The Demise of Lard

[WildAboutHarry]

A truly sad story...

You rarely see lard on menus. There aren't shelves and shelves of it in every supermarket. In this country, we've sort of lost touch with the once beloved pig fat.

More here.

[Storm]

A truly sad story...

You rarely see lard on menus. There aren't shelves and shelves of it in every supermarket. In this country, we've sort of lost touch with the once beloved pig fat.

More here.

Wow, who knew Crisco was digestible?  I'll take another slice of Crisco cherry pie, please!

[WildAboutHarry]

Actually, Crisco was initially a pale imitator of Spry.

James Lileks has this to say about Spry:

And what was Spry? Vegetable shortening.Triple-whipped for creaminess, too - let those double-whipped bastards over at Crisco beat that. (They did, eventually.) But it wasn't just a cooking ingredient - Spry was the means by which men were placated, tamed and domesticated. It was the balm that troubled young wives stirred into their neophyte biscuits. It was the substance that allowed one man to lord his wife’s french fries over another. It was ambrosia whipped with ichor; it was a can of clouds brought down to the pantry of mortals. If Spry was fire, Aunt Jenny was our Prometheus.

It also made you sterile in large doses. That’s just a guess.

See more here.

And, yes, I had to look up what ichor was.

[foglifter]

Well, in Ukraine lard is almost like a national symbol. Like maple syrup for Canadians, vodka for Russians and apple pie for Americans. They use it for baking and as an appetizer that goes perfectly well with ice-cold horilka(or vodka).  ;D

[dualstow]

- Fresh Fields- weren't they bought up by Whole Foods?
- I'm a coconut oil guy, but sometimes after I cook bacon I can't resist...
- Mmm, horilka looks good even if those first three letters make native readers of English think something horrible is on the way.

[Benko]

ingredients in crisco:

ingredients: SOYBEAN OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM AND SOYBEAN OILS, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, ...

[Gumby]

I've been using a little lard for light frying over the past few months. It really does crisp things up very nicely. Two things people probably don't realize about lard...

- Lard is a very good source of Vitamin D. Actually, lard from pastured pigs is the second richest source of vitamin D (Cod Liver Oil is #1) and lard is over four times richer in vitamin D than its nearest competitor, herring.

- Lard is mostly monounsaturated fat. Approximately 48% monounsaturated, 40% saturated fat and 12% polyunsaturated fat.

Compare that to olive oil, which is 75% monounsaturated fat, 13% saturated fat, 10% omega-6 linoleic acid and 2% omega-3 linolenic acid.

The stability of the saturated fat molecules makes lard better suited for baking and light frying than olive oil.

[Tortoise]

The stability of the saturated fat molecules makes lard better suited for baking and light frying than olive oil.

If the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat molecules are the ones that tend to oxidize under high heat, and if both olive oil and lard contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat molecules, then shouldn't both of them be unsuitable for frying?

More generally, don't virtually all naturally occurring fat sources contain a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats? If so, then don't all of them suffer oxidation to some extent during frying?

[Gumby]

The stability of the saturated fat molecules makes lard better suited for baking and light frying than olive oil.

If the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat molecules are the ones that tend to oxidize under high heat, and if both olive oil and lard contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat molecules, then shouldn't both of them be unsuitable for frying?

Yes, you are correct. But, note that I didn't say that lard was best for frying. I just said it's better for light (i.e. low temp) frying than olive oil — in terms of oxidation and free radical exposure — since it has more saturated fat and less monounsaturated fat than olive oil. Lard keeps a very long time in its solid form in the refrigerator and can last on the shelf for awhile if necessary. But, olive oil will go rancid after a few weeks on the shelf as it is 75% monounsaturated. Olive oil just isn't as stable as lard, but both are still unstable compared to other fats that are better suited for high heat cooking.

Lard and Extra Virgin Olive Oil have similar smoke points (about 370°F). Olive oil's smoke point is a bit higher. But the lower smoke point can actually be a bit desirable in the kitchen if you are trying to brown or crisp your food a bit. The composition of Lard, with its additional saturated fat, can give a light airy crisp to gently fried foods. Nothing matches it for taste.

But, truthfully, lard is best used for baking as most baking is done at relatively low temperatures and allows you to crisp baked goods to perfection.

More generally, don't virtually all naturally occurring fat sources contain a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats? If so, then don't all of them suffer oxidation to some extent during frying?

Yes, but the mixture varies. For instance, coconut oil is 92% saturated, so it happens to withstand oxidation quite well. But, coconut oil has a low smoke point and it doesn't crisp or brown foods as well as lard does, particularly in terms of taste.

Beef tallow is roughly 50% saturated fat and only contains about 3% polyunsaturated, so beef and mutton tallows are excellent for high heat frying. And Ghee is quite good for high heat cooking as well. Ghee is 65% saturated, 30% monounsaturated and 5% polyunsaturated and it has a high smoke point (480ºF). But, keep in mind that the high smoke point of ghee will brown things slightly differently than beef tallow which has a smoke point of 420ºF. It's all about what you're cooking.

Every naturally occurring fat seems to have its purpose. Olive oil is best for cold consumption, such as topping on salads. Lard is best for baking and good for low temp/light frying. Beef tallow is best for deep frying. Etc..

However, it's generally not best to heat any foods at too high a temperature. But, if you're going to do it, do it only occasionally and use the right oils (i.e. not polyunsaturated) if you can help it.

[WildAboutHarry]

I've been using a little lard for light frying over the past few months.

The "real" lard or the highly processed stuff from the supermarket?

[Gumby]

I've been using a little lard for light frying over the past few months.

The "real" lard or the highly processed stuff from the supermarket?

Definitely the real stuff, from a local butcher. The lard is from pastured pork that was raised on a local farm.

In fact, the pigs need to be exposed to sunlight for the lard to get good levels of vitamin D.

[MachineGhost]

What does real lard taste like?

I tried some shelf-stable lard a few years ago in macaroni and cheese (as I was out of olive oil) and it was utterly inedible and disgusting tasting.  Sort of like a spoiled gamey off taste.

Yet, I'm real hard pressed what lard is good for other than tortillas and tamales.  Beef tallow seems a lot more useful and flavorful.

[WildAboutHarry]

Definitely the real stuff, from a local butcher.

Cool.  I didn't realize the Vitamin D content of real lard was so high.  I wonder if the Vitamin D is temperature stable?  There was a hog operation in northern California many years ago (may still be there, I don't know) that "free-ranged" the pigs in an old olive orchard.  I can only imagine what those chops would taste like.

So the pantheon of useful animal fats in cooking is lard (pork), tallow (beef and mutton), and schmaltz (chicken, goose).  Any others?

[Gumby]

I wonder if the Vitamin D is temperature stable?

Apparently the Vitamin D isn't lost when heated...

http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-coo ... d-2e.shtml

So the pantheon of useful animal fats in cooking is lard (pork), tallow (beef and mutton), and schmaltz (chicken, goose).  Any others?

Butter, Ghee and Butter oil. And duck and goose fats were traditionally used for high heat cooking in Europe (though, I'm not entirely sure what makes duck fat far more stable than lard). There are lots of various plant oils as well...

http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-f ... omposition

What does real lard taste like?

"Leaf" lard has no taste. It's pure white in solid form and crystal clear when heated to liquid form.

I tried some shelf-stable lard a few years ago in macaroni and cheese (as I was out of olive oil) and it was utterly inedible and disgusting tasting.  Sort of like a spoiled gamey off taste.

Isn't "shelf-stable lard" bleached and/or hydrogenated? I would definitely avoid that.

Yet, I'm real hard pressed what lard is good for other than tortillas and tamales.  Beef tallow seems a lot more useful and flavorful.

Leaf lard doesn't flavor foods as it has no flavor. I guess you could say that leaf lard improves existing flavors, but it doesn't add flavor. Leaf lard is perfect for baking pies, pastries and cookies, or some light pan frying or sautéing below 350º (such as sautéing vegetables or frying scrapple or corned beef/pork hash, etc.).

If you want a fat that adds flavor, fry up some pastured bacon (needs no additional fat for cooking) and pour off the rendered bacon drippings through a metal strainer and into a glass bowl. Cover the bowl and let cool. You can put it in the refrigerator for storage. It will turn into a slightly whitish brown butter-like fat. You can just spoon a little bit of the bacon fat into a pan or — once warmed into liquid form — drizzle over a salad or fish or whatever and it will really enhance the flavor of any dish.

Bacon fat is "belly" fat, whereas leaf lard is the fat that is found near the loin and kidney area. The belly fat has a lot of flavor and actually "jowl bacon" is like bacon on crack — lots and lots of flavor in the jowl. The lard I'm working my way through is a combination of leaf lard and back fat. Leaf lard is the gold standard for baking and perfect flaky pie crusts, but back fat is often used for other dishes such as tourtière (meat pie), and the soft caul fats (fat surrounding digestive organs) can be used as wrapping for roasting lean meats or in the manufacture of pâtés. As you can tell, food rarely went to waste in traditional cooking. And people obtained a wider array of vitamins and minerals by consuming all parts of the animal.

[RuralEngineer]

Lard depresses me.  I hear members of my family talk about how much better it is for everything (particularly baking) than modern shortenings.  Apparently my grandmother's mind blowing pies were even better 40 years ago.  However, nobody uses it anymore.  It's not even considered.  When I go home to help my father butcher a hog, we shave off most of that beautiful, creamy white fat and feed it to the pets.  It never enters our minds to save it and use it.

I wish I definitively knew whether we've been brainwashed into think it's worse for us than the processed to death faux fat we use daily.  If I have to choose between some weird cancer caused by Crisco or being fat, I suppose I'd prefer to be fat(er).  Unfortunately it's hard to find straight answers about these kinds of things.  In my life time eggs have gone from being worse than heroin, to the best protein available, to a form of heroin that is marginally acceptable but only once or twice a week.  What to believe?

[Pointedstick]

I wish I definitively knew whether we've been brainwashed into think it's worse for us than the processed to death faux fat we use daily.  If I have to choose between some weird cancer caused by Crisco or being fat, I suppose I'd prefer to be fat(er).  Unfortunately it's hard to find straight answers about these kinds of things.  In my life time eggs have gone from being worse than heroin, to the best protein available, to a form of heroin that is marginally acceptable but only once or twice a week.  What to believe?

Just pay attention to Gumby and Smurff. You'll be eating sardines, cod liver oil, lard, and soaked beans in no time! 

[Gumby]

Lard depresses me.  I hear members of my family talk about how much better it is for everything (particularly baking) than modern shortenings.  Apparently my grandmother's mind blowing pies were even better 40 years ago.  However, nobody uses it anymore.  It's not even considered.  When I go home to help my father butcher a hog, we shave off most of that beautiful, creamy white fat and feed it to the pets.  It never enters our minds to save it and use it.

I wish I definitively knew whether we've been brainwashed into think it's worse for us than the processed to death faux fat we use daily.  If I have to choose between some weird cancer caused by Crisco or being fat, I suppose I'd prefer to be fat(er).  Unfortunately it's hard to find straight answers about these kinds of things.  In my life time eggs have gone from being worse than heroin, to the best protein available, to a form of heroin that is marginally acceptable but only once or twice a week.  What to believe?

If your father has access to pastured animals, you should savor every morsel of fat and organs from those animals — they are full of nutrients. However, fat and meat from factory-farmed animals (i.e. non-pastured animals) should be avoided.

The theory that saturated fat causes heart disease is known as the "Diet Heart Hypothesis" and you might be surprised to learn that it has never been proven. In fact, the data to support the Diet Heart Hypothesis is weak at best.

The theory that cholesterol plays a role in the heart disease is known as the "Lipid Hypothesis" and while cholesterol does indeed play a role in heart disease, it's never been proven that eating naturally occurring cholesterol in animals is the cause of heart disease. There is far more evidence to suggest that it's the oxidation of cholesterol that causes arteriosclerosis. Less stable fats — such as polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats — are far more prone to oxidation than saturated fats.

If you'd like to learn the history of how we were brainwashed into believing that saturated fats are bad for us, watch:

Video: "The Oiling of America"

And if you'd like to see and hear the evidence-based research as to why animal fats and saturated fats may indeed be good for you, watch:

Video: Are Animal Fats Good for You? - Chris Masterjohn

Once you begin to realize that mainstream recommendations to avoid saturated fats are actually quite flawed, you can begin to explore the various Ancestral Diets (Paleo Diet, Primal Blueprint, and Weston A. Price Foundation, Nourishing Traditions) that you can follow to enjoy these fats and delicious traditional foods. Most people tend to lose weight on these high fat diet. Keep in mind that obesity has skyrocketed since the government started recommending "low fat" diets.

[Storm]

You are probably 100x more likely to die from eating hydrogenated vegetable oils in Crisco than eating pastured lard.

When I think about millions of years of human evolution, and how we've evolved to eat all types of animals, I cannot think of any animal in the wild that gets diseases from eating their primary food source.  Think about this - we've been eating animal meat, fat, and organs for millenia, and we didn't have heart disease until we started chemically processing plant substitutes for them.

It actually boggles my mind that we have been so effectively brainwashed to think that we should throw away millions of years of evolutionary instinct and try new chemical food sources.

It's gotten to the point where all you have to do is ask "Would my great grandmother eat this?"  And if the answer is yes, it's probably safe and good for you.  But, we do have to be careful - most food in grocery stores now is corn-fed, feedlot raised poison.

Now, it seems like we have to say "Organic, pastured, grass-fed, humanely treated beef," or as your great-Grandma used to call it, "beef."

[MediumTex]

It's ironic that we have the term "lard-ass" to describe someone who is overweight, but the truth is that someone who ate nothing but lard probably wouldn't be that fat.

The really fat people should probably be called "fructose-ass" or "flour-ass."

[WildAboutHarry]

The really fat people should probably be called "fructose-ass" or "flour-ass."

Or how about Wheat Belly

[Gumby]

You are probably 100x more likely to die from eating hydrogenated vegetable oils in Crisco than eating pastured lard.

When I think about millions of years of human evolution, and how we've evolved to eat all types of animals, I cannot think of any animal in the wild that gets diseases from eating their primary food source.  Think about this - we've been eating animal meat, fat, and organs for millenia, and we didn't have heart disease until we started chemically processing plant substitutes for them.

It actually boggles my mind that we have been so effectively brainwashed to think that we should throw away millions of years of evolutionary instinct and try new chemical food sources.

It's gotten to the point where all you have to do is ask "Would my great grandmother eat this?"  And if the answer is yes, it's probably safe and good for you.  But, we do have to be careful - most food in grocery stores now is corn-fed, feedlot raised poison.

Now, it seems like we have to say "Organic, pastured, grass-fed, humanely treated beef," or as your great-Grandma used to call it, "beef."

Of course, I agree wholeheartedly. But, it's worth keeping in mind that our ancestors ate ALL parts of the animals. They ate the livers, the brains, the feet, the stomach contents (i.e. tripe), the fat, the kidneys, the marrow, they made soup and stock from bones and found ways to eat the skin (i.e. pork rinds!).

In the wild, carnivores devour nearly every part of their prey. Hyenas even have jaws that are strong enough to crush bones. Wild dogs will tear open the stomach and head right for the nutrient-dense tripe and organs. Blood is consumed as well. So, all these wild animals were obtaining a wide spectrum of nutrients and storing those nutrients in all parts of their bodies and with every kill they were stealing all the nutrients from each other. Yet, today, we mainly just eat muscle meat.

It turns out that the muscle meat — which modern tastebuds crave — is pretty much the least nutritious part of the animal. This in and of itself is a problem from a nutritional standpoint because, apparently, if we only consumed muscle meat, our bodies would get too much methionine and homocysteine — and in excess they can lead to oxidative stress.

To metabolize excess methionine and homocysteine, we need vitamins B6, B12, folate, betaine, choline and the amino acid glycine. All of these nutrients are found in the other organs, skin and bones.

That means if we want to eat meat and fat and expose our bodies to the same range of nutrients and co-factors our ancestors consumed, we would need to actually eat like they did. Eating liver, stews and stock made from bones, eating the skin, using the fats, etc. Not easy to do when we've all been brainwashed into thinking organ meats are gross and disgusting. Even getting a hold of quality organ meat and offal can be very difficult these days.

[WildAboutHarry]

Blood is consumed as well.

Of course the Masai diet is blood, milk, meat, etc.  Frugal, since blood and milk can be "non-destructive" foods, regenerating in the herd.

[muscle meat] is pretty much the least nutritious part of the animal

But very tasty!

If you include bologna (lips, etc.) and Spam (parts which cannot be named) perhaps you get an appropriate dose of "non-traditional" meat parts.

[Gumby]

If you include bologna (lips, etc.) and Spam (parts which cannot be named) perhaps you get an appropriate dose of "non-traditional" meat parts.

Spam is perfectly fine for campers, soldiers and those with limited budgets who want to consume (factory farmed) fat and protein, but unfortunately there isn't much organ meat in Spam. There's no Vitamin A and hardly and Vitamin C — so that implies that it's not very nutrient dense. It appears to be mostly fatty pork shoulder and gelatinous connective tissue from what I can see.

Here's a good resource for cooking up more interesting bits...

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/6-sneaky ... your-diet/

[KevinW]

How about good old liver and onions?

[Storm]

How about good old liver and onions?

Liver and onions is very tasty to me, but I've had a tough time finding grass fed liver.  Perhaps I'm too paranoid, but I worry about toxins in the liver of feedlot animals.