Lard at home: recipe with photos, cooking secrets

Once upon a time, every village cellar stored lard - fat rendered from lard. They fried potatoes on it, baked pies, or simply spread it on bread. Baking with lard is still popular today. Housewives add it to dough or filling, and it gives the dish a special taste. And today we will tell you how to prepare this healthy product at home, and also share interesting recipes that you can use at any time.

Smalets. Recipe

We would like to warn you right away that you should not prepare this product only from lard. The fact is that a not-so-pleasant smell can be transferred to lard, and then to your favorite dishes. Use only fresh lard to prepare it (it is better if it is with a layer of meat). So, how to cook lard? The recipe is in front of you.

Rinse the piece of lard thoroughly in water, and then remove all moisture with a paper towel. This is a very important step, as the remaining water will “shoot” when heated, and you will have to spend a lot of time cleaning your kitchen.
Cut off the skin and cut the lard into small slices.
Transfer the workpieces into a saucepan with a thick bottom (the dishes should also be dry), and then place them on the stove. For the first five minutes, the heat should be at maximum so that the pieces can fry well. Once they are golden brown, reduce the heat to low. Heat the lard for about 40 minutes without covering the pan with a lid.
When all the fat has been rendered, remove the cracklings using a slotted spoon and transfer them to paper napkins. Later you can serve them with fried potatoes or porridge.

Pour the cooled lard into jars through a sieve and two layers of gauze. This way you will be sure that pieces of meat will not fall into the dishes. Cool the product to room temperature and then refrigerate it. Within a few hours the lard will change color and turn white. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months. After this, the fat needs to be melted to get rid of the bitterness.

Cooking

In cooking, lard is understood as a traditional product of the country cuisine of many nations - fat rendered from lard, subcutaneous and internal (intestinal) fat, and fat trimmings. At the same time, interior fat is often processed separately due to its specific odor. Before rendering lard, the raw materials must be cleaned of dirt, blood, and meat residues. To do this, the raw materials are soaked in salted water for twelve or more hours, changing the water several times. After soaking, the raw material cut into small pieces is melted and the resulting greaves are extracted over low heat until the water has completely evaporated. Then the fat that has become transparent is poured through cheesecloth into glass jars or ceramic pots and closed tightly.

Culinary homemade lard

Lard is used in the preparation of various dishes; it can be used for frying, and also as a snack, spread on bread. In the latter case, pepper, grated garlic, coriander, bay leaf, salt or other spices are often added to lard.

Smalets. Recipe with garlic through a meat grinder

You can prepare an original spread for sandwiches using lard and garlic. Your guests gathered at the table will certainly appreciate the unusual product and will definitely taste it with strong drinks. You can read the recipe for lard with garlic below, but for now, prepare the necessary ingredients:

Lard – 500 grams.
Garlic – four cloves.
Hot red pepper - one pod.
Parsley - one bunch.
Salt - to taste.
Paprika - to taste.

Recipe for lard with garlic:

Take fatty lard without meat layers, process it and remove the skin.
Peel the garlic and separate the parsley leaves from the stem. Cut the lard into cubes.
Mix the products, add salt and spices. Transfer the mixture to a plastic container and marinate it for three hours.
Pass all prepared products through a meat grinder.

Transfer the mixture into a jar and store it in the refrigerator.

Cooking features

In order to make lard at home, you do not need to have great culinary skills. It is enough to buy lard and allocate a sufficient amount of time for cooking - about an hour. Knowing the intricacies of the technology will help you get the expected result.

It is believed that the most tender and delicious lard is obtained from pork lard, cut off in the area of the kidneys - it can be used to make cookies, it is suitable for sandwiches. Using lard from lard from other parts can only be used to fry potatoes, omelettes and other foods, but it is not suitable for sweet dishes due to its characteristic smell. At home, you can also make lard from duck fat. Some peoples make it from nutria fat, but this product has a specific smell that is difficult to get rid of; it is not recommended to prepare it at home.
The fat from the lard is rendered over very low heat, preventing the lard from sticking to the bottom and walls. Adding a small amount of water at the first stage of cooking will help to avoid “grinding” the lard, which will still evaporate during prolonged cooking.
The finer the lard is cut, the faster the fat will melt out of it. Sometimes lard is even minced through a meat grinder or crushed using a blender before making lard from it.
In the process of preparing lard, cracklings are formed, which can be used in preparing potatoes, scrambled eggs and other dishes. If you do not intend to throw them away, it is better to cut the lard into equal cubes, then the dish with cracklings will turn out more appetizing.
When preparing lard, you can add chopped apples, onions, garlic, and herbs to it, turning it into a spread for sandwiches.

During the preparation of lard, greaves float to the surface and should be removed by catching them with a spoon or slotted spoon. The finished lard must be strained without waiting for it to cool and placed in clean jars. If the jars are pre-sterilized and then sealed, the lard can be stored in a cool room, otherwise you will have to allocate a place for it in the main chamber of the refrigerator. The shelf life of the product is 6 months.

Lard in a slow cooker

The cracklings, prepared using the miracle of modern technology, turn out to be very soft and practically melt on the tongue. And lard can be added to any dish or made into a spread for sandwiches. If you want a richer taste, mix it with garlic, pepper or fresh herbs.

Ingredients:

Lard – 1400 grams.
Greens - to taste.

So, let’s cook lard in a slow cooker. The recipe is very simple:

Chop the lard and place it in a bowl.
Set the “Extinguishing” mode for four hours.

When the specified time has elapsed, remove the cracklings and pour the fat into jars.

How to render lard into fat in a frying pan: algorithm

To prepare lard according to this recipe, take lard, a deep frying pan and cheesecloth or a sieve. Follow the algorithm:

Cut the product into 1 cm pieces. To simplify the process, slightly freeze the lard beforehand.
Place a heavy frying pan over low heat and place the pieces into it. Gradually increase the flame.
Let the contents of the pan simmer until the cracklings begin to settle to the bottom.
After turning off the gas, you can add a small amount of sugar to the fat: the product will be more aromatic.
Let the lard cool slightly and strain through a sieve or cheesecloth. Store in a ceramic pot or glass jar.
Place the strained fat in the freezer while it is warm. Freezing this quickly will prevent grain from forming.

Once upon a time, every village cellar stored lard - fat rendered from lard. It was used to fry potatoes, bake pies, or is simply popular in our time. Housewives add it to dough or filling, and it gives the dish a special taste. And today we will tell you how to prepare this healthy product at home, and also share interesting recipes that you can use at any time.

Bread with lard and whey

Soft and fluffy homemade cakes are simply irresistible. To give it a special “fluffiness”, we suggest using lard. The dough recipes that we will offer in this article are simple, but guarantee excellent results.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - three glasses.
Dry yeast - seven grams.
Sugar - two tablespoons.
Salt - two teaspoons.
Powdered milk - one and a half tablespoons.
Oatmeal – 120 grams.
Lard – 30 grams.
Serum – 300 ml.

Recipe:

Warm the whey slightly and then dissolve the sugar and yeast in it. To do this, place the food in a warm place and wait until a lush “cap” appears on the surface.
Sift the flour, add salt and milk to it.
Grind the flakes in a blender.
Combine the lard with the prepared products and knead the dough. When it rises, knead it with your hands again.
Shape the dough into a loaf, make shaped cuts with a knife and leave the dough under a towel for one hour.

Bake the bread in a preheated oven until done.

Cooking[ | ]

Culinary homemade lard

Pie with dried fruits

Pay attention to the unusual set of products and the method of preparing this delicious treat. Baking with lard, the recipes for which we have collected for you in this article, is distinguished by its special taste and softness. Therefore, you can pleasantly surprise your family and friends if you prepare an original pie for them.

Required products:

Wheat flour – 450 grams.
Whey – 300 grams.
Instant yeast - 11 grams.
Lard and butter - 75 grams each.
Salt - half a teaspoon.
Brown sugar – 50 grams.
Mixture of dried fruits (to your taste) – 220 grams.
Egg yolk.
Milk – one teaspoon.

Pie recipe:

Pour whey into the bread machine bowl, add salt, sifted flour and lard (25 grams) cut into pieces. Pour in the diluted yeast and set the program for 40 minutes.
Freeze the remaining lard and butter and then cut into small pieces.
Chop the dried fruits as desired.
Roll out the dough on the table and spread a third of the fat and butter evenly onto it. Sprinkle the surface with some sugar and lay out some dried fruits.
Fold the edges of the dough over and pinch them together in the center. Roll out the workpiece with a rolling pin. Add butter, sugar and dried fruits again.
Repeat the last operation again.

Place the resulting workpiece in a baking dish, brush the surface with yolk, pre-mixed with milk. Place the pie in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Decorate the cooled treat with powdered sugar and bring it to the table.

How to make lard

Many supporters of a healthy diet, especially those who are sensitive to their figure, refuse animal fats in favor of vegetable fats. Pork lard seems dangerous to them, as it is high in calories and contains cholesterol. In fact, most nutritionists recognize the benefits of this product and do not prohibit its inclusion in the diet. One of the options for consuming animal fats is lard. This product is popular in different cuisines around the world. It is a mass of rendered pork, goose or other fat. Contains vitamins D and B4, a number of other useful substances. In cooking it can completely replace vegetable oil and margarine. Pancakes and cutlets are fried on it, cookies are baked on it, and it is spread on bread instead of pate or butter. Finding this product on sale is possible, but not easy, but you can easily make it yourself. Lard at home turns out to be even more tasty and healthy than store-bought, stores almost as well, and is quite inexpensive.