How to bake perfect lard?
Have you ever tried or cooked lard baked in the oven? The recipe for this treat is incredibly easy to make. Its taste will depend on what kind of lard you choose.
Of course, we are talking about baked lard. Most people have tried this product in salted or smoked form. You will be surprised how tasty and juicy baked lard turns out. Don't be afraid that it will be dry. A certain amount of fat will not allow the lard to dry out during cooking; on the contrary, as the fat melts, a piece of lard will become juicier.
You can bake this meat product in different ways, but many people like lard in foil in the oven. Recipes for the dish, as practice shows, are all the same. What do you need to know about the features of choosing lard? The lard of a young animal is ideal for roasting. It has a uniform whitish tint, sometimes pinkish. The skin should also be uniform, without damage or uncharacteristic spots.
Important! Only fresh lard is suitable for baking in the oven. As people say, fresh meat. It is better not to bake a chilled, let alone frozen piece of lard.
You don't need any special culinary skills to prepare this delicacy. You can choose lard with layers of meat, for example, from part of the belly of a pig. It will turn out incredibly tasty and satisfying.
How to cut lard? You can safely bake the whole piece or cut it into portions. There are no culinary standards for what size one piece should be. In this case, rely solely on your taste preferences.
Cooking tips:
- for baking lard, choose a baking sheet, sleeve or foil;
- Traditionally, a piece of fresh lard is stuffed with garlic cloves, although this is not necessary;
- as seasonings, choose a mixture of ground peppers, add clove inflorescences, suneli hops;
- if you have trouble feeling the balance of spices, give preference to universal seasoning sets for cooking meat dishes;
- lard can be baked separately or together with vegetables, for example, potatoes, zucchini, eggplant;
- Lard makes delicious snack rolls; you just need to add some fresh herbs for flavor.
How to make lard roll with garlic
- lard (thickness no more than 2 cm) – 1 kg;
- fresh parsley - 3-4 sprigs;
- garlic – 6-7 cloves;
- paprika, cumin, coriander (optional) - to taste;
- bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
- red pepper – 5 g;
- ground black pepper – 5 g;
- salt - to taste.
Cooking time – 5-6 hours.
Calorie content – 157 kcal.
Before baking, wash the lard thoroughly, dry it slightly and cut off the skin. It is best to cut the garlic into thin slices, finely chop the parsley, and chop the bay leaf into crumbs.
Rub a piece of lard on all sides with salt and pepper. If you like various seasonings, you can add cumin, coriander and paprika.
Place garlic, chopped bay leaf and parsley on the inside of the future roll. Roll it up as tightly as possible and wrap the cut skin on top. Using a thick thread, tie the roll so that it does not unravel.
Wrap the product in foil and place it in a preheated oven for an hour and a half. The temperature at which the roll should be cooked is about 160-170 degrees. After the designated time, remove it from the oven, open the foil and put it back for another 15 minutes until a beautiful crust forms.
Once the roll is cooked, transfer it to a paper towel. This will allow excess fat to drain off. Having cooled the product completely, pack it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for 3 hours. After the designated time, you can take it out, remove the film and skin, cut the roll into pieces and serve.
Lard in the oven in foil: the best recipe
It's time to move from words to action. First of all, go to the meat pavilion and buy a piece of fresh lard. Frozen or refrigerated lard will not work. Such dishes have a significantly different taste, and even after defrosting, the lard becomes a little tougher and loses its juiciness.
From the minimum set of available ingredients you can prepare a true gastronomic masterpiece. If you bake lard according to this recipe, it is better to choose a part of the pork belly with a meat layer.
Ingredients:
- fresh lard with meat layer – 1500 g;
- a mixture of ground peppers;
- garlic cloves – 6-8 pieces;
- coarse salt - 3 tablespoons. spoons;
- curry – ½ tsp. spoons;
- hops-suneli – ½ teaspoon. spoons.
Preparation:
- Let's start by preparing the products indicated in the list. Choose fresh lard with a large layer of meat. The so-called belly is ideal for baking.
- We thoroughly rinse the piece of lard with water and remove the moisture with a paper napkin. Remove the skin if desired.
- Cut the lard into pieces of approximately the same size.
- In a separate container, maybe a mortar, add medium or coarse salt. Cooked, stone, and sea food are also suitable.
- Add half a teaspoon of suneli hops here. For a golden color, you can add a small pinch of turmeric.
- Next we add curry seasoning to the bulk ingredients.
- And the final touch is a mixture of ground peppers.
- Thoroughly stir the herbs and spices until a mass of homogeneous consistency is obtained.
- Now rub each piece of lard evenly on all sides with this aromatic mixture.
- In this form, we leave fresh lard for marinating. Of course, the longer the better, but try to soak the lard in the seasoning mixture for at least one hour before baking.
- Peel the garlic cloves. Let's cut into plates.
- We make shallow cuts on all sides of each piece of lard. Season the lard with chopped garlic.
- After this manipulation, leave the product to marinate for another half an hour.
- We will bake the lard in aluminum foil, place it shiny side down. Place a piece of lard on the matte side.
- Now we begin to wrap the foil to make a kind of envelope. It is advisable to use several layers of aluminum foil.
- This is how it turns out.
- We wrap the remaining pieces in the same way and place everything in a baking sheet or other fireproof form.
- Turn on the oven and heat it to a temperature threshold of 180°.
- We will bake the lard for an hour and a half. Then carefully take it out and unfold the foil.
- Return the lard to the oven again and continue baking for another third of an hour until each piece is browned.
- Check the readiness of the baked lard with the tip of a knife. Cool it and then cut it into thin slices. An unusually tasty meat dish is ready to eat.
Bake lard with potato side dish
Now let’s figure out how to bake lard in the oven in foil with potatoes. You will get two in one: aromatic lard, which can be served instead of meat, and a side dish. This is a great solution for preparing a quick dinner.
Compound:
- 0.3 kg of lard;
- 5-6 potatoes;
- salt;
- blend of spices.
Attention! If you have new potatoes, you don’t need to peel them, the main thing is to rinse the root vegetables thoroughly.
Preparation:
- We choose medium potatoes; root vegetables that are too large will not work. We peel them, wash them and cut them into two equal parts.
- Place the potato pieces in a deep container, add salt and season with your favorite spices. Shake the bowl so that the spices are evenly distributed over the entire surface of the root vegetables. To make the potatoes look more appetizing, add 1 tbsp. l. sour cream.
- Place the lard in the freezer for ten minutes in advance to make it easier to cut.
- Cut the lard into thin slices. Their size should be the same as the root vegetables.
- Let's prepare the foil. We will wrap each potato separately.
- Unfold the foil, place half of the root vegetable in the middle, and lard on top of it.
- Cover it with the other half of the potato and again lay out a piece of lard.
- Wrap the pieces in foil so that there are no gaps left, otherwise the fat will leak out.
- Place potatoes with lard on a baking sheet.
- Bake the dish for an hour at a temperature of 180 degrees. Check the readiness of the potatoes and lard with a toothpick.
- The finished dish can be sprinkled with grated cheese and chopped herbs.
Salo baked with potatoes in the sleeve
- fresh lard – 100 g;
- potatoes (medium) – 10-12 pcs.;
- vegetable oil – 5-6 tsp;
- seasoning for potatoes – 5 g;
- garlic – 3-4 cloves;
- salt and pepper - to taste;
- baking sleeve – 1 pc.
Cooking time – 1 hour 30 minutes.
Calorie content – 150 kcal.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into medium-sized pieces. Lard is cut into plates about 5 millimeters thick. Place the ingredients in a deep bowl and add salt.
Prepare the sauce separately. To do this, mix all the spices, add garlic and vegetable oil. Pour it over the potatoes and lard, mix everything thoroughly again so that all the potatoes are soaked in the sauce. Then we transfer it to a baking sleeve.
Preheat the oven and place the lard and potatoes in it. It is better to bake at a temperature of about 170 degrees, for 60-80 minutes. Then the potatoes will bake well and taste very tender.
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Ingredients
Before you start preparing smoked lard at home in the oven or on the stove, you need to purchase the main ingredient. Fresh, unfrozen soft cuts cut from the belly, with a thick layer of fat and several layers of meat, are ideal. Before marinating, the lard must be washed and divided into large pieces.
Fresh lard pieces
To make the brine, you will need salt, bay leaf, and black peppercorns.
Smoking on the stove with or without a smokehouse
In a city apartment, you can smoke lard at home on a gas stove.
Read now: How to smoke and salt belly meat at home
Smoking with liquid smoke on a gas stove
The easiest way to smoke lard on a gas stove is to use liquid smoke.
Ingredients:
- Salo.
- Salt.
- Bottle of liquid smoke.
- Bay leaf.
- Spices.
- Husks from several onions.
Smoking lard on a gas stove
Preparation:
- Pour a liter of water, 6 tablespoons of liquid smoke and the same amount of salt into a saucepan. Add spices (hops-suneli, black or red pepper, you can purchase a special set for smoking), bay leaf. To give it a golden color, cook lard in onion skins - this also needs to be put in a pan.
- Smoking lard on a gas stove looks like this. The future delicacy is cooked over low heat for 40 minutes, which is very different from the time of hot smoking of lard in a smokehouse, then thoroughly dried in a draft.
- Dried smoked meat is rubbed with garlic to add a piquant taste and kept in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Smoking in a smokehouse on a gas stove
Smoking in a home smokehouse installed on a gas stove is an excellent opportunity to make a tasty and nutritious delicacy that can please the whole family and become a bright decoration for the holiday table.
Smokehouse for gas stove
Preparation:
- Place a couple of handfuls of fruit tree sawdust into the smoker.
- Place the marinated pieces loosely on the grill.
- Place the structure on the stove and close tightly.
- Every 10 minutes you need to open the container slightly to release the smoke and by this action protect the product from the bitter taste.
- It takes from 30 minutes to several hours to smoke lard in a smokehouse on the stove, it all depends on what degree of smokedness you plan to achieve.
- It is recommended to constantly monitor the degree of readiness to prevent overdrying.
- Once a brown crust appears, finish smoking.
- Allow the dish to cool to room temperature, then you can cut and serve.
