifies, any that is still liquid or semi-solid left after 24 hrs should be separated out for first use because it the poorest keeping. The highest melting point lard is saved for storage. Storing lard in quantity is best done in air tight metal cans stored in a cool basement or root cellar.
   Cracklings, the little bits of cooked meat left over from rendering, are tasty and useful once the excess lard is squeezed out. Ideally they would be placed in a lard press to remove the last of the lard from the meat crumbs. Without a press, the crackling should be heated, poured through a cheese cloths then formed into a bundle to be pressed by hand while the grease is drained off and collected. Once enough grease is removed, the cracklings, if rendered at 250oF, taste better if they are fried until browned and crisp. They maybe then be used as crumbled bacon in recipes to add flavor. One of the best is for a bacon substitute in soup and baked beans.