This blog is all about how to render lard. Here we will cover rendering lard in an instant pot, or a crock pot, oven, on the stove top or over an open fire.
Lard is an awesome byproduct of pigs that rarely gets the attention it deserves! Healthy, tasty and versatile it can be used for anything from pie crust to soap. Here we will cover how to render lard in an instant pot, crock pot, oven, stove top or over an open fire!
Rendering lard is the process of cooking down pig fat from the fleshy, decomposition prone state it is in, to a preserved cooked state.
Where do I find Pig Fat?
You can find pig fat either from a pig you have raised, or contact your local butcher or custom butcher they are sometimes willing to share their extra fat.
Different Kinds of Fat
There are two kinds of pig fat, the leaf lard and everything else. The leaf lard is usually the highest quality and saved exclusively for eating, whereas the other fat is used for cooking AND soap.
Preparing your Pig Fat for rendering
Rendering is much easier if you have ground fat. You can render unground fat, it just takes a lot longer. Try to buy ground fat, or buy a meat grinder and grind your own! We have been tickled with our LEM Meatgrinder and it does the job beautifully.
Good things to know about rendering lard
Rendering lard is easier than you think. It’s literally cooking fat. It’s that simple.
You can burn lard! It’s okay if you do, you will just have a brownish lard with a slightly different taste instead of a white lard.
Rendering lard has a very distinct smell. So if you have sensitive sniffers in your house I would recommend rendering it outside!
How do you know when lard is done rendering?
Rendered lard is clear and golden. The left over bits in the lard (called cracklings) will look brown and deep fried. When you see that you know it’s done!
How to Render Lard in instant pot
Pour a cup of water into your instant pot then fill with lard to the max fill line. (The water is there to help purify the lard. As the lard renders it will float on top of the water, and all the tid-bits of meat and other impurities will sink into the water.)
Pressure cook on high for an hour. You will want to check it here, it may need more time depending on if you are using ground fat or solid fat or if your fat was frozen. It wont hurt it to go through a few times.
How to Render Lard in crock pot
Put the pig fat in the crock pot on low and leave until rendered, stirring occasionally. You can also add water to this one, though it isn’t necessary.
How to Render Lard in oven
Set oven to 200 F. Put your pig fat in an oven safe dish, we use a Dutch oven, though I’ve heard of some people using a turkey roaster. Leave in and let render, stirring ever hour or so. Leave your lid off, you want the moisture to be able to get out!
How to Render Lard on the stove top
Place fat in large pot with a little water on the bottom. Put on low heat and let cook until cracklings are golden brown and the lard is clear. Low and slow is the key here. Leave the lids off though, you want the moisture to escape!
Stuff you’ll want to know about Straining Lard
Fat Separator
If you use water in the process of rendering your lard you will need to either use a fat separator, or allow your lard to cool and then take it off the top of the water. Though usually in the process of making lard the water turns somewhat gelatinous. You can use a little hand held fat separator, like this one, or you can use a big boy like this one. The large one is technically used for biodiesel but we have used to separate lard with great success.
Lard Press
You will also need to strain out your cracklings. I recommend using cheesecloth or a paint strainer and pouring it into a five gallon bucket (if your lard isn’t too hot) or another heat resistant container. You can use a press to get all the fat out, or just squeeze it as hard as you can by hand!
What to do with Cracklings
There are lots of delicious ways to use cracklings (crackling bread, anyone?) Here is a great article that covers 20 different ways to use them.
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