Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient (from the Editors of GRIT Magazine)- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Original edition (April 10, 2012)
- ISBN-13: 978-1449409746
What the book is about (back-of-the-book blurb): Using lard in cooking dates at least as far back as the 1300s. It is prized by pastry chefs today, and it is an excellent cooking fat because it burns at a very high temperature and tends not to smoke as heavily as many other fats and oils do. Rediscovered along with other healthful animal fats in the 1990s, lard is once again embraced by chefs and enlightened health-care professionals and dietitians.
Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient offers you the opportunity to cook like your grandmother, while incorporating good animal fat into your diet once again. Lard is the key to the wonders that came from Grandma’s kitchen, and with lard, you can serve your family the 150 treats you enjoyed in your younger days when you visited your grandparents’ farm.
What would I say to a friend who asked me about it: Reading Lard was a real education for me! The cookbook – and its claim that lard is a “good” fat, intrigued me … but not enough to actually track down lard (or render my own — there are instructions for rendering lard from the “lard leaf” of pork) and make a recipe.
My first reaction, as I read the cover and opening pages, was, “Oh, this is how Gram used to cook – with lard, and scrapple and Crisco.” You see, I thought lard and Crisco were interchangeable (and, although it pained me to do so, I actually bought a tub of Crisco a few years ago, when I had finally tracked down my grandmother’s recipe for hermits — the results were spectacular).
Turns out – and had I given it any amount of thought, I would have realized – I was wrong. Lard is rendered pork fat; Crisco is hydrogenated vegetable oil (a quick list of ingredients from that tub in my pantry: soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, mono and diglycerides, TBHQ and citric acid). Compare this to the ingredient in lard – pig fat.
The bulk of the book is, of course, recipes; over 150 recipes including vegetable and main dishes, but heavily leaning toward biscuits, breads, cakes, pies, and cookies. Lard is especially favored by bakers for enhanced flavor and texture. There has been a resurgence of lard use by bakers, foodies, and ‘back to the land’ supporters.
Why did I read it: I received Lard for review consideration. I did learn something about lard (and the benefits of cooking with it), but I’m not quite ready to take the plunge.
What else can I add: Lard would be a good fit for a more curious/daring cook, one who wants to make the base product at home, or one who would enjoy the walk down a culinary memory lane (crispy fried chicken, sweet potato fries, cinnamon rolls, flaky biscuits!). Purchase of the cookbook includes a one year subscription to GRIT magazine.
For more Weekend Cooking, visit Beth Fish Reads; you’ll find links to cookbook reviews, recipes from novels, kitchen tips and tricks, maybe even a food-centric movie review.
It is interesting how lard has made such a comeback. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to make my own yet.
I have a copy too, but haven’t read it yet. We can buy lard at our local farmers’ markets. But because I have developed almost a surgeon’s skill at removing fat from my meat — developed since I was old enough to hold a knife — I really can’t see me buying a bucket of pig fat. But I know lard is the secret to flaky crusts and biscuits.
I’ve heard recently that lard was a good fat and that intrigued me. Maybe I’ll give this book a try if I find it at the library. Don’t know if I’d want to buy it for myself though.
I can’t bring myself to cook with lard either, but I used to eat it as a kid.
As Candace said, I just read that lard leaf was the key to flaky crusts. I thought of googling lard leaf but decided it was best not to know…
Yes, I am not sure I am ready to run out and buy a box of lard, but it is interesting to learn about it..they do say nothing makes a better crust and if are going to us some sort of fat, why not consider it?
Well I grew up with a mom that kept bacon grease and used Crisco for most everything else. I will admit butter flav Crisco makes great toll house cookies. I think I’ll skip the lard…lol.
Interesting we have this AND a post about a girl and her pig both at Weekend Cooking this week.
Well, I am going against popular opinion this weekend(!), but I have bought and used lard when it is called for in a recipe. And, it DOES yield spectacular baked…ok, and fried (guilty) – goods! I know it seems gross, but its an ingredient! You aren’t going to just sit there and eat it with a spoon – LOL! – any more than you would sit and eat a tub of margarine with a spoon.
Also, if we are going to slaughter animals, we should use every part. It seems wrong to waste any…
While I am on my soapbox…we eat like this and the whole family is really thin. My boys are CRAZY skinny… That may be a coincidence or genes or something, don’t know. All my dad’s family are thin.
I was raised on lard! I guess that might explain a few things. No way I’m cooking with it now though, no matter what they say!
I have not knowingly cooked with lard. I was always told that it was the lard that made some of the flakey pastries taste gritty when you ate them cold. That it was the lard that went all grainy when it was cold. That lead me to never buy it.
I have never used ‘lard’ but have used Crisco shortening many times, does that count? Very interesting post! I enjoyed it.
My mother used to go on about my grandmother’s lard recipes… but I have to say I’m not sure I’ll ever use it. I find the whole rendering process to be more hassle than it is worth, in the end. I am curious about the book though – thanks for featuring it!
I agree with Libby’s comment that we should use as much of an animal as possible when it is slaughtered for human consumption. I, however, will pass on the lard and let someone else use that part! LOL! Sounds like an interesting book, though!
I thought Crisco was lard too!! Huh. When I think of lard, I think of Southern Cooking and heart attacks. Wrongly so, I’m sure. Thanks for the review today!
Do you buy lard at the grocery store ? In the baking section? Or near the butcher?
They say it makes wonderful pie crust….but I’ll leave that to the professional bakers.