Or maybe I have made pig fat famous, depending on how you look at it.

All jokes aside, learning ways to use pork fat in my homestead kitchen has been one of my favorite parts of raising pigs. I once thought pork fat was a bonus reason to raise pigs, but these days it’s one of my top reasons–not even kidding.

Being able to raise pork fat–right here on our homestead–to turn into lard that we use in place of olive oil, butter, and Crisco is really cool.

So while I won’t be attempting to grow olives here in New England, or harvest coconuts to make coconut oil, we are raising all of the fat my family uses year round.

What is pork fat?

Essentially pork fat is any extra fat leftover after processing a pig. Generally, pork fat is rendered into lard, which has a million uses. There are two main types of pork fat–back fat and leaf fat. Lots of people choose to only render and use leaf fat lard–which is considered higher quality and less “piggy” tasting–but I choose to render both into lard and use both leaf fat and back fat interchangeably without noticing much difference.

The secret to not having your back fat taste “piggy” is all in the way you process it.

Hop over here for the tips and secrets in my Complete Guide to Rendering Lard

How to use lard (rendered pork fat)

Given that pork fat is the main source of fat for my family for years now, we’ve gotten creative with ways to use lard, which is just rendered pork fat.

• Use lard as a substitute for butter on your grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Pop your popcorn in lard in place of coconut oil or butter.
• Replace butter with lard in your cookie recipes–seriously, don’t knock it until you’ve checked out my secrets and tried it yourself.
• Use lard in place of any oil you usually use for greasing baking bans, frying french fries or donuts, sautéing stir fries, roasting veggies–you name it, you can use lard for it!
• Create fluffy, tender, moist biscuits, cookies, cakes, muffins, and more.
• Season your cast iron. Pork fat’s high smoke point makes it amazing for seasoning cast iron.
• Use lard as a natural conditioning agent for wooden cutting boards, rolling pins, and spoons.

How to cook pork fat

For all the tips and secrets, definitely go to my Complete Guide to Rendering Lard, but here’s the jist:

1. Cut your pork fat into small pieces so they cook evenly, or possibly even grind the fat if you’re really dedicated and want to get the most lard possible out of your fat.
2. Place the fat into a large pot.
3. Cook the fat, low and slow.
4. Once the fat is all cooked and liquified (you’ll have some small chunks left–those are the yummy cracklings) strain the liquid lard as thoroughly as possible.
5. Pour your liquid gold into jars. Voilà! Rendered pork fat.
6. Bake with your lard and enjoy your hard work.

How to make cracklings from pork fat

Cracklings are the byproduct of rendering pork fat into lard.

You get cracklings by slowly cooking pork fat over low heat until it liquifies (that’s the lard), and the cracklings will be leftover when you strain your lard. They’re delicious to eat on salads, in baked goods or cornbread, or on top of soups, in eggs, or tacos.

To make cracklings, place your leftover pieces that you strained out of your liquid lard in a hot cast iron skillet. Sprinkle them liberally your favorite seasoning and continually keep turning and moving them in the skillet until they are crisp. It only takes a few minutes.

Store them in the fridge for up to a week.

Is pork fat different from Crisco?

While pork fat and Crisco look very similar, they’re actually very different.

You can think of lard as the “real” version of Crisco, since it’s one ingredient–rendered pork fat–and Crisco is a combination of highly processed vegetable oils.

Although they can be used in the same ways, I choose to use lard and avoid Crisco. However, keep in mind that pork fat from the store–labeled as lard that usually comes in little boxes or containers next to Crisco–is hydrogenated in a similar fashion to Crisco. I highly recommend finding a local source for pork fat and rendering your own lard, so you know exactly how it’s made.

Does pork fat taste bad?

When it’s rendered correctly, pure white lard will be mostly flavorless. Back fat lard will have a slightly more “porky” flavor than lard made from leaf fat, but both are a great, neutral-flavored oil that won’t overpower other flavors in your dish.

Pork fat vs. beef fat (lard vs. tallow)

Rendered pork fat is called lard and rendered beef fat is called tallow. Both are great options for healthy fats in your kitchen, with a few differences.

Lard has a milder flavor profile, and tallow will impart a beefy flavor on anything you add it to. If you’re looking to add beef flavor to your dish, opt for tallow. If you’re looking for a mild flavor that doesn’t overpower, grab lard.

Tallow had a bit of a heavier nature, whereas lard tends to taste lighter.

Both have high smoke points and are great for frying.

While lard and tallow are both healthy fats, lard is known for enhancing the texture of baked goods, and tallow is known more as a frying fat.

At room temperature, tallow stays firmer than lard, which makes lard a better choice for spreading like butter (remember those grilled cheese sandwiches I mentioned?)

In this article you’ll find lots more details comparing the two and you can listen in as RuthAnn Zimmerman and I dive deep into the comparison of lard vs. tallow on my podcast (and on youtube): Are lard and tallow good fats?

And on this episode of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, you’ll love the conversation I had with Jill Winger, all about Old Fashioned Foods: Are old-fashioned foods actually healthy?

Grab my Pantry Checklist & lots of great deals on great ingredients

Pork fat is an essential ingredient in our kitchen, but there are a lot of other items too. I am happy to share my pantry checklist with you because I firmly believe real food can be much more “doable” and convenient to make if we just make sure to have the important staples on hand.

I also firmly believe we all need to keep some moolah in our pockets whenever possible, so I’ve filled my pantry checklist with exclusive discount codes as well.

Go here to grab yours right now. It will take about 4 seconds & instantly save you time and money.

More on pork fat:

• Complete guide to pork lard
• Complete guide to rendering lard
• Are lard and tallow good fat?
• How to bake with lard (and why you should)

Talk to me about pork fat…

If you have questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your lard in your kitchen @souly.rested.

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.” Isaiah 1:19

The post Pork fat: your new kitchen bestie first appeared on Souly Rested.

My friend, RuthAnn Zimmerman, and I chatted about this in great detail today. I hope you join in our conversation, via youtube or the podcast.

Are lard and tallow good fat?

Yes, both lard and tallow are good choices when it comes to fat. Today we’ll talk about both. First, lard…

We’re pig farmers here on our little New England farm & sugarbush, so I’m pretty enamored with lard. Lard is, quite simply, pig fat from their back and around their organs that has been heated up (“rendered”) and then strained, cooled, and stored. I’ve written a lot about it…

A Complete Guide to Pork Lard,

How to Render Lard,

How to Bake with Lard, and

I’ve shared recipes like Chicken Pot Pie &

Chocolate Chip Cookies made with lard.

My Friend, RuthAnn Zimmerman, is in love with Tallow

While I could talk on and on about lard (yeah, I know I’m weird like that), I know very little about tallow and have never rendered it or used it… except for tallow face serum and tallow balm that I love. (Use code SOULYRESTED to save on these if you’d like to experience the amazingness of what tallow does for your skin.)

So when I knew I wanted one episode in our current podcast season to focus on good fat, I immediately asked my friend, RuthAnn, if she’d join me for a deep dive into this topic.

Our whole season is focusing on Things we need in our diet daily & what we don’t know about them, from salt to veggies to sugar and fat. Follow the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast on your favorite podcast player for all the goodness this season. Find links here if you need them.

Join in on my fun conversation with RuthAnn via youtube or listen in on Apple Podcast here.

Here are some of RuthAnn’s insights into tallow:

What is tallow?

Tallow is made from fat that is sourced from a cow’s kidneys and heart (called “suet”). This is the purest fat on the cow. You can use other fat from the cow (found on their back and in other areas) but it will taste a little more “beefy” than the pure tallow.

Does tallow taste different than butter or margarine? 

Yes, tallow has a deeper, richer taste than what you’re used to if you bake with margarine, shortening, or butter.

What color is tallow?

Because it has some Vitamin D (but much less than lard), tallow can be a rich, yellow color, similar to butter, if the cow has been exposed to sunshine for many years.

Tips to rendering tallow?

RuthAnn Zimmerman’s full directions are here, in this video.

Don’t be deterred from trying it; it’s easier than you think. Low and slow is best, and patiently strain off any pieces of meat & break up large chunks of fat.

Realize that any beefy smell in your kitchen while rendering is good… this means the “beefy” taste is dissipating into the air.

Consider asking butcher if they can grind your suet, but ask if there is additional charge for this.

Feel free to toss your frozen suet right into your roaster for processing. It will melt and render fine in the pan.

For the best taste, avoid letting your tallow smoke as you’re rendering it.

Best uses for tallow?

Tallow is great for seasoning cast iron and using to make moisturizer/lotions.

Is tallow shelf-stable?

Yes, if it is rendered correctly tallow will not go rancid and is very shelf-stable.

What About Tallow Balm?

There is truly no better skin care than tallow, IF you are sourcing it well. Meet the Hearth & Homestead Store and find all my favorite skincare products there–Click here to find the best tallow balm & ancestral skincare you will find anywhere AND an exclusive savings code, just for my readers.

More thoughts on good fats

Listen in as RuthAnn and I chat all about our love for these two good fats on S7 E4 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast. 

More details you dont’ want to miss in this episode:

• What hydrogenated oil is still in the recesses of RuthAnn’s kitchen? And why can’t she totally give this bad fat up?
• What does RuthAnn see as the most important reason to use good fats in her family’s meals?
• RuthAnn’s thoughts about her kids eating processed potato chips.
• If RuthAnn used tallow or vegetable oil when growing up in a Mennonite home.
• RuthAnn’s insight into how she knows when she’s “mastered” a recipe or new thing in the kitchen.
• Why RuthAnn never goes cold turkey with the family when switching out ingredients for healthier options.

What are the good fats to eat?

The best fats to include in your family’s diet are the real fats, from animals. And any fats that are natural and not hydrogenated.

Good fats include:

Lard (search “lard” & use code SOULYRESTED)

Tallow (save with code SOULYRESTED)

Olive Oil

Ghee

Avacado Oil

Butter

What fats should you avoid?

Any fats that are highly processed and hydrogenated should be avoided, if possible. This includes, but isn’t limited to, vegetable oil, canola oil, margarine, and shortening.

Which is considered a good fat?

My favorite fats to use… in fact, honestly, the only fats I’ve used for a few years now, are lard and avocado oil.

I use lard much more often than avocado oil. Typically I only find I need that for drizzling over things, such as my air-popped popcorn (before adding popcorn salt and popcorn flavorings) and my garlic-pepper Brussels sprouts.

I chat with the Chief Experience Officer of Azure Standard about good fat options, and much more, in this podcast episode: 3 Ingredients You Should Rethink (S5 E18)

How much good fat can you eat?

Overall, foods that are considered good fats (NOT hydrogenated ones) should make up about 1/3 of our diet. In general, the other 2/3 should be from protein sources and carbohydrates. Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are the 3 macronutrients that our body needs.

What happens if you eat too much good fat?

While good fat is essential for our body, it is certainly possible to eat too much of even a good thing. Consuming too much healthy fat will result in weight gain.

What are 10 good fats?

These 10 choices are all sources of good fats:

Fish, avacado, nuts and seeds, ground flaxseed, eggs, olive oil, and beans, lard, and tallow.

Ingredients I Love Using–including Good Fats

While tallow isn’t on my own pantry list, it’s a great fat to have and use. Go here to purchase great tallow at the best price I’ve found.

Pssst… Want in on my real food secret? I get all the best ingredients & healthy snacks by doing my monthly food shopping with Azure Standard. Their quality and prices can’t be beat, I haven’t found quality wheat berries anywhere else anywhere near their prices, and we love to get staples there that I can’t even find at the local grocery store. See if they deliver near you. 

And take 10% off your entire first order with Azure (of $50 or more) with code SOULYRESTED10

More on Good Fats

The post Are Lard and Tallow Good Fat? first appeared on Souly Rested.

In today’s podcast episode I’m chatting with Jill Winger about all things old-fashioned foods. We cover:

• Has reducing “bad” fats & carbs from our diets made us healthier?
• If real food is life giving and good, why are we told to avoid it?
• Why has our society shifted from the way our grandparents ate?
• Particular foods we’re told to avoid that the Winger family eats a lot of (& why)
• Who is to blame for our obsession with processed food over real food?

Listen in to the podcast episode on this topic (S5 E6) over on Apple Podcasts right hereor click below:

Join Jill & Michelle on YouTube for their conversation on this topic:

Related Resources

To grow the best, most nutritious food, you need the best quality soil. This is my secret weapon: This Soil Test Kit. Use code SOULYRESTED to save 15% off! And snag a couple so you can retest next season and know if other amendments are needed. Bonus: shipping will be free if you order a couple.

The story behind my poor soil and how one test kept me from killing my garden.

My articles and recipes for Cooking Your Way Through the Pig

Links we refer to as we ask “Are Old-Fashioned Foods Healthy?”

The Forbes article that suggests a maximum of 4 egg yolks a week.

The Old-Fashioned on Purpose podcast episode we mention about the nutritional choice of using animal fats: Season 8: Episode 10: Magical Animal Fats

Where to find Jill Winger?

Her book: Preorder Old-Fashioned on Purpose here

Her podcast: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/old-fashioned-on-purpose-podcast

Her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jill.winger/

Her blog: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/

Resources for folks wondering if  old-fashioned foods are healthy

My Complete Guide to Rendering Lard (an article about the healthy fat)

How to Use a Calendar to Improve your Health (podcast)

Tips for Improving Your Health, at any age (podcast)

My 7-page Pantry Checklist (free download)

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Are Old Fashioned Foods Healthy? with Jill Winger (S5 E6) first appeared on Souly Rested.

I was rendering lard and had more cracklins than usual.

The same day I had quite a craving for kamut chocolate chip cookies.

Naturally, I started fantasizing about adding some cracklins into said cookies. The rest is history… and every bacon lover’s dream.

While I use fresh milled Kamut usually for these cookies (find out here how to use fresh flour in any recipe), here I’m sharing a simpler recipe. But feel free to add bacon to any chocolate chip cookies made with fresh flour too.

Print

Cookies Made with Bacon

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter at room temperature (I use lard)
• 1 1/2 cups maple sugar or brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 2 1/2 tsp maple or vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3-3 1/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet mini chips
• 1/4 cup cut up bits of cooked bacon or I use cracklins, when I have them

Instructions

• In a large bowl, beat lard and sugars. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup.
• Combine 3 cups flour, mint, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl, then beat the flour mixture into the rest.
• Stir in chips and bacon (or cracklins).
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Place teaspoonfuls of dough on cookie sheets. No need to space out much, these cookies don’t spread when they bake. But you will need to flatten them with a floured cup bottom or a fork if you prefer them to be flatter instead of thick and round. The lard will hold its shape in a thicker mound if you don’t flatten them. (Both ways makes for a delicious cookie, so don’t stress over this.)
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, switching trays from top to bottom racks halfway through. The cookies may appear a bit underdone, but their edges should just begin to turn golden brown.

Notes

• I render my lard and freeze it in butter-shaped molds so it’s super easy to use in place on butter in any recipe. Go here for more details about baking with lard.
• Go here for details on how to make your own maple sugar.
• If you’re using butter instead of lard, you will probably want to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before working with it. Add an additional 1⁄4 cup of flour if the dough doesn’t seem quite thick enough after refrigeration. (Before chilling, if I’m using butter in this recipe, my dough is always too gooey, but I resist the urge to keep adding flour because I have made these cookies too cake-like by doing that in the past.)
• If you’re using butter you may find you want to cook the cookies a few minutes longer and cool them completely on cookie sheets, where they’ll flatten, and their centers will harden slightly while on the tray. After they’ve cooled, they’re chewy and moist.
• This recipe has a little more extract than usual; I find I need the little extra “umpf” when baking with lard… I will admit lard does not pack the same taste punch as butter (I LOVE butter yall) but feel free to only add 1 tsp of extract if you’re making these with butter.
• Mini chocolate chips are optional, of course, well I mean to most folks. I don’t see them as optional, cause I love the extra small bits of chocolate in every cookie. Plus, I love having both the milk and semi-sweet tastes of chocolate.
• I recommend either using medium-cooked bacon or be sure to cut crisp bacon into tiny pieces. You don’t want hard chunks in your cookies.
• While any salt will work just fine in this recipe, Redmonds salt is truly the best. It’s mined over 400 feet below ground, right here in the U.S. so it’s naturally protected from pollutants (not something you can say about salt mined from the ocean) and more than 60 trace minerals. If you want to try it out, use my code SWEETSALT to save 15% off your entire order, anytime.

Can you buy lard for making chocolate chip cookies?

You can absolutely source good lard, either as fat that you can render down yourself, or as already rendered lard. Here are some tips:

1. These regenerative farmers raise the best lard you can find: Check it out.
2. If you live in New England and would like to purchase a whole or half a pig, I would love to chat about how our family farm can help you load your freezer next fall (with amazing pig fat as well as delicious pasture-raised meat). We keep a waiting list, and I am always happy to meet new customers and expand our plans for next year, to make sure your family enjoys high-quality meat next year (if I can’t help you today). To message me, hop over to instagram or send an email to michelle(dot)visser(at)outlook(dot)com.
3. Find local pig farmers and ask around until you can hopefully find one who either sells lard they have rendered or maybe the raw fat which you can then render yourself. (Or just store away until you use it, in the case of caul fat.)
4. Go to eatwild.com and search for a pig farm near you.
5. Order online. Seriously. You can purchase this amazing fat, ready to use, and skipped to your door:

Caul fat

Lard made from back fat

Lard made from the inner, leaf fat 

 

Items I use to make these amazing cookies:

The post Cookies Made with Bacon first appeared on Souly Rested.

How do you bake with lard?

Essentially, you can use lard in your kitchen any way you would use other fats. Instead of canola oil in your skillet, use a TB of lard. Instead of margarine in a cake, use equal amounts of lard. Instead of butter in cookies, use the equivalent of lard, or half butter half lard.

It does behave differently than other oils. That’s because with lard, the fats stay intact when they melt. With butter, on the other hand, the oil and the milk separate at higher temperatures. The oilier the food, the more likely it will be harder when it cools, so cookies made with butter will be crisper and cookies made with lard will be chewier.

You’ll also find biscuits and pie crusts and pastries made with lard are truly amazing, flaky, and so light.

Tips for baking with lard in place of butter:

• You can substitute lard for butter in a 1:1 ratio.
• You can also use 1/2 butter and 1/2 lard in any recipe, to keep some of the butter’s flavor but add in the health benefits of lard.
• Experiment with small flavor additions to recipes where you’ve swapped out butter for lard, again, since butter offers a true flavor and lard is flavorless (unless it’s poorly rendered, then it’s bacon flavored. More on proper rendering techniques here).
• My favorite example of the above tip is to add chopped mint to chocolate chip cookies. You barely taste the mint, but wow is the overall impact amazing. See my recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Lard here.
• Also consider adding a few pinches extra of salt or sugar, again, to provide more flavor in the absence of butter.
• Cookies made with butter will always run and need to be at least 2″ apart on cookies trays. Cookies made with lard will not run, so you can place your dough balls much closer together.
• If I’m using butter in recipes I will often cook the baked goods a few minutes longer than I do with lard.
• With cookies made with butter I will always let them cool completely on the warm-out-of-the-oven cookie sheets before removing them to a cooling rack. But with the same recipe substituting lard for butter I never do this, but instead remove the cookies from the hot trays right to a cooling rack. The lard solidifies into chewiness so much easier than butter and I don’t want them getting too done on the hot trays.
• I render my lard and freeze it in butter-shaped molds, so it’s super easy to use in place on butter in any recipe. (The molds even have TB marks, so you can use the lard by the TB. How cool is that?)
• If you want to make sticks of lard, with molds like mine, you can then freeze them, in freezer-safe containers, and just grab a bar or two for your next recipe.

Why bake with lard?

It’s a long sordid history of when and why animal fats went out of fashion, but it’s my firm belief that the small revival we’re seeing of folks seeing the benefit of real fat, sourced from well-raised animals instead of a chemical lab is a very good thing.

I was on the Old Fashioned on Purpose podcast recently talking about the history behind this crazy change in the way our nation views good fats. Join here that conversation right here.

But let’s break down why animal fats are good for us. Our body needs the cholesterol and saturated fats found in animal fats, like lard and tallow, for so many reasons.

Here are some of the ways lard benefits our health:

Our organs need cholesterol to function well.

Every cell in our body has cholesterol in it. We need it at a very basic level.  Cholesterol is a waxy, whitish-yellow fat and a crucial building block in cell membranes.

We need healthy fats in our diet for a healthy brain & emotions.

Our brain needs cholesterol, because we can’t create neurotransmitters without it It’s interesting to wonder if that brain fog we sometimes experience is because we haven’t had any fatty (good fat) foods recently. Numerous studies (source) have shown that a low-cholesterol diet is linked to severe depression. 

In scientific trials that studied people who ate less fats, they found an increase in suicide and violence-related death. (source)  there are many other factors at play in such things, we can’t say definitively the correlation is there, but it’s definitely worth noting.

Healthy fats, like lard, are good for us.

Who would’ve thought we’d be eating more nutritiously by eating fat? But it’s true. Lard is high is B vitamins, which play an important role in our immune response.

Lard is high in vitamin D.

Lard—well all products we can eat from pastured pigs—is one of a few food sources high in vitamin D. Because it is sourced from a pig’s back, pork lard made from back fat is very high in vitamin D. Which makes sense. The pigs spend their lifetime basking in the sun and absorbing it through their skin.

Current research shows that we should have 250 micrograms of vitamin D per day. Guess how much lard, rendered from back fat, you need to have 250 micrograms of vitamin D? One tablespoon. That’s it. Yes, lard from pastured pigs contained 1000 IU of vitamin D per tablespoon. 

Lard helps you absorb important vitamins.

Not only does lard come loaded with vitamins, but it helps us absorb vitamins as well. Vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are fat-soluble, couldn’t be absorbed by our bodies without fat in our diet.

Healthy fats, like lard, give us that feeling of being full and satisfied so we don’t over eat.

It’s so helpful that the good fats make our bodies full, because it helps us avoid the temptation of eating processed food, loaded with hydrogenated oils, which are truly the bad fats.

Eating healthy fats with your meal keeps your blood sugar from spiking. So you don’t get that crash (and feel tired) after eating.

So unlike the processed, high-sugar foods that leave you feeling like crap 10 minutes after you eat them, real food that includes real fats don’t cause a “crash.”

In the end, 30% of your calories should come from fats and they should be eaten with every meal.

Keep in mind, though, that moderation is important. Every gram of fat has nine calories. Carbohydrates and proteins have four calories per gram.

So what are the bad fats?

All processed fats, which have been made in a lab, are made with hydrogenated oils. (More below on how these oils in our diet impact our health.)

These oils start off just fine. They’re oil from plants (olives, sunflowers…). Then they go to a lab where an extra hydrogen molecules is parked on every open space in that oil. Why? Lab-produced oils have a very long shelf life and are cheaper to produce than real fats.

What foods include hydrogenated oils?

• margarines
• crisco
• most packaged foods
• many salad dressings
• baked goods at the grocery store
• ready-to-use cookie dough (maybe the worst culprit).

What’s wrong with fake fats?

The list is very long when you start investigating the evidence. When you start looking for articles in scientific journals that describe the findings and results when scientists dive into this very question of “what’s wrong with fake fats?” This list is only a little tip of a very big iceberg.

Trans fat in hydrogenated oil has been shown to:

Negatively impact fetal development (source)

Lower birth weight (source)

Increase diabetes (source)

Increase osteoporosis (source)

Reduce milk supply in breastfeeding women (source)

Lower testosterone (source)

Lower normal sperm count (source)

Increase heart disease (source)

Increase breast cancer  (source)

Increase coronary heart disease [especially from margarine use] (source)

How does lard compare to butter?

The main difference is their source. Butter is a dairy product and lard is a pork product. But both are pretty wonderful.

Their numbers are similar, whether you’re talking calories or smoke point, but here’s the main differences I have found:

• Butter has 102 calories per tablespoon. Lard has 115. 
• Lard has a little higher smoke point 370, compared to butter’s 350.  But ghee (butter with all extra moisture removed) sits at an amazing smoke point of 485.
• Pastured lard is one of the best vitamin D sources on the planet. Butter offers a little, but lard takes the cake in this category. In 1 tb of lard you have 1,000 IU of vitamin D (1 tb butter has 9 IU) . Daily recommended amount is 600-4,000.
• Fats in lard remain intact and soft after melting, but butter separates into oil and milk solids. Butter may wind up making recipes seem a bit oilier and also harder once they cool down, while lard tends to keep them soft. (Cookies are so soft and chewy and they don’t flatten out and spread when baking.)
• And, random fact, lard is more multi-purpose… you can’t use butter to make soap or candles.

Why is lard not used in baking?

Given all of its virtues, I do often wonder why lard isn’t more popular in American kitchens, but I think a lot of it comes down to ease. It’s a lot easier to grab an oil from the store than find a source for pork fat and learn how to render lard. (Here’s my Complete Guide to Rendering Lard, btw.)

And of course many just don’t KNOW the benefits of using lard. Please pin this article and share it with your friends (please tag me if you’re sharing on social media so I can share too).

Which is better in baking–lard or Crisco?

Please, if you have Crisco in your kitchen, only use it if you need to make some emergency stash of candles. It won’t burn pretty, but that is the only thing I can think of that Crisco is good for. But lard, rendered from pork fat (NOT the hydrogenated version of “lard” you might find in stores occasionally) is all-natural, good-for-you fat.

RuthAnn Zimmerman and I chatted about this very topic (and the ONE thing RuthAnn will still bake with Crisco & why) in a recent episode of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast.

What are some other great fats to use in the kitchen?

1. Avocado Oil

2. Ghee

3. Palm Oil

Can you buy good lard?

You can absolutely source good lard, either as fat that you can render down yourself, or as already rendered lard. Here are some tips:

Items I Use When Baking With Lard:

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your amazing creations baked with the good fat @souly.rested.

 

More Information about Baking with Lard:

Chocolate Chip Cookies Made With Lard

3 Types of Pork Lard — everything you need to know about each one.

The Complete Guide to Rendering Lard 

My favorite ingredients I use every day in my farmhouse kitchen

 

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The post How to Bake With Lard (and why you should) first appeared on Souly Rested.

Yes, I bake using lard. And yes, it’s a good fat to have in your family’s diet and use in your kitchen daily. Read more about baking with lard (& why you should) here.

But this recipe is also delicious is all you have is butter on hand. Since butter behaves a little differently in baking than lard does, you will want to do things a little differently with this recipe, so be sure to see the note below for more details about that.

Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies Made Using Lard

INGREDIENTS

1 cup lard (or butter), at room temperature

1 1⁄2 cups light brown sugar

1⁄2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature

1 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1⁄4 cup maple syrup
3-3 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour

1⁄8 cup dried mint leaves

2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (I use this one)
2 cups chocolate chips
1⁄4 cup chocolate chunks

 

DIRECTIONS

Print

Mint chocolate chip cookies with lard

Ingredients

• 1 cup lard or butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3-3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 cup dried mint leaves
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt I use this one
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chocolate chunks

Instructions

• In a large bowl, beat lard and sugars. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup.
• Combine 3 cups flour, mint, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl, then beat the flour mixture into the lard (or butter) mixture.
• Stir in chips and chocolate chunks.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Place teaspoonfuls of dough on cookie sheets. No need to space out much, these cookies don't spread when they bake. But you will need to flatten them with a floured cup bottom or a fork if you prefer them to be flatter instead of thick and round. The lard will hold it's shape in a thicker mound if you don't flatten them. (Both ways makes for a delicious cookie, so don't stress over this.)
• Bake for 11-12 minutes, switching trays from top to bottom racks halfway through. (The cookies may appear a bit underdone, but their edges should just begin to turn golden brown.)

NOTES

• I render my lard and freeze it in butter-shaped molds so it’s super easy to use in place on butter in any recipe. Go here for more details about baking with lard.
• If you’re using butter instead of lard, you will need to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before working with it. Add an additional 1⁄4 cup of flour if the dough doesn’t seem quite thick enough after refrigeration. (Before chilling, if I’m using butter in this recipe, my dough is always too gooey, but I resist the urge to keep adding flour because I have made these cookies too cake-like by doing that in the past.)
• If you’re using butter you may find you want to cook the cookies a few minutes longer and cool them completely on cookie sheets, where they’ll flatten, and their centers will harden slightly while on the tray. After they’ve cooled, they’re chewy and moist.
• For the mint, I use chocolate mint that I grow in our garden every summer. But any variety of mint is delicious in this recipe. Since I store my mint in the dried leaf form all winter long, I need to measure out about 1⁄4 cup of dried leaves and crush them in a mini food processor. This leaves me with about 1⁄8 cup of mint.
• While mint is optional in this recipe, I find I need the little extra “umpf.” I will admit lard does not pack the same taste punch as butter (I LOVE butter yall) but the little bit of mint makes a huge difference in the taste category. Most folks say they don’t even taste the mint in the cookies. (I agree; if I want Mint Chocolate Chip cookies, substitute the vanilla for 2 tsp of mint extract, in addition to the dried mint.)
• Chocolate chunks are also optional, of course, well I mean to most folks. I don’t see them as optional, cause I love the extra, bigger burst of chocolate in every cookie.
• If you want these to be mint chocolate chip cookies, you’ll love replacing 1 cup of the chips with mint carob chips… soooo good.
• While any salt will work just fine in this recipe, Redmonds salt is truly the best. It’s mined over 400 feet below ground, right here in the U.S. so it’s naturally protected from pollutants (not something you can say about salt mined from the ocean) and more than 60 trace minerals. If you want to try it out, use my code SWEETSALT to save 15% off your entire order, anytime.
• If you’re making these cookies with fresh flour, I substitute the 3 cups all-purpose flour with 2 1/2 cups of kamut flour. More about why I started milling my own flour here.

YIELDS ABOUT 4 DOZEN COOKIES

Can you buy lard for making chocolate chip cookies?

You can absolutely source good lard, either as fat that you can render down yourself, or as already rendered lard. Here are some tips:

Items I Use to Make Cookies Using Lard:

Talk to me about baking using lard

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your amazing Mint Chocolate Chip cookies @souly.rested.

 

More Information on This Topic:

How to Bake with Lard (& why you should)

3 Types of Pork Lard — everything you need to know about each one.

How to Render Lard–a complete guide

Tools I Wouldn’t Want to be Without in my Farmhouse Kitchen

 

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“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2021 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Chocolate Chip Cookies Made With Lard first appeared on Souly Rested.

When we brought home our first pigs, I was in it just for the bacon. (Read here for the 6 Things You Need to Know if You’ll be Raising Pigs on Pasture And check out the full scoop about Processing Pigs at Home.)

After stocking our freezers that first fall, I quickly realized there were so many wonderful cuts of pork that I am a huge fan of. In fact, the pork steak and ground pork and juicy pork chops all stand above even the delicious bacon in my mind.

Oh, and the lard. I might possibly agree to raising pigs if all I got out of it was the lard, guys.

How to Render Lard

If you’re more of an auditory learner, I’ve walked you though the entire process, and shared everything you need to know about rendering lard in a recent episode on my podcast, Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy. 

Are There Different Kinds of Pork Lard?

While there are 3 varieties of lard that you can source from a pig (go here for the nitty-gritty on the 3 Types of Pork Lard), this article will just talk about two of them, the two that are processed the exact same way. I do store them and use them differently though, but more on that later.

Can You Cook with Lard?

I cook with lard daily. It doesn’t smoke at high temperatures, so it’s perfect for frying. Not to mention the fact that veggies roasted in lard come out wonderfully crisp and delicious. Usually my choice of lard for oiling my skillet is a spoonful out of the jar of lard that sits by my stove.

Can you Bake with Lard?

Lard is amazingly wonderful for baking. It inhibits the formation of gluten, making it the Holy Grail of fat if you’re trying to achieve perfection in a flaky pastry or pie crust. And it has these mammoth size fat crystals that also make it almost impossible to not nail the best biscuits.

For baking (like these amazing chocolate chip cookies made with lard) I use bars of lard out of my freezer. I explain more about how I use all 3 different types of pork lard in this article.

Okay, so what do you need to know about rendering lard?

While there are 3 types of pork lard, only 2 of them need to be rendered: back fat and leaf fat. While these two types of fat are slightly different, I follow the exact same steps to render them down to lard.

1. Remove skin (from back fat) or outer membrane (on leaf fat), unless the butcher did this for you. I find this step and the next one are easiest to do when the fat is mostly frozen, but slightly thawed. With back fat, I will make a few cuts, dividing the strip into 2-3″ long chunks, then remove each chunk from the skin. This is more manageable than trying to remove the full piece of skin in one slice.
2. Cut any larger pieces of fat into smaller chunks, maybe 2 or 3 inches long.
3. Fill a large stock pot with your chunks of fat. (My stock pot is a 12 quarts.)
4. Turn the burner on medium to medium low. (I had read that rendering needs to happen at the lowest temperature possible, so my first attempt at rendering lard i kept the burner on its lowest setting. Two hours later I had about 1 inch of liquid fat in the bottom of my pan. It should never take that long, my friends, and there’s no need for it to. Instead, I find it best to monitor the temperature of the liquid lard and keep it at a nice steady temperature of 220 the entire time.)
5. Monitor your pot by setting an alarm for every 30-40 minutes and checking it each time the alarm goes off. Stir the chunks of fat and check to see that the temperature of the liquid fat is in the 220 range every time the timer goes off.
6. When you have mainly liquid, with large and small chunks floating on top, use a large slotted spoon to scoop out the pieces of fat.
7. Carefully pour the liquid lard from your stock pot into a strainer, draped with a thin towel, resting on large bowl.
8. Carefully adjust your towel, so fresh fabric is covering the strainer, and move your strainer to another large bowl.
9. Pour strained liquid fat from the first bowl into the second, straining it a second time (after placing chunks in pan of rejects). The more effectively you strain your lard the better tasting (aka not “porky” tasting) it will be.
10. Pour the strained lard into clean, sanitized jars or molds. I use these molds and find there’s no need to grease them.
11. IF USING MOLDS: Freeze lard in molds for about 1 hr 15 minutes then pop out and store in freezer-safe container in freezer for years, taking out as needed to replace a stick of butter in baking.
12. IF USING MASON JARS: wipe rim of jar after filling with liquid lard and place canning lid on with rim, fingertip tight. Within a few hours, the liquid golden fat will turn spreadable-solid and white. The lid should be sealed and you can store your jars of lard in a cool, dark place for years.

NOTES about rendering lard:

• A thermometer like this is invaluable to help you easily monitor the temperature of the liquid and keep consistently around 220-225.
• The chunks of fat that are removed can be cooked into cracklins. I will separate the large pieces to give to our chickens or keep in the freezer as very special dog treats. And the smaller ones become delicious cracklins for my salads in the upcoming week or I use them to make cracklin bread (by substituting cracklins for bacon).
• Using a 12-quart stock pot filled with pork fat, with 3 sets of these molds, I find I need to do this step in thirds. While the first batch of 12 sticks is in the freezer, I kept remaining lard on burner, keeping at 220-ish. I find it takes 1 hr and 15 minutes for the lard sticks to fully freeze in these molds.
• Using a 12-quart stock pot filled with leaf fat yields 36 bars (9 pounds) of lard “butter” a few cups of cracklins, and a 1/2 gallon ziploc bag of cracklins (larger, that i didn’t get crispy, just cooked)
• To release lard sticks from molds, I press each section of the mold from the bottom, turning it almost inside out as the stick pops out.
• While both back fat and leaf fat render into wonderful lards, the leaf lard is considered the creme de la creme. It’s purer, never pork tasting, and a blinding white color. In the picture below you can see the yellow tint to the back fat lard vs. the stark white of the leaf lard.

But is Lard Good for you in your Daily Diet?

Yes! Lard is truly a good, healthy, natural fat, loaded with reasons to include it in your diet, but the best reason may be that it’s far superior to the alternative of hydrogenated fats found in all processed foods (or… dare I even say the words… margarine, seed oils, or shortening). More about Why You Should Bake With Lard here.

Is There Any Lard that Doesn’t Have to be Rendered?

You can purchase already-rendered lard from a local pig farmer or reputable online sources (see some below) but never waste your money on the “lard” you can find at the traditional grocery store that has been hydrogenated.

There is also one type of lard–the membrane that surrounds the pig’s stomach–that does not have to be rendered. Read more about caul fat here and check out this video as well:

All Your Questions About Rendering Lard

Can I render lard in a crock pot?

Absolutely. I prefer to closely monitor the temperature by using a stock pot on the stove. This creates the purest, whitest lard for me (for back fat as well as leaf fat). But I have used a crock pot with fine success as well. The important thing is to use a low heat and stir it pretty often.

Can I render lard in the oven?

Absolutely. I find that using a stock pot on the stove creates the purest, whitest lard for me (for back fat as well as leaf fat), but there’s no reason to not use the oven instead.

How long does it take to render lard?

There are many variables, but expect it to take most of your day. I tend to start my lard rendering in the morning and am finishing up after dark. While you need to be home and able to check in on the temperature and stir your rendering lard every 30-60 minutes, it is very easy and not time consuming.

What are the benefits of rendering lard?

I think the best benefit of rendering lard is the fact that you can bake with lard. And it’s a fantastic oil choice for cooking on the stove top, since it has such a high smoke point. It’s ideal for all of your high-heat cooking.

Will I mess up if I choose the wrong method (crock pot/oven/stove)? Or the wrong pan?

I highly doubt you will mess anything up. The important thing is to render your lard on low heat and stir it pretty often. You got this.

Is it okay that my lard is changing color in the pan?

As pork fats warm, they turn color (no they’re not burning) and start to smell a little “piggy.” You’re not doing anything wrong.

Should I render on the absolute lowest setting possible?

No. I tried this once and it took forever and a day! Instead, monitor the temperature of your liquid fat with a thermometer like this. Keep your liquid at around 220-225 degrees.

Can I take my lard off the heat and resume the rendering hours later if I need to?

Yes! It’s totally fine to pull your partially rendered lard off the stove while you go run an errand or do a farm chore you have to do. If you can cover it and keep it somewhat warm you’ll save time, since it will solidify if you let it totally cool. The photo below is a pot of lard that I did let totally cool before I reheated it and finished rendering it. (The cracklins are covering the top.)

Do the floating chunks at the end have to be tiny pieces before it’s “done”?

No, often my cracklins are 1/4-inch chunks or sometimes larger… the size of salad croutons. But sometimes I’ll process the fat in giant strips (without cutting them up) and my cracklings at the end will be giant size. It’s more productive to start with small pieces of fat, but some days you gotta choose the easier route. My point is that the size of your cracklings at the end is determined by the size of your chunks of fat that you start with.

What’s the difference in lard and tallow?

The main difference in lard and tallow? The fact that lard is sourced from pigs and tallow from cows.

But my good friend, RuthAnn Zimmerman, and I take a deep dive into this very topic right here and explore all kinds of details about both lard and tallow: Good Fats, S7 Episode 4 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast

And listen in to this additional episode on my podcast for more thoughts on why food changed, why we were fed so many lies (like “animal fat is bad for us”), and why we bought into the lie: Why we’ve bought into the lie (S3, Episode 2)

What’s better… lard or butter?

Both butter and lard are excellent choices of fats.

Butter may wind up making some recipes seem oilier in the end, since butter separates when you heat it, into oil and milk. This, btw, is also why you have to keep a nice distance between cookies on the tray that are made with butter. Lard, on the other hand, remains intact when melted. So cookies made with lard don’t flatten and meld into one another on the hot tray.

Butter will also be slightly harder once it has cooled down, while lard tends to keep your foods a little softer. This is why I love making Chocolate Chip Cookies with Lard.

Can it really be used in place of butter?

Yep. I make grilled cheese by slathering the outside of each piece of bread with lard instead of butter.

 

 

Does lard taste like bacon?

What are some other great fats to use in the kitchen?

Can you Buy Good Lard?

You can absolutely source good lard, either as fat that you can render down yourself, or as already rendered lard. Here are some tips:

If we didn’t raise our own pigs and render our own lard, I would definitely order a monthly box of meat, get free filet for a year (seriously! Every subscription comes with $420-worth of free filet!), add in a few orders of lard with every month’s box, and stay stocked up on the best meat… make sure you use code SOULYRESTED if this all sounds amazing to you too & save $30 on your first order.

You can also find pork fat, in all of its “stages” on Amazon:

Items I Use Every time I Render Lard:

The post Complete Guide to Rendering Lard first appeared on Souly Rested.

The first year we brought pigs home to our little New England farm, I had no idea of the joy their amazing variety of fat would bring me. I was, afterall, just in in for the bacon. But trust me, I’ve come to learn that one of my favorite parts of being a pig farmer is the fat, y’all.

If you think I’m crazy, read on. This article breaks down the many versatile uses of the three types of pork lard, and it might just make you a believer in good, amazing, glorious pig fat.

If you still need even more reasons, see 11 Reasons to Use Lard in Cooking & Baking.

If you want to know why I insist on using this amazingly good-for-you fat, and exactly how I use each kind, read “How to Bake with Lard (& why you should).”

Listen in or join us (on youtube) as RuthAnn Zimmerman and I talk about the amazingness of good fat in this podcast episode: Good Fats, with Ruthann Zimmerman

A Complete Guide to Pork Lard

There are 3 varieties of lard sourced from a pig. They’re all wonderful and I tend to use them each in different ways. Two of them are rendered exactly the same way, which we’ll dive deep into in our next article (click here for the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard). The other one doesn’t need any rendering at all, just a little rinsing and proper storage, read on for more about that.

The 3 Types of Pork Lard

1. Back fat (this is the most common and there is the most of this fat on any one pig)
2. Leaf fat (this is the pure white, coveted fat, once it is rendered)
3. Caul fat (also known as the lace fat, this is the one that simply needs to be rinsed, dried, and properly stored)

Back Fat

This is the think strip of fat that lies just under the skin and covers a pig’s back. The thickest, best portion of this lies above the pork loin, but it extends to over the shoulder (or Boston Butt) area of the pig as well. Often a butcher will provide this fat as a large slab, with the skin still attached.

If you have a helpful butcher, ask if he’d be willing to remove the skin and chop (or even grind) the fat up before giving it to you. If shouldn’t take him long but this will save you quite a lot of effort.

If you do need to remove the skin and/or cut it up yourself, I recommend doing this when it is partially frozen. I’ve never attempted it with warm, room temperature fat, but I can’t imagine it would be much fun.

HOW I USE IT: This fat, when rendered properly (click here for the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard) will have almost zero pork taste, but it will never be as pure (or as gloriously–almost blinding–white) as leaf fat. So if I have plenty of leaf fat, I seldom use the back fat for baking. But I definitely do, and it’s definitely wonderful.

Instead, this is the fat I often cook with. I keep a jar of it by the stove and use it to cook in my cast iron daily. It’s also the lard I go for when I want to deep fry some fries or some yeast donuts.

SIDE NOTE: Most of the summer I find it’s fine to leave my lard where it sits the other 3 season of the year. But occationally, during a heat wave, I will have to move my lard jar to the fridge or it liquifies. If you live in a warmer climate than New England, you may have to store your lard in the fridge during the warmer times of the year.

RENDERING IT: See the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard here. Both back fat and leaf fat are rendered exactly the same way, but I do store each differently. (I cover that in the rendering article.)

Leaf Fat

The leaf fat is the portion of fat that lies primarily around the pig’s kidneys, but some is sourced from around the pork belly as well (aka the bacon). This looks more lumpy, not a single long thick strip, like the back fat.

It will often still have a thin layer of membrane on one side. This is the membrane that separated the layer of fat from the organs in the pig. It’s often quite easy to pull off before rendering, but if you miss some, no biggie, it will just wind up floating with your cracklins and can be removed later. (More about cracklins in a bit.)

HOW I USE IT: The leaf fat is purer, cleaner, whiter than even the best rendered back fat. Even if the back fat has zero pig flavor (because it was rendered carefully), it will always be slightly brown tinted in color, more like the color of bacon fat (which I also collect in a jar in my fridge to use for deep frying and skillet cooking as well, for those times when I WANT the bacon flavor in my foods). So the leaf fat is the fat I reserve for baking, in place of butter in any recipe at a 1:1 ratio.

RENDERING IT: See the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard. Both back fat and leaf fat are rendered exactly the same way, but I do store each differently. I cover all the details in that article on rendering.

Caul Fat

The caul fat is my priced, treasured fat that gets stored carefully and used lovingly. If I sound a little fat-crazy to you, well, I’d venture you’ve never cooked with caul fat. It’s thin, bacon-flavored, fat lace that serves as a thin membrane surrounding the stomach in a pig. This lacy strip of fat is fabulous for searing around a pork loin roast as it cooks (watch the video about using caul fat there) or wrapping around maple sausage as a super easy casing. And it’s magical to watch it tighten around the meat as it fries and turns a beautiful golden brown while it sizzles.

HOW I USE IT: I use caul fat to wrap any meat I want to add special bacon-like flavor and added moisture to, or in place of casing for sausage. I source this right from the pig, immediately after it is butchered here on our farm, do my best to keep it out of dirt or mud, and carry it immediately through the fields and to the kitchen to rinse it. I then lay it out on old, clean sheets to dry before folding it and storing it in freezer bags in the deep freezer.

RENDERING IT: Since lace fat is just a thin membrane, there is no need to render it at all. All you need to do is clean it and store in as I describe above.

Is Pork Lard Solid at Room Temperature?

With the exception of what I explained above, and how lard will liquify during hot, humid temperatures if your kitchen isn’t air-conditioned, all 3 types of pork lard are solid at room temperature. But both back fat and leaf fat are spreadable at room temperature. In fact, lard is a great butter substitute, even when it comes to making a grilled cheese. Just cover the outer side of your two pieces of bread and go ahead and grill up a great cheesy lunch.

Hop over here to read more about How to Bake with Lard (and my favorite way to measure and store it for baking).

How do you render pork lard?

Hop over to this article for all the details on how to render pork lard.

Can I bake with lard?

One thousand times YES… you can bake with lard. I love baking with lard. Go here to find out How to Bake with Lard & why you should!

So is all lard the good stuff?

There are many options for sourcing fantastic real pork lard. But first let me tell you what NOT to do…

Don’t buy “hydrogenated lard” that you might see at your regular grocery store. Hydrogenated lard has been altered in a lab. It makes fat have a longer shelf life, which is good for the manufacturer, but it has also undergone a chemical change that makes it no longer good for you to eat. Read more about that here.

Where can you buy good lard?

1. If you live in New England and would like to purchase a whole or half a pig, I would love to chat about how our family farm can help you load your freezer next fall (with amazing pig fat as well as delicious pasture-raised meat). We keep a waiting list, and I am always happy to meet new customers and expand our plans for next year, to make sure your family enjoys high-quality meat. To message me, hop over to instagram or send an email to michelle(dot)visser(at)outlook(dot)com.
2. Find local pig farmers and ask around until you can hopefully find one who either sells lard they have rendered or maybe the raw fat, which you can then render yourself. See my Complete Guide to Rendering Lard. (Or just store away until you use it, in the case of caul fat.)
3. Go to eatwild.com and search for a pig farm near you.
4. Order online. Seriously. You can purchase this amazing fat, ready to use, and skipped to your door:

Caul fat

Lard made from back fat

Lard made from the inner, leaf fat 

The post Complete Guide to Pork Lard first appeared on Souly Rested.

I asked on my instagram tonight how many of you all are fans of chicken pot pie. I’m pretty sure the poll ended in a landslide in favor of this amazing dish that is quite possibly the superior choice of all casserole-like dinners.

I mean who doesn’t love a one-dish meal, baked up in cast iron, served nice and warm on a cold January night?

Especially when it’s a perfect use of the left-over chicken from our whole chicken meal a few nights ago.

While it seems only natural that the chicken pot pie is accredited to New England, since we certainly need the wonderful-smelling, deeply filling goodness on many a long, dark, cold night, I have no idea what the history truly is and why folks call one with a biscuit top (and no “bottom”) the New England version.

But I can tell you, as a mid-Atlantic girl transplanted to New England 6 years ago, folks up here are practical. No nonsence. To the point.

So this kind of pot pie only makes sense. Why waste time making a bottom that isn’t necessary and why not load the top with a thick, flaky, carb-filled biscuit? It makes a cold night a little better, no?

While I’ve never typed this up before, soooo many of you were asking for the recipe when I shared the picture of our dinner on instagram tonight.

So here you go.

Let me know what you think!

Oh, and we are admittedly not a fan of peas, so we prefer green beans in our pot pie. Feel free to desecrate it with peas instead, just don’t tell me, okay?

Ingredients for New England Pot Pie

Filling:

• 2 small onions, finely diced
• 1 medium carrot, sliced thinly
• 3 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 cup canned green beans, cut into bite-size chunks
• 2-3 cups chicken, shredded (I use leftovers from a whole chicken meal)
• salt, pepper, or season salt, to taste (I love this season salt)
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• a roux of flour and water*
• 1 cup half-and-half

* I always judge this as I’m making it, maybe start with 1 cup water and 1/4 cup flour? Adjust until it’s a light thickness that will nicely add weight to your filling.

Biscuit top:

• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (this is my all-time favorite)
• 2 cups flour (I mill my own with my Harvest Mill and hard white wheat berries from Azure Standard)
• 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil (I use our farm-raised lard)
• 1 cup milk

Directions to Make New England Pot Pie

1. In prepared, hot, oiled or buttered 12″ cast iron skillet, cook onions, potatoes and carrots until they start to soften. Add in chicken and green beans and season to taste.

2. In a saucepan, warm chicken broth and half-and-half, wisking in your roux until well blended. Wisk constantly over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Pour over the chicken mixture in your skillet.

3. Preheat oven to 425.

4. To make your biscuit top, mix the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Then cut in your butter or lard with a pastry cutter. Add the milk and combine so the dough forms a ball. Knead lightly then press out to a circle that will fit the top of your cast iron pan. I use my 12″ like this. Once your filling is ready, lay the biscuit top on top and crimp the edges a little to “fit” them to the skillet.

5. Cut a few openings in the top and bake at 425 until the juices bubble up through the slits in your nicely browned biscuit top. It will take about 1/2 hour to bake to perfection.

Other recipes in cast iron you’ll love:

Grandma’s Melt-in-your-Mouth Blueberry Cake

Sour Dough Bread Bowls

Pizza Baked on Cast Iron

A Giant Cookie Baked in Cast Iron

My favorite kitchen tools in my farmhouse kitchen are all right here

From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. John 1:16

Pin this for later!

Click on the image below to pin this post.

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post New England Style Chicken Pot Pie first appeared on Souly Rested.

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I mean I use maple in most recipes in my farmhouse kitchen. But maple on steak? Really? Maple Steak Marinade? This one shocked even me until I discovered just how amazingly delicious my little experiment was.

I started off with a sirloin steak, roughly around 1 1/2 pounds. But before I share the marinade recipe, there are a few other things I do that make this the best steak ever…

3 Tips for Preparing a Delicious Steak

I have three tips for preparing your steak that make a world of difference:

• USE A QUICK MARINATOR.

This is a game changer. I was always forgetting to prepare ahead of time so my meat could soak for a minimum of 1/2 and hour. Using this instant marinator means I can prepare this meal even if I didn’t prepare ahead. Score.

• ADD GOOD FLAVOR.

Just salt and pepper is fine, but once I discovered this wholesome, delicious seasoning, I can’t marinate meat without it. It’s THAT good. I love it so much I asked for a discount so you could try it too… use code SWEETSALT to save 15% off your entire order.

• USE TONGS.

I used to always poke forks into my steaks. Haphazardly. Often. Now I cringe at the thought. You see, every little poke is one more hole for the wonderful juices to escape. I’d like to keep those in my steak, to up the yum factor thank you. So use tongs like these.

• SEAR FIRST.

This step always seemed like an unnecessary pain to me. Why add one more thing to the recipe? Wasn’t it just for appearance of the meat? Who cares what shade of brown it is? What I didn’t understand is the depth of flavor that searing offers my meat. It’s just too good to pass up.

• SAVE YOUR BACON GREASE.

Honestly, if you’re only going to take one of my tips to heart, this one is the one. I realize you may think I’m crazy, but trust me it’s crazy delicious… I use bacon fat to grease my cast iron before adding in my steak to sear it. Yep. Bacon fat. I save my drippings in a glass jar in my fridge.

Pork lard is also amazing for this. Check out my Complete Guide to Lard if you’d like to know more.

For a 1 1/2 pound steak, you could easily double this marinade recipe. You could even triple it, honestly. Then I seared the meat for 2 minutes on each side and transferred the cast iron skillet right from the stove to the preheated oven (preheated to 400), where it cooks until the right doneness, which was 20 minutes for me.

By the way, if you need some maple syrup, this right here is my favorite. They’re truly an awesome family-run business making some genuine maple deliciousness. Use code SOULYRESTED and save!

Click any image below if you’d like to learn more about some of the products I love.

These are affiliate links to companies and products I highly recommend.

Listen in to More About my Marinator

And now for that recipe!

Listen, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Isaiah 55:2

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