Rendering Lard

That  Scottish blood runs deep in O Wise One and following Samhain tradition October 31 was the day of slaughter. The pigs went to butcher before the butcher shop closed down to process deer which starts next week here in Missouri. 

The butcher was very generous with pig fat and sent me a whole 1/2 garbage bag of it. Already ground up and ready to render. As soon as I got it back we started the rendering process.

I started out with enough to cover the bottom of my large cast iron dutch oven and my crock pot and large roaster. Setting both to a low setting and putting the large cast iron pot on the simmer eye.  I added enough water to cover the bottom of the pots to give it time to melt down some without sticking. The water will cook out.

Once the fat starts changing color or rendering then I continue to add fat until I fill the pot almost full but still able to stir it comfortably.

 As the fat melts I dip off any scum that forms on top. Once you get a large amount of oil collected on top I start dipping off the clear fat and running it through a colander lined with cheese cloth into a bowl. With a funnel I start putting the hot liquid lard into clean sterile jars to cool. As you can see here the liquid fat will be somewhat clear and then when it cools turning white.

I continue melting and filling jars until I get to the bottom layer of fat with just enough liquid remaining to cover it. Once the remaining fat pieces start to brown I stop collecting liquid lard. I turned up the heat just a little and allowed the small amount that sinks to the bottom to brown completely and become crunchy then dip them out and run them through cheese cloth and put them on paper towels to drain.

These are cracklings which are nothing more than fried crunchy pieces of fat. These are a great addition to corn bread and was my father's favorite corn bread.

Once cool I put these in pint jars to be used in corn bread through out the year. They will go in the freezer.

The remaining lard that the cracklins were cooked in will be much darker than the first liquid lard that you collected. I put this darker lard in separate jars. It will taste a little more like meat and was what my mother used to melt and put on the top of her biscuits to make them nice and brown on top with just a hint of a meat taste.

I ended up with 18 quart jars of lard or 32 pounds to make soap with or use in baking. Also there were 8 jars of cracklins for cornbread making. In the picture above you can see the darker lard in the second jar from the left. Once the jars were cool I put on lids and all went into the freezer. The entire process took me a little over 14 hours from cooking to having jars completed. Then I let them cool overnight before freezing.
I will take them out as needed and let defrost for soap making. If I want to bake with it I put mine in the refrigerator.

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