No. 108

Axunge

Axonge

Axunge is exclusively obtained by melting leaf lard without using any other material; axunge is finer than lard and is also employed for kitchen and pastry purposes. The leaf lard is melted in a bain-marie or by steam, this latter method being preferable. Remove the skin and fibers from ten pounds of leaf lard, cut it up in squares about half an inch each and bathe them in eighteen quarts of water with half a pound of crystal soda; wash in several waters, drain and pound in a mortar, then put it into a well tinned copper basin in a bain-marie and steam by keeping the water boiling all the time until the lard is all melted, now strain it through a fine colander and leave to cool slightly, adding one pint of cold water, stir well, let it rest, then pour off the clear part when it begins to set, beat well to have it smooth.

← No. 107 Lard Elementary Methods No. 109 Veal Udder →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a rendering method rather than a dish: pure leaf lard, melted gently over water so it never browns. The whole point is temperature control, and everything else in the entry serves it.

The hinge: never let the fat fryA bain-marie or steam jacket holds the fat at about the temperature of the boiling water beneath it, below the point where it colours. Fat rendered over direct heat can go much hotter and generally carries a stronger pork flavour, which is plausibly the distinction behind Ranhofer's remark that axunge is finer than lard.
Leaf lardThe soft fat from around the kidneys and loin, not back fat and not caul. It is the mildest fat on the pig and the reason pastry made with it stays neutral. Ask a butcher; it is rarely on display but usually available, often frozen.
Crystal sodaWashing soda, sodium carbonate — not baking soda. It is used here as a degreasing wash to strip blood and surface impurities, and it is rinsed away in the several changes of water that follow. Plain cold water will rinse off much of the blood if you would rather not buy it, though it is not a like-for-like substitute for the alkaline wash.
Eighteen quartsAbout 4.5 gallons, or roughly 17 litres, for ten pounds of fat. It is a soaking bath, not an ingredient; scale it to whatever vessel holds the fat loosely.
Pound in a mortarNineteenth-century shorthand for reducing the fat to a paste so it melts evenly. A meat grinder on the coarse plate, or a few pulses in a food processor with the fat well chilled, does it faster.
Well tinned copper basinTinning kept the fat off bare copper, which catalyses rancidity in fats. Use stainless steel or an enamelled pot set over simmering water and the concern disappears.
The pint of cold waterAdded after straining, it collects the last soluble impurities and sinks as the fat sets. Pour off or lift away the clear fat once it firms, discard the cloudy layer beneath, then beat the fat as it cools to get the smooth white texture wanted for pastry.
Yield and keepingTen pounds of leaf lard renders to roughly eight to nine pounds of fat. Properly rendered and free of water and solids it keeps several months refrigerated and a year frozen; any milkiness or residual moisture will shorten that considerably.

A Little History

Axunge comes from the Latin axungia, from axis (axle) and ungere (to grease) — literally the fat used to grease a cart axle, and by extension any rendered hog fat. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the word had a narrower life in the pharmacopoeia, where axungia porci or adeps suillus meant purified pork fat prepared as a base for ointments. Charles Ranhofer places it among the Elementary Methods, immediately after plain lard, distinguishing this washed, water-clarified, snow-white version, suited to pastry and to delicate work where any hint of pork would be a fault, from the coarser fat used for frying.