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Lard, Melting
Take the fat from the inner part of a pig, newly killed. Cleanse it from skin and blood, cut it into thin slices, and put them into an earthenware jar; place this in a pan of boiling water, and let the contents simmer very gently. Keep pouring the fat off as it dissolves, either into dry jars or into bladders which have been well cleaned. The smaller these are the better, as the lard is liable to spoil as soon as it is exposed to the air. Store in a cool, dry place. If jars are used, cover them securely with bladder before putting them away. The last drainings of the fat will not be so fine as that which is poured off first.
This is wet-free rendering by water bath — the gentlest method there is, and the reason the resulting lard is white and nearly odourless. The hinge is the low, indirect heat: fat that browns will taste of pork forever after.
- "The fat from the inner part of a pig"This is leaf lard, the soft fat around the kidneys and loin, prized for pastry because it is bland. Back fat renders just as easily but carries more pork flavour; butchers and farm shops will usually sell either, often frozen.
- The jar in a pan of waterAn improvised double boiler, which caps the temperature at around 212F/100C. A heavy saucepan set directly on the lowest burner setting works as well, holding the fat near 225-250F/110-120C. Above roughly 275F/135C the solids scorch and the lard yellows.
- Cut small, or grindThin slices were the period's answer to surface area. Chilling the fat firm and putting it through a coarse mincer plate, or pulsing it in a food processor, shortens the rendering time appreciably.
- BladdersCleaned pig bladders served as air-excluding containers. Use wide-mouth canning jars or small tubs instead, filled while the lard is still liquid and sealed once cool. The instruction to keep containers small is sound: every reopening exposes the whole batch to oxygen.
- Strain as you pourThe book says pour the fat off as it dissolves; run it through muslin or a fine sieve on the way out. Stray solids are what turn stored lard rancid and sour first.
- The last drainingsThe final pouring is darker and carries browned protein — perfectly good for frying potatoes or greasing tins, but keep it separate from the first, pale run reserved for pastry. What is left in the pot are cracklings; drain and salt them.
- YieldA rough guide is about 3 lb of finished lard from 4 lb of leaf fat, some litre and a half. Rendering may take two to three hours at this heat, longer if the pieces are large.
- Storage now"A cool, dry place" meant a larder well under modern room temperature. Refrigerated, well-strained lard keeps several months; frozen, a year. It has no acid and no salt, so rancidity, not spoilage bacteria, is what ends its life — judge it by smell.
Before vegetable shortening and cheap refined oils, lard was one of the standard cooking fats of British and American kitchens — alongside butter, dripping and suet — and rendering it at home was a normal autumn job attached to the killing of the household pig. It is a foundational operation, like clarifying butter or making stock: everything else in the pastry and frying chapters assumes you have a jar of it. The detail about bladders is a reminder of how completely a carcass was used — the bladder, cleaned and dried, was the period's airtight container, also used to seal jars of preserves and, famously, to hold artists' oil paints before the collapsible tube. Leaf lard's reputation for pastry is usually attributed to its crystal structure, said to produce a notably flaky rather than short crumb; that is often given as the reason it survived in pie doughs long after other animal fats fell out of everyday favour.