Monday, July 9, 2012

Rendering Lard

I rendered some pork fat tonight.  I started 2 pounds of back fat in the slow cooker, but grew impatient with how long it was taking to render the lard.  I ended up taking the fat out of the slow cooker, cutting it into cubes, and rendering it in a large saucepan. Here's what it looked like in the saucepan:


It took a long time to render.  When it got late and I couldn't render lard anymore, I filtered it through some cheesecloth and poured it into a jar:

I put the jar in the refrigerator.
We'll see how it looks in the morning.
Good night!

UPDATE:

Here's a photo I took this morning.  As you can see, the lard has turned a pale, off-white color.


It's not the best lard, as it has a bit of a porky smell.  I won't be using this for pastries - for that I would use leaf lard.  But this will be good for refried beans and tortillas, or perhaps a pork belly confit.  It should keep for a couple of months in the refrigerator.  Next time I will start it earlier and render it at a lower temperature, which should help reduce the pork smell and lighten up the color.

No comments:

Post a Comment