Tub of Lard

"If you've never cooked in lard, you're missing something." Joel Salatin wrote. In his book, he also mentioned that lard was healthier than vegetable oil. His reasoning was that if you can't make it in your kitchen it can't be good for you. Lard is made from pork fat, but vegetable oil has some other ingredients that you can't replicate in your kitchen. This was interesting enough for me to try it out.

I thought my husband was crazy when he ordered the lard from our last pig. Especially when 15 pounds of it showed up. (What a fat pig.) Little did I know, my husband was just foreseeing my need for lard in my cooking and baking.

My 3-year old asked if it was lard butter after I told him it was lard. I thought lard butter was pretty accurate. I was cutting some off with a butter knife and into the fry pan for my morning eggs. The lard butter reminded me of cooking in bacon grease. It didn't have a bacon or pork flavor, which I expected. My eggs were good, but I wouldn't say that I have been missing something.

I don't do a lot of frying other than my eggs, so I thought about making a pie. It's well known that pie crusts with lard are the best. However, it seemed like more time needed than what I had to work with.

When I was looking at a cookie recipe and it called for shortening, I realized that my thinking of lard uses had been very limited. Once I realized that I could substitute lard for oil, butter, or shortening, I started baking. My boys and I made monster cookies with lard, and they were very good. However, I still wouldn't say that I was missing something.

I woke up Sunday morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. I found my husband in the kitchen slaving away making pancakes. We don't use the premade pancake mixes because I usually forget to buy them, and all the ingredients are stocked in our kitchen. As I was trying a plain pancake, I asked my husband what was in them. He said it was the usual recipe but with orange food coloring for fun and lard. They were the best pancakes. They had a hint of pie crust flavor. The pancakes proved that I was missing something.

Now I'm sold that lard is the best for cooking and baking. I'm really excited to try fry bread in lard. I just hope our waistlines enjoy the lard as well.