Lardy Lardy

I made LARD! When I was a kid growing up in Chapel Hill in the 80's I remember hearing about lard for the first time. I think it had something to do with a biscuit recipe. I was totally grossed out when I understood that LARD was PIG FAT. I'm pretty sure I found a different recipe for biscuits, because I couldn't imagine pig parts in my biscuit. I became a vegetarian when I was 14. Having been squeamish about meat since I was a young child, I decided as a young teenager that I just wouldn't eat it anymore. I was a vegetarian for 17 years. I won't go into my reasons (long and boring) for starting to eat meat at this point in my life. Suffice it to say that I decided a couple of years ago to eat meat if I knew where it came from, and I knew it had had a good life. So, all this is an explanation of the significance of ME of all people making lard.

When I first started this local diet I had a little difficulty figuring out what kind of fat to use in my baking and cooking. I couldn't use any kind of oil - even if the corn were grown locally there is no processing facility to make corn oil in this region. As a matter of fact there is no local source for vegetable oils of any kind that I have heard of. That left me with animal fats. I got into the habit of frying up a little sausage or bacon if I wanted some fat for things like sauteing greens or roasting potatoes. It was yummy, but it was an extra step in the cooking process that I didn't always have time for.
I had some leftover pig fat in my freezer that I had trimmed off a pork shoulder....why not make LARD? It is amazingly easy. I cut up the fat into small pieces and cooked them in my cast iron skillet (this has the duel purpose of seasoning the hell out of your skillet) for about an hour on very low heat. Then you pour the liquid fat through a coffee filter and ta da you have LARD. You also have some crispy things left in the coffee filter called "cracklins." Cracklins are deep fried fat. They are the little pieces of flesh and fat that don't cook down - so they fry instead. This is not a treat for the faint of heart.
We were lucky enough to have our friends David and Noah in town the day that I made lard. Both of them grew up in the south and they know how to appreciate some fried fat. I salted the cracklins and toasted them in the oven and they were even more outrageously crackly. I have to admit, however, that I can't quite get used to the flavor and texture of fried fat - I think all those years of being a veg ruined me for ever fully indulging in cracklins. Now lard is a different story. It has so many uses. It is basically flavorless. It can be used in any way that vegetable oil would be used and it does a much better job at certain things - like greasing pans, for example. Potatoes roasted in lard are unbelievably good. I am happy to say that I no longer turn up my nose at this local source of fat and flavor.