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Lard-di-dah: how to render animal fats

Lard-di-dah: how to render animal fats

https://www.theguardian.com/food/20...der-animal-fats

Quote:

Let’s talk about the four letter f-word: fats. Over the past 60 odd years they’ve been drenched in confusing controversy – to eat or not to eat, what kind should we eat, and according to who?

Animal fats have the worst reputation of all. I’m not here to argue the health facts – but please take the time to look at the research regarding what we replaced many old fashioned animal fats with, namely hydrogenated vegetable oils. Nutritionists suggest neither should play a major role in your diet – but many people who happily reach for margarine still flinch at lard.

When I talk about and write recipes, I often call for suet, rendered tallow, schmaltz, lard, ghee, butter, duck or goose fat, cold pressed olive, avocado or macadamia oil. Why? As anyone who has ever had duck fat roasted potatoes, or chips cooked in tallow can attest – it tastes better and it gives better results.

Animal fats have a high smoking point, so they’re good for cooking at high temperatures. If you’re someone who still chooses to eat meat, using animal fats in this way is something you should do sparingly – but when you do, it will be delicious.

Good timing, I just rendered fat from a large beef brisket (16lbs) for the fist time in Insta-Pot - worked great with added bonus of beef Cracklins'

It's some work and I had some learnings to bring into the next render but now I will not need to buy butter for the next 2 months ;) I got 4 blocks like this below (3 in freezer)

My lean teen boys can handle a pile of homemade fries. JUST takes rendered beef fat, and a lot of it, which takes some effort , and home grown potatoes.

The quick version is a 8x13 cake pan layed with cut potatoes coated with fresh beef tallow and seasoning. Boys gobble them up!

We keep beef tallow at hand because I can get it. Others might have easier access to other animal fats.

I've been rendering lard & poultry fat for years. I just read the Guardian article, and was amused (and a little frustrated) at the author's recommendation that the best way to render fat is on the stove, but with the caveat that you have to watch it carefully or else it might burn. However if you want to use the the slow cooker go ahead, but be aware that it will take longer! Well, duh! That's why it is called a Slow Cooker! I always do mine in the slow cooker. Yes, it takes longer, but I don't have to babysit it, it doesn't burn, it doesn't smell up the house (especially if you put the cooker outside). Put it on low, and leave it overnight, and in the morning: Lard!

Im all for the slow cooker. Yes ita slower but it doent need constant monitoring. After a grease fire, Im NOT keen about rendering over the stove. My prefered method is a single layer of trimmung ina 9 x13, usually two at a time while puttering in the kitchen. 300 degrees for about an hour, but thus too will burn if forgotten when distracted by other chores.

Im eager to try the slow cooker.

I was amused and frustrated by her tone of making animal fat basically sound dangerous. :rolleyes: A "sometimes food?" No wonder Dr Aseem Malhotra is on the absolute war path over there.

Nonetheless... a not-terrible primer on rendering fat. It's so much easier than you'd think. It's actually even easier than she describes: it's not just seeking out raw animal skin and fat; it can be as simple as saving scraps, isolating the fat, then gently cooking out the water. Example: any time I make broth, I'll chill it, peel any solid fat off, and render it. It's usually smaller quantities, so I do use the stove top. I prefer being able to watch for the water bubbles to stop. I usually do it while I'm already doing something else in the kitchen.

...and if you think you're going to use it fairly quickly, don't even bother rendering it. Just pop it in the fridge. I'm thinking sausage grease, roasted chicken juices/fat, etc. Throw it in your next quiche or pot of soup.

For smaller quantities like I usually do, a stainless steel coffee filter is excellent for filtering. Mine fits onto ramekins.

Take-home message: don't waste perfectly-good fats. :thup:

Agreed Kristine. My mother always had a jar by the stove for pouring in the bacon fat (my father always had bacon & eggs for breakfast), and I have followed that example. (Didn't every cook back in the 50s, and before, have a jar like that?)
One other thing about rendering fat in the slow cooker, it works perfectly well if you just bung it in, and let it do it's thing, but it goes a bit faster if you have the patience to cut the fat up a bit. I will put 2# or so through a meat grinder, but when I got a 5# bag of leaf lard from a local pig farmer I was too lazy to go that route. I had to do the cutting work at the other end, as I wanted smaller cracklings, but that was easy.