Why Oil Separates Prom Lard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Provide a lard cooler with an agitator attached.
For every 100 lbs of lard, put 100 lbs of water in the lard kettle, add four ounces of lard purifier, and throw 100 lbs of lard into this water.
Wash and heat
Start the fire and gradually heat until the lard is melted and as hot as it will stand without boiling over.
Keep stirring the lard until it begins to melt, thoroughly washing it.
After the lard is thoroughly washed, skim off the scum that rises to the top.
Allow the lard to settle for about two hours so all water separates and settles at the bottom.
Skim the lard off the top of the water and then let it cool, but keep agitating or stirring while cooling until it is thick like cream.
Cool and blend
After rendering, agitate the lard as it begins to cool until it becomes thick like cream before running it into buckets.
If the lard is not agitated, stearin crystallizes and oil separates; by chilling and agitating while cooling, stearin does not crystallize and oil will not separate.
Add about ten percent tallow to lard stored in winter for summer use; sell it as lard with ten percent tallow added.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lard
- Is the fat being purified; its stearin must be kept from crystallizing so it stays smooth.
- Lard purifier
- Is added to the washing water to help clean impurities out of the melted lard.
- Tallow
- Is blended into winter-stored lard to adjust its texture and firmness for summer use.
The step that matters
Agitate the lard while it cools. If lard cools without stirring, stearin crystallizes and oil separates, leaving a grainy, uneven fat. Stirring until it thickens like cream keeps the fat smooth and blended.
“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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