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Today, I have BIG news!
You don’t have to read my words, you get to listen to them.
Even better!
I’m excited to share the start of a new series called “The Skinny on Fat” here at Live Simply. Over the next few weeks, Candice and I will be bringing you a weekly video tutorial (every Wednesday) on how to make some of our favorite fats. These are fats we make and use in the kitchen regularly for cooking and baking.
These fats are all traditional, budget-friendly, super easy to make, and nourishing.
Healthy is not just a big bowl of kale, fruit smoothies, and green juices.
Healthy also means eating fat!
Fat is essential for the body. It plays an important role in providing a concentrated source of energy and the building blocks for cell membranes and hormones. Fat helps our bodies absorb essential minerals from our food and carries fat soluble vitamins A,D,E and K. When a person’s diet lacks fat, significant issues develop such as: low energy, difficult time concentrating, weight gain, mineral deficiencies, and depression.
Fat is also essential for young children and babies as the brain develops. God’s perfect food for babies, mama’s milk, contains 50% of it is calories from fat, most being saturated fat. If the Lord designed one of nature’s most perfect foods with so much fat, I think it is high time we start embracing it too!
Some of the healthiest societies in the world all embrace diets rich in natural animal fat.
All the fats in this video series are made using fat from pastured animals: lard, cream/butter, ghee, and tallow. When making fats from animals, we recommend only using animals that have been pastured and fed a diet natural to the animal. We also use non-animal fats in our kitchen such as: olive oil and coconut oil.
In today’s first video, I’ll be sharing how to render a traditional fat (the secret to great-grandma’s flaky pie crusts), lard.
Here’s what you Need:
- Pork fat, from pastured pigs (Back Fat or Leaf Fat)
- Crock pot, this is the one I use (set on low for 8 hours)
- 1/2 cup water, in bottom of crock pot to prevent the fat from burning.
- Fine mesh strainer (where to buy)
- Cheesecloth (where to buy)
- Canning Funnel (where to buy)
- Mason Jar (where to buy)
How To:
Cut the pork fat into small pieces.
Add the fat to the crock pot with 1/2 cup water.
Allow to cook on low for 8 hours.
Now, watch the video to learn how to render the fat into useable lard.
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Rendered lard can be refrigerated for long-term use or left out for short-term use.
I look forward to sharing with you, in the future, some of my favorite recipes using homemade lard. And Fall is the perfect time for using rendered lard. I’m already dreaming of pies!
Sources:
is there a reason why they must be cut into small pieces?
It cuts down on the cooking time and helps you get more liquid lard from the fat.
Wow Kristin! Nice job. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Great video! Does it firm up like bacon grease in the fridge?
Love this – what a great video too – I was just thinking about the whole LARD thing so this will come in handy as we move to buy half a pig!
This may be a silly question…..do you store it in the pantry or in the fridge?
Not at all :). Store it in the fridge if you don’t plan to use it within a couple weeks. I keep mine in the fridge. It lasts longer.
Wow Kristin, love this post, I never knew how to render lard! And your video is amazing, very professional! I guess you’d need to get nitrate/nitrite free pork so get nitrate/nitrite lard??
Thank you. Correct, you will want nitrate free pork. I recommend going to eatwild.com and finding a pig farm that will sell or give away pork fat from pastured pigs which will be nitrate free.