The "My Day On The Farm" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just had to write this story, since my wife was telling friends I was going to write about "lard".  Have you ever had a piece of butter bread with a hot bowl of soup?  Have you ever had a piece of lard bread with a hot bowl of soup?  Could you tell the difference?  During the 1800s lard was used  similarly to butter in North America as well as many European nations.  Lard remained about as popular as butter in the early 20th century and was widely used as a substitute for butter during World War II.  So what is lard?  Lard is the readily by-product of modern pork production and can be obtained from any part of the pig that has a high concentration of fatty tissue.  Tallow is much the same as lard, but it comes from beef or sheep rather than pigs.  I still have memories of watching my uncle and his father butcher pigs on their farm near Stasburg, Pennsylvania.  Every part of the pig was saved, or used, during butchering day.  

A pig farm.

The air had a slight chill to it that fall day when I traveled with my Uncle Bob from his house to his dad's farm a couple of miles away.  I was told the animals had been slaughtered earlier that morning so I didn't have to witness that part of the process.  On the ground level of the big barn we passed, as we entered the property, was the slaughterhouse.  Windows were tilted slightly to allow cool air into the room to help with the smell that I called "farm odor" as well as keep the place cool due to the large stove that was heated for the butchering process.  

The butchered pig.  All the white parts can be cut off
and used for making lard.  

I can remember two guys with white aprons that seemed to cover most of their body who carried knives that they occasion- ally sharpened outside with what appeared to be a strap.  The lard that resulted from the butchering that day would be used as butter would be used by most of you reading this.  Used for cooking fat, shortening or like butter.  Lard is actually the fat from the pig.  And, pigs carry a lot of fat.  Lard is a semi-soft white fat derived from fatty parts of the pig.  It is usually rendered by boiling or steaming.  The highest grad of lard, known a leaf lard, is obtained from the "flare" visceral fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin.  Leaf lard has very little pork flavor which makes it ideal for use in baking where it produces flaky, moist pie crusts.  The next best grade is from "fatback", the hard subcutaneous fat between the pig's back skin and muscle.  The lowest grade is from the soft caul fat surrounding the digestive organs such as the small intestines.  I watched in amazement, and at times horror, as the two butchers chopped up that poor little pig into pieces.  They knew what they were doing, since by the time they were finished there was very little in the can between them.  In the rendering, or melting the fat to get lard, the pig fat was boiled in water and then skimmed from the surface of the pot.  

An advertisement for pure lard.

The lard which resulted was light in color.  The lard you buy at a grocery store is obtained much like what I witnessed, but went through a few other processes to make it more stable so it could be kept in a refrigerator much like butter before using it.  Pure lard is great for cooking since it produces little smoke when heated and has a distinct flavor when combined with other foods.  Many chefs and bakers prize lard over the other types of shortening because of its flavor and range of applications.  Lard is great for making pies instead of using solid Crisco.  In Lancaster County is is a traditional ingredient in mince-meat pies and Christmas puddings.  My favorite potato chips more that likely were made with lard as the shortening since they seem "greasier" than those made with a plant based shortening such as olive or sunflower oil.  

Container of lard for sale at a local store.

For years lard was considered bad for you since it is high in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, but it really has less of those than butter does.  But, in the 1990s and early 2000s chefs and bakers rediscovered lard's culinary values and the publicity telling of the high transfat content of vegetable oils has driven its trend.  I'm not sure how much I learned that day with my uncle Bob and his dad, but it was certainly an experience...one that I never wanted to do again.  Someday I will buy a tub of lard and spread a piece of bread with it and give it a try.  I just have to get over the notion that it has to be yellow like butter to be good.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.