To Try Out Lard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the lard leaves into small pieces and remove all flesh.
Render
Place a few pieces in a kettle and cook slowly until they are tried out.
Add the remaining pieces and continue cooking until the scraps are crisp.
Strain the mixture through cheesecloth into pails.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lard leaves
- Leaf fat is the main ingredient; slow cooking melts it out as clear, pure fat.
- Suet
- Adds more hard fat to the rendered lard, giving it a firmer texture when cooled.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the scraps are crisp. Low, gentle heat melts the fat out of the tissue without scorching it. Scorching darkens the lard and gives it a burnt flavour, while stopping too early leaves water and fat still bound in the scraps, reducing yield and shortening storage life.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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