Cooking with Lard

[Clark Addison]

I have never cooked with lard, but I have been thinking of buying some lately, mostly to see what it would do to biscuits and pie crusts, but also just to experiment with some other things. Reading this articale today about lard's comeback convinced me to start.

http://www.slate.com/id/2219314/

So I have a couple of questions:

1. Who has cooked with lard, and what do you use it for?
2. The article mentions that grocery stores will sometimes use hydrogenated lard, which defeats some of the purpose, and talks about a place that sells high quality lard for $12/pound (yikes). Any thoughts on where to buy, what to look for, etc.?

[TripletDaddy]

I will use lard to cook some Mexican food. For example, in beans. However, instead of buying lard, I will often substitute bacon grease. Tastes a little better and you also have a bunch of bacon left over for BLTs.

Since I started dating fitday, I don't use much lard.

[Pheidippides]

I cook with very little oil right now, and most of that olive oil, but I have always loved what lard does to, say, pie crusts, and would have no problem using it instead of Crisco. I am happy to see Crisco go away, as I was happy to see margarine suffer its demise (I never had real butter until I was in college, btw). I am a lard fan to the extent I cook with fat at all.

[YOhio]

I thought Cooking with Lard is what happens when L. Tom Perry prays as he works in the kitchen.

[TripletDaddy]

I thought Cooking with Lard is what happens when L. Tom Perry prays as he works in the kitchen.

I wish I could surf with Lard.

[Solon]

I have never cooked with lard, but I have been thinking of buying some lately, mostly to see what it would do to biscuits and pie crusts, but also just to experiment with some other things. Reading this articale today about lard's comeback convinced me to start.

http://www.slate.com/id/2219314/

So I have a couple of questions:

1. Who has cooked with lard, and what do you use it for?
2. The article mentions that grocery stores will sometimes use hydrogenated lard, which defeats some of the purpose, and talks about a place that sells high quality lard for $12/pound (yikes). Any thoughts on where to buy, what to look for, etc.?

I didn't know you wanted to cook with me. And yes, I am high quality lard.

There's lots of lard for sale in the ethnic section of our local supermarkets, but I've never cooked with it.

[Katy Lied]

1. Who has cooked with lard, and what do you use it for?
2. The article mentions that grocery stores will sometimes use hydrogenated lard, which defeats some of the purpose, and talks about a place that sells high quality lard for $12/pound (yikes). Any thoughts on where to buy, what to look for, etc.?

An acquaintance used to make chocolate cake right from the box, but he substituted lard for the butter/margarine. That cake was amazingly rich.

The only thing I've ever used lard for is when I make dim sum. I use it to make dough for the bun for char siu bao (which I grew up calling manapua).

Lard and wheat combine to make a dough that is really hard to work, so I flatten out the bun dough a little with the palm of my hand, and then run it through my pasta maker at thinner and thinner settings, until it is the thickness I want. Then I fill it, twist it shut, flip it over onto a square of parchment paper and stick it in my bamboo steamer.

The price of lard hardly matters. You're never going to use it up. It will take 5 years, and you'll end up throwing the leftovers away.

[creekster]

For those of you that have been to belgium and wondered why their frites (fries) taste so much bette than ours, there are two reaons. First, the potatoes are balnched or bakd before frying. Second, they are fried in lard, not oil. Makes a big difference.

[jay santos]

I thought Cooking with Lard is what happens when L. Tom Perry prays as he works in the kitchen.

you got a LOL from me on that one when I figured it out. nice.