Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
To Make Hog's Lard
Ingredients
Directions
Render the fat
Place the leaf-fat in a clean brass kettle over low heat.
Gradually increase the heat until it boils, stirring often.
Avoid scorching the fat to maintain flavor and color.
Pour the melted fat through a colander into an earthen pot.
Return the remaining fat in the colander to the kettle and repeat until all lard is extracted.
Store
Once cooled, store in small bladders tied tightly or in a pot covered with paper if using within two months.
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
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leaf-fat of a large hog
- Supplies the fat that melts down to become the lard itself.
The step that matters
Avoid scorching the fat. Scorching burns the fat and its solids, giving the lard a bitter taste and darker color. Gentle heat renders clean, pale fat that keeps its mild flavor.
“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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