Leaf Lard for Enfleurage

[Guest guest]

Many thanks, at Perfumer's Apprentice for the post about

using " leaf lard, " the fat around the kidneys and inside abdomen, as a

medium for infusing flowers in enfleurage. I'm glad I did't waste my

time with plain old manteca, shortening, or coconut oil.

I did find an online shop that may have been mentioned before, Flying

Pigs Farm, (www.flyingpigsfarm.com) which has leaf lard and is willing

to forego the expedited shipping if you release them from their usual

guarantee of freshness. Lard can stand a few days in transit, I figure.

I just got a message from Mike at FlyingPigs that their first

butchering of the season is occurring now and he's sending me 2 lbs. of

lard tomorrow. I guess now would be a great time to catch them for some

freshly cut lard, if anyone else is interested. I have to get some

before my paperwhites bloom in a few weeks! I will also try this with

magnolia flowers in the spring, which smell lemony and heavenly. We'll

see how their scent survives enfleurage. The stuff I've bought from

Liberty and elsewhere always smells of camphor and terpenes and loses

the creamy citrus I love in true magnolia blossoms.

In the meantime, I'm also going to visit a local pork butcher to see if

he's willing to save some kidney fat for me. It may also be worth it

just to buy a bunch of kidneys and cut it and render it myself.

Apologies to the vegetarians and anti-animal products members!

[Guest guest]

> In the meantime, I'm also going to visit a local pork butcher to see

if

> he's willing to save some kidney fat for me. It may also be worth it

> just to buy a bunch of kidneys and cut it and render it myself.

The butcher may be more familiar with the term 'caul fat'. This is the

integumentary tissue that holds everything in place & is indeed filled

with clusters of long flattened fat cells that look like leaves. Most

commonly, it is used to wrap a beef roast in fine French cooking.

Not sure why the kidney area would be specified, but there is a small

area of fat attached at the top. It would take a lot of kidneys

though. Any chance there is a 'processing plant' nearby (don't think

they like the other term anymore...).

Rendering is easy over low heat & a long time. Filter 3x - coarse

colander, screen strainer, cheesecloth.