To Cure Lard
As soon as it is taken from the hog, cut in small pieces, wash clean, press out the water, and put in the pot to boil, with one gallon of water to a vessel holding four gallons. Boil briskly until nearly done, or until the cracklins begin to brown, then cook slowly to prevent burning. The cracklins should be of a light brown and crisp, and will sink to the bottom when done. This is Leaf Lard.
The fat off of the backbone is also very nice, done in the same way, and does not require soaking, unless bloody. The fat from the entrails can also be made into nice lard by soaking for a day or two in fresh water, changing it frequently, and throwing a handful of salt in the tub of water to draw out the blood and impurities. When ready to render, wash in warm water twice and boil in more water than you do for leaf lard. The crack-lins will not become crisp, but remain soft, and will sink to the bottom; they are used for making soap.
"Curing" lard here means rendering it — the title is period usage, not preserving in brine. The method is wet rendering, where water keeps the fat below scorching temperature until it cooks off.
- Leaf lard vs. back fatLeaf lard is the soft fat around the kidneys; it renders whitest and mildest and is the one worth seeking for pastry. Back fat gives a slightly firmer, more porky lard, good for frying and biscuits. Ask a butcher for either by name — both are often a special order.
- The water is a heat bufferOne gallon of water in a four-gallon pot sounds like a lot, but it boils off gradually and holds the fat near 212F until it is gone. Once the water is out the temperature climbs fast, which is precisely why the recipe says to slow the fire at that point. Keep it around 250F thereafter.
- Cut small, or grindSmall pieces render faster and more completely. A coarse grind, or a food processor pulsed to pea size, will shorten the rendering time appreciably.
- Cracklings as the doneness signalThe cracklings sinking and turning light brown is the reliable cue; there is no thermometer reading that beats it. Fish them out promptly — they go bitter if left in darkening fat.
- Entrail fatThis is caul and mesenteric fat from around the intestines. The days of soaking with salt changes are drawing out blood, as the recipe says. The book still calls the result 'nice lard,' though it sends these cracklings to the soap kettle rather than the table, since they never crisp.
- Straining and storagePour the hot fat through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth into clean jars. Modern practice is to refrigerate rather than keep it in a crock in the pantry; leaf lard holds several months chilled and a year frozen. Any water left in the jar will encourage spoilage, so render until the bubbling stops entirely.
- YieldExpect roughly 1 to 1.5 pounds of lard per 2 pounds of raw fat, depending on how much connective tissue it carries.
- VentilationSeveral hours of open rendering perfumes a house for days. An outdoor burner or a very good hood is worth arranging.
Hog-killing was a fixed point in the Virginia year, timed to the first hard cold snaps of late autumn when the carcass could be worked without spoiling, and nearly every part of the animal had a designated fate. Lard was the household's principal cooking fat and one of its principal capital goods: it fried, it shortened pastry, it sealed potted meats under a layer, and what was too rank for eating went into the soap kettle with wood-ash lye. This entry sits among the many hog-butchering directions in Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), a compilation Marion Cabell Tyree assembled from contributions by named Southern housekeepers, and it assumes a reader who has just watched a hog killed in her own yard rather than one buying fat by the pound. The wet-rendering method described — water in the pot to hold the temperature down — was one way of getting pale, sweet-tasting lard, alongside dry rendering.