"You basically have a … My grandmother would gather the nuts from her pecan trees and bring them on Thanksgiving unshelled to share. Top cooking-with-lard recipes just for you Tamale with Spanish Braised Pork Shank and White Peach Salsa Pork green onions, olive oil, dry sherry, plum tomatoes, lime juice and 26 more Roast Pork Shoulder Caribbean-Style Pork © 2020 Condé Nast. It wasn't butter. In fact, our ancestors ate lard and other natural saturated fats for thousands of years and were comparably healthier than we are now. This process includes the release of insulin. The lard that you will find in your local grocery store is not healthy but is hydrogenated and comes from pigs raised in confinement. If you don't have time to make your own refried beans, get a can of refried beans and doctor them up with a diced onion, hot sauce, water, and a handful of cheese to make them even tastier. We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. Visit EatWild.com to find a farm near you. When we eliminate saturated fats from our diet, we rob our brains and they cannot function properly. “Lard is an animal fat, and it is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Instead, use pork in the form of lard to flavor your pie crust and two kinds of pork sausage to fill your pie. I’m deliberate, learning to use them at the right time—as opposed to serving up daily deep-fried vegetable croquettes, which are not on my resolution list. Doesn’t … You can also ask your local butcher for a piece of back fat or leaf lard to take home and render on your own. Mine did. And definitely not extra virgin olive oil. Mexican tamales just wouldn't be the same without it. Top baking-with-lard recipes just for you Explore more recipes . This material consists of 100 percent saturated fatty acids. A subtly pork-tinged salad dressing may sound off—but it’s pure heaven. If you're trying out a classic recipe for Southern buttermilk fried chicken, going down the rabbit hole to figure out how to make a flaky pie crust, or trying to perfect the ultimate chocolate chip cookies, you may have found yourself on a quest for lard. If you want to gussy them up, whip up a batch of fresh simple salsa and guac, or add some scrambled egg. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Lard can come from any part of the pig, but “Top Chef” finalist and chef of meat-centric New Orleans restaurantsToups’ Meatery andToups SouthIsaac Toups points out, “If you were trying to render some lard out of a pork loin, you would not get a lot.” Look to the fattiest parts of the hog itself: “You’ll be better off trying to render fat from the belly, which is where we get ours from.” Same goes for fatty bacon, pork shoulders, and pork butts. This is a challenge for health academics for sure who have spent the better part of their career advising against consumption of saturated fat. But Joe Geinert, the kitchen manager at Ends Meat’s Industry City location, was enthusiastic about my plan. Instead, use it as a component for a batch of homemade bird food.