To Preserve Unmelted Lard for Many Months
Ingredients
Directions
Rub a generous amount of coarse sea salt on the leaf-fat immediately after taking it from the pig.
Leave the salted fat for two days to absorb the salt.
Drain the fat well and cover it with a strong brine for preservation.
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
- Leaf-fat
- Forms the rich, fatty body of the preserved product, which the salt and brine act upon.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the fat, helping to preserve it against spoilage.
- Strong brine
- Keeps the salted fat submerged in a concentrated salt solution that further preserves it.
The step that matters
Rub the salt on immediately. Salting the fat as soon as it leaves the pig begins preservation before spoilage bacteria can multiply. Delay raises the risk of the fat going off before the salt can work.
“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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