Leaf Lard

[Tex]

Just remember that the fat needs to be seperated for seperate uses. Kidney fat is good for soap, but not good for lard. You will also need to trim the fat up and sort it in order to maintain a nice white lard.




Tex

[redman2006]

Tex, I read that the leaf lard was the purest, but nothing about it not being good for one use or another. I guess I need to look into that.

[Tex]

Redman, leaf lard is the purest. On an animal, there are different grades of fat with some being better suited for different purposes. You can use the leaf lard for soap making, but it's better to keep that for cooking. The kidney fat is not really good for cooking, but it more than sufficient for soapmaking. And in the different types of fat, there is some that will need sorted off for a lesser use (soapmaking) or scrapped altogether. I was just throwing this information out there, so that you weren't using the primo stuff for soapmaking, or trying to use lesser grade stuff for your cooking lard.

I would highly recommend going ahead and rendering down some cooking lard. Like I said before, we haven't done any lard for a good while, but we did render down some tallow when we butchered that last bunch of beeves. There is nothing sold at the store that makes your fried foods taste better than good lard or tallow. We use tallow for making fried potatos and also put in a little when we make greenbeans. Holy smokes, is it ever good. You can also take some of the lower quality stuff and put it in dogfood. The dogs love it and it makes them look great.

Don't throw that stuff away. Look around online and check out some of the different uses and recipes for the fat. Rendering it down is not hard, it just takes a little time.



Tex

[W.Lynn]

Tex is right about sorting out the different qualities of fat, you want firm, clean-smelling stuff to cook with. If it's soft, floppy, dark or blood-shot, slippery, or doesn't smell quite the same as you think it should, you can still use it for soap, greasing wheels on tricycles, kids' wagons, rubbing small amounts into leather jackets, boots, motorcycle seats.

If you just want to do one rendering though, definitely make it the good stuff.

[redman2006]

Reading on preserving lard and there are huge disagreements.

Can I can it? If I can shelf store it, why couldn't I can it? If bacon can be canned, why not this?

I really don't have the freezer space for it.

The wife is pretty sceptical about this project. I am rendering today.

Thanks

[W.Lynn]

I would pressure can, following the timing for bacon.

[redman2006]

Lynn, kinda what I was thinking. I just can't imagine anything surviving the rendering process then the pressure canning.

[Tex]

We looked high and low to find the correct way to pressure can tallow, but could find nothing on the subject.

You don't have to can it though. The top layer may turn moldy, but it protects the product underneath. When you need some, you scrape the bad stuff off the top and use the good stuff below. In times gone by, when people would butcher a beef, they would hang it from the windmill. The meat would develop a film on the outside that acted as a protecting layer for the good meat below it. Ask an oldtimer about this way of meat storage and they will tell you it was some of the best meat they ever ate. The same principle is at work in keeping and protecting tallow and lard.

We will sanitize the jars and lids and then pour the hot oil into the jars. As the hot oil cools and congeals, it will pop the lid down, thus canning itself. It will eventually get funky eventhough it is sealed, but everything we have read siad that once the top layer is scraped off, the stuff underneath will still be good.

What I have stated is what we do and what works for us. I would urge you to do your own research. Don't be surprised though when you find very little on this particular subject. When getting started on this, I would be careful and seek out people who have actually done it to get advice from.




Tex

[redman2006]

Thanks Tex. It only goes rancid if it can oxidize, so if the top little bit is rancid, the stuff below should be OK to my some mind since oxygen can't get there.

Have had dry aged beef that was about thirty days out. What I tried had a strong flavor that was not nor me, but it was tender.

You are absolutely correct. Very few resources, lots of conjecture, and darned few people actually doing it. What I settled on was a split of 50/50 sealed hot like you mentioned and pressure canned. It will be interesting to see what happens. Lots of the sites show putting it up without any seal at all. Heck, lard is I'm paper wrappers like butter at the grocery and not refrigerated at all.

[W.Lynn]

The stuff at the store is partially hydrogenated, and has preservatives added. What you're looking to do would be free of both.